By Rebecca Tolpin ’14, Staff Writer

Teenage girls are easily influenced by the twists and turns of society. They follow the latest trends, buy magazines like People or US, and watch movies and TV shows. One of these movies is the trilogy known as the Twilight series. In the movie, a normal girl falls in love with a vampire; their love is strong and withstands all the danger they encounter. This proves to be a very appealing plot to young girls. In fact, Twilight brought the idea of a romantic, caring vampire to the world. A chain of similar vampire shows, books, and movies soon followed, such as the Vampire Diaries on the CW network, and True Blood on HBO.

Prince charming, the handsome guy who marries the princess, is quickly disappearing. Society is moving onto the darker side. Why did the media decide to switch to vampires? Well, it becomes boring to see the same image of a handsome man, who is tall, athletic, and charming. Girls want a man who takes care of them, protects them, and listens to them like the vampire Edward does.

Prince charming, on the other hand, is a very superficial, spoiled, and handsome man. He has no substance, and doesn’t really care about what a girl says or does because he is very self-absorbed. In the end, the prince and princesses’ “happily ever after” is miserable. On the other hand, a vampire will always be loyal and truthful to a girl. It is less about how a vampire looks, and more about what is inside of him. An example of a woman loving a scary male is in Beauty and the Beast. The beast also has fangs and is not the most handsome creature, but he deeply cares for Belle and that is all that matters. Belle falls in love with him, and not with Gaston.

The vampire craze has gotten so popular that moms and daughters are picking teams, “Team Edward” or “Team Jacob.” Although it could be said that the dream man is a werewolf, Jacob, it is actually a vampire, Edward, because the true love is between Bella and Edward. Teen girls aspire to have a relationship as great as theirs.

In an article on “alphamom.com” entitled “Vampire is Her New Prince Charming,” a mother writes about how her “tween” daughter was “a fan of the Jonas Brothers,” the princes, but is slowly moving toward “Twilight, and Edward Cullen,” the vampire. The article also includes many messages that this young girl exchanged with her friends. In them, they were all very excited about the movie and Edward Cullen.  The romance story between a girl and a vampire is mysterious and exciting indeed.

Prince Charming has lost his charm. There is no spark anymore when girls see a picture of him, because they have grown too old and see right through that superficial charm. They have seen it many times before. The truest love is between Bella Swan and Edward Cullen.