Disney's First Latina Princess: Meet Sofia

But story will steer clear of mentioning race

Disney will soon unveil its first Latina princess character in a new movie. Sofia (voiced by Modern Family‘s Ariel Winter) is a regular girl, born a commoner, whose life suddenly transforms into a royal one when her mother (Grey’s Anatomy‘s Sara Ramirez) marries King Roland II of Enchancia (Ultimate Spider-Man‘s Travis Willingham), and she becomes a princess. Sofia appears with fair skin, green eyes and reddish hair, and executive producer Jamie Mitchell said of the character, "She is Latina," but the Disney team is not intentionally placing emphasis on her ethnicity like they did their first African-American princess, Tiana. Sofia is half-Enchancian and half-Galdizian, two fictional kingdoms. “We never actually call it out. When we go into schools [to talk to young students about the show], what I find fascinating is that every girl thinks that they’re Sofia," said Joe D’Ambrosia, vice president of Disney Junior original programming. The movie Sofia the First: Once Upon a Princess will air Nov. 18 on the Disney Channel, ahead of a television series. Both the TV movie and the show are geared toward viewers age 2-7. (EW)

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