Fairy Tales From Around the World

The Queen's New Clothes

Once upon a time in a magnificent kingdom far away, there ruled a good and beautiful Queen named Barbie Roberts. Although Queen Barbie was a kind and generous woman at heart, she was known to be quite vain as well as a bit full of herself and she often spent time on her appearance rather than on other important things. The thing she thought about most in her life was a collection of clothes. There were dresses, coats, jackets, shirts, vests, shoes, boots, sandals, sneakers, skirts, shorts, capes, scarves, pants, pantsuits, rompers, jumpsuits, hats, and anything else anyone could wear including jewels and handbags. The staff was growing very tired of the Queen's relentless vanity and soon one servant decided to teach her a lesson.

One day, the servant disguised herself as a dashing traveling saleswoman and she asked to see the Queen in her chambers.

"How is it I can help you?" she asked.

"Your Majesty, I have something that will surely make it worth your while," The woman said.

"Forgive me, but who are you?" The Queen asked.

"Oh, of course, Your Majesty," The woman said again. "I am Miss Tori Burns, the finest saleswoman in the business. And these are my twin apprentices, Roxxi and Phoebe."

"I see. Now what is it that you have to offer me?" The woman asked.

"We have...a new gown for you!" The twins announced at the same time.

The twins pretended that they were holding a beautiful dress. It was meant to be special and amazing that only very special people could see it. The Queen decided to take a look at the dress she was given, then she thought she could see it. She took the "dress" in her hands. She examined it very closely, trying her best to see what the strangers were talking about. And soon, she thought she could see an extravagant and gorgeous gown, fit for any woman of royalty.

"Alright, I believe you, madam," The Queen said, nodding her head and smirking.

"We knew you'd like it. Why don't you try it on and model it for me?" Tori suggested.

The Queen agreed and went into her dressing room to try on the dress, while the twins were laughing under their breath. And soon, Queen Barbie came out, thinking she was wearing the dress. But no, she was completely naked. No clothes whatsoever. Only she didn't know it until it would be much too late.

"It fits you perfectly, Your Majesty! And it looks magnificent on you!" Tori exclaimed. "Simply gorgeous!"

"Yes, I suppose it does look rather fabulous," The Queen said. "Though it does feel a little drafty back here."

"It's supposed to feel like that, Your Majesty. It is magic after all. Now there's just one more thing missing," Tori said, looking around the room.

Then she spotted something on the Queen's vanity. She took the Queen's tiara and placed it on her head.

"There we go! Fit for a queen!" The woman exclaimed.

Queen Barbie loved her special new dress so much, that she decided to go out and show it off to all of her loyal subjects. But what she didn't know was that she would be in for the surprise of her life. As she strut through the castle halls, the entire staff was laughing at her ignorance and they congratulated the sly woman.

When Queen Barbie made her way into the village with the woman by her side, the villagers all stared at her with shocked eyes and their mouths wide open.

"All hail Queen Barbie in her new gown!" Tori announced while winking to the townspeople, indicating them to just play along.

As the two walked down the road, more people applauded. Now everybody was playing along with the trick of the servants. But when the Queen passed by a group of school kids, there was a young boy amongst them and he wasn't aware of the trick.

"Hey! Queen Barbie isn't wearing anything!" he cried.

That made Queen Barbie stop walking. Her expression immediately changed from happy to angry as she turned around.

"Who said that?" she growled.

"I did," The boy said, raising his hand in the air.

"You cannot see my new dress?" The Queen asked.

"No," he replied.

"But why not, dare I ask?"

"Because, well...because you're not wearing any new dress at all."

"I'm not?"

"Are you blind? Just look at yourself! You're naked!!"

Queen Barbie looked down at herself and she saw that the little boy was right. Her eyes watered, her lower lip quivered, her face turned red as a tomato, and she ran as fast as she could back to her castle in tears, leaving the woman with her tiara. Back in the Queen's chamber, Tori found her hiding in the closet, crying her eyes out.

"There you are, Your Majesty," Tori said.

"What do you want? To gloat? To take any embarrassing photographs? To laugh at my foolishness?" The Queen asked through her tears.

"Actually, no. We just came to tell you something very important," Tori said.

"What is it?" The Queen asked, poking her head out.

"Do you think...you can stop fussing about your attires and your appearances at every waking moment from now on?"

"My appearance? My attires? That's what all of this was about?"

"Yes." Tori nodded her head.

"Well...I guess so. Yes. Yes, I suppose I can," Queen Barbie said, coming out of her closet. Now she was wearing a silken robe to cover herself up. "I'm sorry about all of this. I guess I must've lost my head."

"So, are you going to stop fussing before I go to more drastic measures?" Tori asked.

"Alright. I promise I won't go crazy about clothes ever again. And by the way, I knew the rest of the staff wanted to take part in this, just like you," Queen Barbie said.

"How can you tell, Your Majesty?" Tori asked.

"I've seen you cleaning the kitchen many times before and I'd recognize your face anywhere."

And so, Queen Barbie donated most of her unnecessary clothes to the townspeople. She was never too picky or fussy ever again. Tori Burns was promoted to be the official saleswoman and they all lived happily ever after.