Between the tenth and eleventh books, Mia goes to college and establishes a youth community center. Mia, having been raised almost exclusively by her very liberal and feminist painter mother, is very socially conscientious She is a vegetarian and also tries to use her fame to raise awareness for good causes, including donations to Greenpeace with the money her father pays her to take princess lessons from her grandmother. Later in the series, Mia writes her own novel called Ransom My Heart, though she composes many poems, lists, and even screenplays throughout her years of writing in her diary. Mia develops an interest in writing during the series. Mia is also taught about royal duties such as her visits during school breaks to Genovia and the events she must attend and speak at as a royal throughout the year. In these lessons, Mia is taught an array of royal lessons, such as fashion sense, meal etiquette, proper manners when mingling with other royals, and relationship advice.
Mia's spends her afternoons throughout the series with her grandmother (Grandmere) in princess lessons, where her grandmother attempts to teach Mia the finer points of being a princess. She also has a tendency to over-analyze things and worry too much. Throughout the series she is very self-critical of herself, describing herself as flat-chested, taller than most girls at 5-foot-9, and with embarrassingly large feet. Mia is sometimes shy and has a down-to-earth personality, though on occasion Mia shows herself to be quite sarcastic and sly. She prefers to be called Mia, although her best friend Lilly often bestows upon her nicknames such as BL (Baby Licker), POG (Princess Of Genovia), or PIT (Princess In Training). Mia chronicles the main aspects of her life in various personal diaries, through which she also later develops her talent for various forms of writing. Having spent most of her life in Greenwich Village with her mother, Mia attends Albert Einstein High School, a private school in Manhattan's Upper East Side. Mia is also the current Princess Regent of Genovia. She is the daughter of Helen Thermopolis, a painter, and Philippe Renaldi, the crown prince of Genovia. Genovia is a principality between France and Italy ruled by Mia's father, Prince Philippe Renaldi, and by Mia's grandmother, Dowager Princess Clarisse Renaldi.Ĭharacters Mia Thermopolis Īmelia Mignonette Grimaldi Thermopolis Renaldi is the protagonist of the series. Some books take place in Genovia, a fictional European country. The series is set primarily in the Manhattan borough of New York City. Princess Mia (princess regent, currently) A spin-off series for tweens featuring Mia's half-sister, From the Notebooks of a Middle School Princess was released in May 2015. The latest book in the series, The Princess Diaries, Volume XI: Royal Wedding was published in 2015. and voilà! The Princess Diaries was born." Meg Cabot quotes the series' inspiration on her website stating: "I was inspired to write The Princess Diaries when my mom, after the death of my father, began dating one of my teachers they later went on to get married just as Mia's mom does in the book! I have always had a 'thing' for princesses (my parents used to joke that when I was smaller, I did a lot of insisting that my 'real' parents, the king and queen, were going to come get me soon, and that everyone had better start being a lot nicer to me) so I stuck a princess in the book just for kicks. The books are noted for containing many popular culture references from the 2000s that influence some of the plot. The series follows Mia's life throughout high school in the 2000s and juggling regular teenage life with being a royal princess. The series revolves around Amelia 'Mia' Thermopolis, a teenager in New York who discovers that she is the princess of a small European principality called Genovia.
The Princess Diaries is a series of epistolary young adult novels written by Meg Cabot, and is also the title of the first volume, published in 2000. The Princess Diaries, Volume II: Princess in the Spotlight