History Literature / ThePrincessDiaries

* DistractedByTheLuxury: Much as she's aware her mother doesn't want a big fancy wedding, Mia can't help but be delighted by her maid-of-honor dress in book 2. When she tries to bring up the subject again, Grandmere distracts her by having the wedding planner show her the matching shoes.

* CharacterOverlap: One of the novels has Mia reference Sam from ''Literature/AllAmericanGirl'' and Jess from ''Literature/OneEightHundredWhereRYou'', two of Meg Cabot's other works.

** Tina was a loner in high school due to her bodyguard and OverprotectiveDad. When Mia sits with her, however, she finds out that Tina is sweet and thinks highly of everyone.

* SpoiledSweet: Tina Hakim-Baba's father is an OverprotectiveDad oil baron who gives his daughter a bodyguard and an allowance of $50 a week. Tina is the nicest character in the series.

* {{Hypocrite}}: [[spoiler: Lilly breaks friends with Mia in book 8 after hearing that Mia kissed her ex-boyfriend and continues to resent her when Mia becomes his new girlfriend. During this time she makes out with Mia's ex Kenny and continues dating him during the two-year TimeSkip to book 10. In other words, she is dating Mia's ex at the exact same time as Mia is dating hers.]]

* SuperOCD: Mia obsesses about many, many things. PlayedForLaughs and Deconstructed. Her over the top obsessing over things can be funny but causes her a lot of stress that takes its toll on her mental health.
** Lilly even calls Mia a "baby-licker" for fussing about Rocky's health (Rocky being Mia's younger half-brother), and Mia's mom starts nicknaming her that.

* PrincessesPreferPink: ''Princess in Pink'' [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin where Mia wears a pink dress to prom,]] despite Grandmere's insistence that the colour is inappropriate for anywhere other than a wedding. The maid-of-honor dress she wears for her mother's wedding is also pink. Mia turns it into a Glinda the Good Witch costume for Halloween [[spoiler: when the wedding falls through.]]

* ItsAllAboutMe: While generally kind-hearted, Mia sometimes falls in to this. A notable example was in ''Princess on the Brink'', where she had a BSOD for half the book because her boyfriend was leaving for a year to build a robot that could save thousands, if not millions, of people's lives and lessen suffering around the world. Multiple characters call her out on her attitude.
** Lilly has a tendency to sideline other people's, particularly Mia's, feelings in favour of her own. For example, when upset over the fact that Boris is dating Tina, she completely disregards that she was the one who cheated on and broke up with him, not to mention how insensitive she was in the face of his subsequent upset.

As of 2020, Meg is updating her online blog to show how Genovia is handling the pandemic. Mia has to work in tandem with the prime minister to protect the kingdom.

* WackyParentSeriousChild: Helen Thermopolis is a free spirit who has to be reminded to pay the bills on time; her father is a serial womaniser who later gets arrested for driving a race car down the New York streets. Mia meanwhile is highly-conscientious, a dedicated environmentalist and a worrier.

%%* {{Geek}}s, {{Nerd}}s

** Before they got together she thought Michael tutored her in algebra (''daily'') because she was Lilly's friend, that he asked about what she did on the weekend so they could do more algebra, that his song about her was just 'some guy' who liked 'a girl,' and that he wandered about shirtless by accident. [[{{UpToEleven}} Yeah...]]

* ShipperOnDeck: Tina tends to ship her friends, especially Mia. Mia's mom and Mr G also seem to ship Mia/Michael. Grandmere however ships Mia/J.P.. Mia herself ships Boris/Tina in later books though its mostly to protect Boris from Lilly after she cheated on him.

* InnocentlyInsensitive: Boris in books 8 and 9.

* IWasQuiteALooker: Although Grandmere's beauty has seen better days and now is wrinkly with tattooed make up and drawn on brows, she and Mia both note that she was quite a beautiful fashionista in her youth.

* NerdsAreSexy
* {{Nice G|uy}}irl: Mia is this most of the time. Also Tina.

* AmbiguousGender: Poor, poor Perin.

