As little girls we grow up dreaming of having the perfect fairytale. We imagine the man we'll someday marry, how we'll meet, how he'll kiss, how he'll propose. We have the complete love story planned out in our imaginations and, somehow, we believe every ounce of it. We have that remarkable innocence that allows us to see ourselves as grown women, trapped in a doorless tower with the longest blonde locks, awaiting our knight who will somehow rescue us and whisk us away to a castle in the clouds. Is it any wonder that, as we grow older and find our way through the minefield that is relationships, we end up disappointed? My question: is the man that we will eventually choose to marry ever going to be good enough to meet the high expectations we set as little girls? Will he ever be the perfect Prince Charming of our childhood dreams?

It is unclear why these unrealistic hopes are put into the open minds of us as children. Is it because childhoods are meant to be filled with hopefulness and happiness, regardless of whether it's all based on a lie or not just like Santa? As we grow into women and become experienced with the real dating scene, it is true to say most of us experience disappointment. The romance we had always imagined and dreamed of rarely materialises and our white knights are nowhere to be seen. We are forced to experience heartbreak, infidelity and loss something never explained to us in those hundreds of fairytales. How do we ever expect to live Happily Ever After when we're searching for something fictional?

In the past fifty years, the dating scene has changed dramatically. What once was white is now black and vice versa. But with these changes in society and acceptable behaviours, our fairytales have remained the same and not evolved with time, as they should. And so, I can't help but wonder what would happen if we rewrote the greatest stories of our childhoods. What if The End wasn't at our first kiss but a couple of years on? What if we introduced the partner who cheated? The mother-in-law who thought we weren't good enough for her son? An ex-love? Trust issues? A break-up? What then? It is my belief that we would go into our very first experience with love more open-minded with more realistic hopes of our future. We would know that it's normal to have rough times as well as good times. And we would know not to expect or even to secretly hope for perfection, because nobody is perfect not even our shining white knights.

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