Disney offers to create a princess doll with your child’s face on it

For every Kate Middleton, there are millions of little girls who will have to contend with being a make-believe princess.

And this is all perfectly normal within the realm of childhood fantasies. At some point (hopefully between junior high and adulthood) girls develop interests beyond tiaras and poufy dresses and start becoming terrific, well-rounded members of society.

But if there's a buck to be made off this fantasy, it will happen.

As Business Insider reports, Disney has developed a way to superimpose your little one's face onto a three-dimensional doll representing her favourite Disney princess. The dolls are available at Walt Disney World and then shipped to your home address.

Also see: What would you do if someone called your kid ugly?

Using technology called "D-Tech Me," a host of cameras capture multiple angles of your little princess's face, the results of which get combined into a 3-D likeness, processed into a computer and reconstructed onto a seven-inch doll.

A similar technique called "Carbon Freeze Me" has been used to popular effect at Disney's Hollywood Studios. There, Star Wars fans undergo a similar process to have themselves "frozen" in an eight-inch slab of carbonite just like Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back.

Instead of a pained expression, however, little princesses between the ages of 3 and 12 are encouraged to give their most fetching smiles, which are then skin colour-matched and stamped on the body of her choice.

Well, her choice within the available options. Ariel, Aurora, Belle, Cinderella, Rapunzel, Snow White and Tiana are the belles on the list. Mulan and Pocahontas don't appear to have been invited to the ball.

Also see: Company offering 3D models of unborn babies

The dolls also come with a princess silver link necklace complete with a colourful charm. It's a nice extra considering the dolls cost $99.95 plus shipping. In Canada, shipping will set you back almost as much as a second doll at $75 (and that's just the starting rate).

Meanwhile, the biggest criticism so far, at least on the Disney blog site, is not about the fact that playing with a doll version of yourself could be construed as some sort of Twilight Zone introduction to narcissism.

No. Full-grown Disney princess fans have been lamenting the fact that the cut-off age stops at 12 and they won't be able to behold their features grafted onto a tiny figurine.

Perhaps we never stop dreaming about castles and Prince Charming after all.

Watch the video below about a Louisiana school tried to enforce a policy requiring girls to get pregnancy tests.