* AdultFear: Mia's HeroicBSOD in book 9 sparks this from her parents and stepfather. [[spoiler:She takes to bed after Michael officially breaks up with her, refusing to shower, go to school, or even hang out with her friends]]. Nothing they say can coax her out of it, including Helen calling ''Grandmere'' to bully her back to normal, and Mia keeps insisting that nothing is wrong. [[spoiler:Philippe resorts to scheduling an appointment with a child psychologist and ordering Lars to carry Mia, in her pajamas, to his limo so that she can make it to the session. Philippe also has this reaction when Mia relates a time she fell into a hole at Papaw's house and had to pull herself out, muttering he wants to taser his in-law]].

* {{Diary}}: A {{fiction}}al example.

* BaldOfAwesome: Mia's father- she even compares him to [[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration Jean-Luc Picard]].

* HardTruthAesop: Even if two people love each other and seem perfect, they sometimes need to break up to mature and improve their character. Lana becomes a much better person when she and Josh break up for real, in part because she realized that [[spoiler:she and Mia were being ridiculous in pining after him and that Josh wasn't worth it]]. In book ten, when Mia and Michael finally talk about [[spoiler:their breakup]], they admit that they both messed up. [[spoiler:Michael actually says that Mia had every right to be angry with him because he withheld rather important information about his sexual history. Mia tries to insist that she was being immature, but Michael says that she wasn't wrong to call him out for not mentioning that he had helped Judith Gershner cheat on her boyfriend]].

* AllLoveIsUnrequited: [[spoiler:In book 5, Boris towards Lilly. Also, Lilly towards JP.]]

* BetaCouple: Originally, Boris and Lilly, later Boris and Tina. Briefly there was also JP and Lilly, before JP moved on to Mia and Lilly moved on to Kenny.
* BettyAndVeronica: Mia between Michael (Betty) and Josh (Veronica) in the first book (and movie). In the later books it's Mia between JP (Betty) and Michael (Veronica).
* BewareTheNiceOnes: Mia in Book Ten is gracious to [[spoiler: JP during their breakup]], but then she calls the Genovian lawyers to [[spoiler: put a cease and desist on his play]] for what he did to [[spoiler: Lilly.]] You don't want to cross a princess with a cellphone.

** Lilly and Mia stop being friends during the first book when Lilly insults Mia for getting an UnnecessaryMakeover (at least Mia in-universe thinks it's unnecessary), but they make up by the end. Then [[spoiler: after Mia kisses JP by accident after breaking up with Michael, their relationship becomes strained for several books.]]

** [[spoiler:The Guy Who Hates It When They Put Corn In The Chili, JP Reynolds-Abernathy the Fourth, ends up becoming Mia's boyfriend after she and Michael break up in the eighth book.]]

* ConsummateLiar: Mia. Although other characters eventually work out she has the tell of her nostrils flaring when she lies. [[spoiler: JP counts too.]]
* DamselOutOfDistress: Rosagunde was this in the past. A would-be chieftain tried to marry her after murdering her father and made her drink wine out of his skull. Rosagunde bid her time, waited until he was asleep and drunk, and strangled him. The prince of the region was so impressed that he founded Genovia and made her the first princess.

* DerailingLoveInterests: JP in the last book.

* DisproportionateRetribution: [[spoiler: Lilly]] creates a hate site all about Mia due to being a WomanScorned [[spoiler: over JP]] instead of just telling her. [[spoiler: Lilly]] [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone is ashamed of it]] in Book Ten, even asking, "How do you forgive something like that?"

** Also, [[LovableAlphaBitch Lana Weinberger]] and [[JerkJock Josh Richter]] both have blond hair. As does JP.

** Becomes a case of LaserGuidedKarma [[spoiler: JP was emotionally cheating]] on Lilly, pining after Mia instead.
** Following a platonic lunch date, [[spoiler: Mia and Michael have a passionate makeout session in a horse carriage]] while the former is in a relationship with another guy. Mia has a lot of mixed feelings about it. Dr. Knutz tells her the right thing to do is [[spoiler:break up with J.P. before things get too serious]].

