Danckaert solicited opinions from her Facebook followers before starting the petition, and said she was quickly bombarded with more than 800 comments, “overwhelmingly negative and very passionate.” “She had a uniqueness that people really loved, so when they took that away, it was a real affront to a lot of people,” Carolyn Danckaert of “A Mighty Girl” told Yahoo! Shine. More on Yahoo!: Disney Defends New Hispanic-Influenced Princess

The petition, created Saturday by 'A Mighty Girl,' a blog and online girl empowerment marketplace, had already surpassed 50,000 signatures by Friday afternoon. “Merida was the princess that countless girls and their parents were waiting for-a strong, confident, self-rescuing princess ready to set off on her next adventure with her bow at the ready,” reads a petition, 'Keep Merida Brave,' asking Disney to reconsider the character’s redesign. Turns out that Merida’s only joining the royal lineup after a corporate makeover that’s rendered her skinnier, sexier, and more glamorous than her original spunky, tomboyish self-stripping her, at least in some images, of her trusty bow and arrow, and putting her into the very dress that her character detested in “Brave.” It’s sparked outrage among thousands of mothers for whom Merida offered, finally, an empowering Disney role model for their girls.

More from Shine: Animated Disney Characters who were Based on Real Actors So it turns out that Merida, the rebellious redhead star of Disney’s Pixar film “Brave,” is true princess material after all, and Disney is coronating her as its 11th official princess on Saturday at Walt Disney World to prove it.

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