On Sept. 9, a trailer for Disney’s live-action remake of The Little Mermaid was released. Through the clip, there are glimpses of coral reefs, a variety of marine life, and abandoned ships underwater. Only a limited view of the mermaid is shown, as a pearlescent tail shows on the screen for a second. It’s only a minute into the video that we’re shown our new modern-day Ariel: a black girl with red locks.

As the last few seconds of The Little Mermaid teaser wraps up, the new Ariel finally sings, “Out of the sea, wish I could be…part of that world.” This was our first glance of what this new movie will look like.  

The trailer has received much attention, currently having 22 million views. This is because, if the point wasn’t made obvious earlier, Ariel is played by the star on Freeform’s Grown-ish, Halle Bailey; Ariel is black. In 2019, it was announced that Halle Bailey would be playing Ariel in the live-action movie directed by Rob Marshall. The information about the cast was released a couple of years ago, and it has been well-known that a black girl has been cast as the lead.

The reviews are mixed about Halle Bailey’s new role Ariel. There are some who are bothered and some who are ecstatic about the fact that Ariel will be black.

Since the announcement in 2019, there has been a vocally negative uproar. The hashtag “#NotMyAriel” began circulating around Twitter. Those who are uncomfortable or angry about the change of character argue that it isn’t accurate for a mermaid to be black, or that the original Ariel isn’t black. Many people argue that Bailey was wrong for the role because the original Ariel was Danish with red hair. But in all reality, Ariel is a fictional character for young kids to look up to and enjoy.

Freeform defended its network star in an open letter to the people who disliked the fact that Bailey is playing Ariel. The post explained that “Danish mermaids can be black because Danish people can be black,” and that “the character of Ariel is a work of fiction.”

Even actress Jodi Benson, who voiced Ariel in the 1989 The Little Mermaid, defended the casting of Bailey. 

“No matter what we look like on the outside, no matter our race, our nation, the color of our skin, our dialect, whether I’m tall or thin, whether I’m overweight or underweight, or my hair is whatever color, we really need to tell a story,” Benson said during a July 2019 fan convention. 

It’s important for young children to have a support system around them, and with Halle Bailey playing Ariel, some people don’t understand what it’s doing for communities and black and brown kids who are going to see themselves on the screen through Bailey. 

The first time we ever saw a black lead in a Disney movie was in 2009: Tiana from The Princess and the Frog. Since then, it’s clear the demand is high for strong leads who are black. On multiple social media platforms, little black girls — and big ones too – are crying tears of joy reacting to this new teaser because Ariel looks like them. They were saying, “she looks like me.” 

A very common argument to the new Ariel being played by a black actor is that if a black character — take princess Tiana for example — were played by a noticeably white actress, people would be outraged. But, what people do not realize is this argument falls through on so many levels. Tiana being black is important to her story. Not only that, but if you were to make her, or any other black character white, it’d be erasing that diversity that films desperately need. 

Let’s take this into account: there are 12 official Disney princesses and seven of them are white. That statement alone should be self-explanatory. Children of color don’t have enough role models that look like them in the film industry. 

It’s recognized that the thing that should be most important is that people, especially children, of color have the opportunity to see themselves in a superhero or a princess. Disney very well should be making more representation of people of color. The new Ariel is black and it’s good to see a change.