* GreenEyedMonster: Lilly sometimes has this about Mia, since Mia is a princess, gets the part of Rosagunde in ''Party Princess'' and has a few guys like JP chasing after her. GenreSavvy Tina picks up on this and tells Mia.

** JP. Mia doesn't want to date him because she just broke up with her long-time boyfriend. An article in the ''New York Post'' saying they should get together because they're both "so tall and blond" doesn't exactly help. Also, everyone thinks he's the perfect "rebound" guy for her.

** JP's play is this in full, where he portrays himself as an OnlySaneMan that ends up becoming a prince and Mia as a "kook" and DamselInDistress. Mia is not amused, though she doesn't confront him about it until the end.

** Played straight, then subverted in Book 7 with The Guy Who Hates It When They Put Corn In The Chili (aka JP Reynolds-Abernathy IV).
*** [[spoiler: But in the end played straight, since JP turns out to be a ManipulativeBastard in Book 10.]]
* LoveTriangle: Many, the main ones being Michael/Mia/JP, Mia/JP/Lilly, Lilly/Boris/Tina. Some more minor ones are Michael/Mia/Kenny, Mia/Michael/Judith, Boris/Lilly/Hank, Boris/Lilly/Jangbu, Mia/Josh/Lana.
** LoveDodecahedron, as of Book 6 or so on.

** She also couldn't tell JP was into her either despite him [[spoiler: dumping Lilly the day after she broke up with Michael, asking about her constantly and him going out of his way to spend time with her, including inviting her out to see her favorite Broadway musical.]]

* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: We only hear about it secondhand, but Michael [[spoiler: pulled off an epic WhatTheHellHero speech on Lilly when he found out about the hate site she created about Mia and told Lilly to be nice to the latter. It worked, given that Lilly is TheAtoner in Book Ten]]

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: The Guy Who Hates It When They Put Corn In The Chili. It's revealed late in the series that his name is JP.

* OppositesAttract: Mia considers herself and Michael this, as opposed to her BirdsOfAFeather relationship with JP, even finding a scientific explanation (see TheNoseKnows above). In actuality, she and Michael have a lot in common, [[UnreliableNarrator she just has a hard time seeing it that way]].

** Saying that [[spoiler: she might have been wrong about Michael when Michael donates a Cardio Arm to Genovia without any preemption in Book 10. And suggesting that Mia sleep with Michael and JP to see which does better in bed, much to Mia's horror.]]

* RaceForYourLove: Subverted. [[spoiler:Mia races to the airport to meet Michael before his plane leaves for Japan. She's too late - his flight has left.]]

** In one of the last books when Mia's trying to publish the romance novel she wrote, many people -- namely JP and Grandmere -- fuss over the fact it's a ''romance'' novel. Never mind that it's 400 pages long, she did tons of research on medieval times, she spent two years working on it, and it's actually one of the hardest genres to write well.
* ReallyGetsAround:
** Mia's father to the point where [[spoiler: there will be a sequel series about Mia's half-sister called Literature/FromTheNotebooksOfAMiddleSchoolPrincess]]

** Mia gives one to [[spoiler: JP]] for telling about a dozen lies, including [[spoiler: that he broke up with Lilly merely because Mia had broken up with Michael.]]
* RebelliousPrincess: Mia
* RewatchBonus: [[spoiler:A lot of things JP says to Mia take on a new light after you read ''Forever Princess'' and reveal his real motive for dating her for the publicity. Also a lot of the things he says about Lilly, while not ''always'' lies, can be re-read as a method of manipulating Mia into not feeling bad about going out with her former best friend's ex-boyfriend.]]
--> [[spoiler:'''JP:''' The fact that you’re a princess is really special. I've never understood why you've never thought so. Most people would kill to be royal, and yet you spend all your time wishing you weren't. Not that being royal is all that makes you special... by any means.]]

* ShipperOnDeck: Tina tends to ship her friends, especially Mia. Mia's mom and Mr G also seem to ship Mia/Michael. Grandmere however ships Mia/JP. Mia herself ships Boris/Tina in later books though its mostly to protect Boris from Lilly after she cheated on him.
** In Book 9, Lana ships JP with Mia, believing that he can be her rebound guy. Later Lana, Trisha and Tina start to ship Mia/Michael when the latter reappears.

* SingleGirlSeeksMostPopularGuy: Only in the first book.
** SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: For the rest of the series.

* TalentedPrincessRegularGuy: Inverted with Mia and Michael. Mia's relationships with JP and Kenny could also count, since they are both incredibly smart and talented as well.

* ThisIsReality: In Book 10, Mia tries this mindset by saying "Life is not a romance novel" after [[spoiler: Michael walks out of her birthday party on seeing JP invite Mia to prom with a "promise ring."]]. The book itself subverts this, however.
* TookALevelInJerkass: Lilly wasn't nice before, but she goes WAY overboard [[spoiler: during books eight and nine after JP breaks up with her.]] Thankfully this reverts [[spoiler: during book ten]].
* TookALevelInKindness: After years of being an AlphaBitch and a bully to Mia, Lana offers friendship following Mia's TraumaCongaLine in Book Nine, since Mia accepted an offer to speak at Domina Rei. Following a shopping spree at Bendel's, Mia realizes that Lana is much like Lilly.
* ToughLove: While Mia is right that her grandmother ropes her into various schemes for ulterior motives -- like playing the lead in ''Braid!'' alongside a producer's son in hopes of getting the producer to not buy an island replica of Genovia -- Grandmere also genuinely wants to help Mia get out of her comfort zone and realize she has confidence.
* ToxicFriendInfluence: Mia obliviously thinks that the "fun" she and Lilly have is harmless. She recalls fondly getting kicked out of a bookstore when Lilly harassed an author at a signing about her divorce and sending one of Lilly's stalkers on a WildGooseChase. Michael has to be the OnlySaneMan in book two when Lilly dares Mia to drop an eggplant out of the Muscovitz apartment building; he points out that even if it was just an eggplant, Mia could get arrested for causing a public disruption and orders Lilly to not show the footage of her friend doing the deed. [[spoiler:It says something that when the local AlphaBitch Lana decides to befriend Mia in ''Princess Mia'', the worst thing they do is ditch school for coffee or mani-pedicures. Mia also eventually admits that Lilly is not a good friend at times, wanting the adventure and thrills rather than having to pay consequences]].
* TwoDecadesBehind: Tons of references to [[Film/PrettyInPink classic]] [[Film/SayAnything 80's]] [[Film/DirtyDancing teen]] movies and TV shows like Series/PartyOfFive and ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}''..
* TwiceShy: A thousand times Mia and Michael. It's implied Michael's had feelings for Mia long before the beginning of the series, and Mia realizes she has a crush on him during the first book. Even though EveryoneCanSeeIt and they hang out every day, they take three books to admit they love each other, even dating other people in the middle. To finally clear things up they resort to sending anonymous love letters and replying via a computer program.
* TheUnfairSex: Tina is curtly dumped via text message by her boyfriend after she continuously fails to return his calls -- she and Mia were following Grandmere's advice about keeping lovers at a distance and and not chasing boys -- leading to her friends calling the boyfriend a sexist pig. (It doesn't help that earlier she had to bribe him to stay in the relationship when she wanted to take it further.) Granted, he broke up with her in an obnoxious way, but nobody calls ''Tina'' out for being rude enough to ignore his phone calls for several days because she's already a sobbing mess and it would be kicking her while she's already down. Only Mia's mother, while she was trying to get Mia to understand how stupid this approach to romance is, points out that it's just plain rude not to call someone back, especially if you're in a relationship with them. Tina averts this later on when she dates [[spoiler:Boris]].

** Lilly towards Mia for [[spoiler: kissing JP after the latter had broken up with Lilly, and then going on a "platonic" date with him. This leads to a two-year rift between the two.]]

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Poor [[spoiler: Mr. Gianini]] . . .
* DrowningMySorrows: After Mia reveals to her dad that [[spoiler: she knows about Olivia]], Philippe shows up at the embassy where Mia is hiding and they both indulge in some schnapps. Somehow this also allows them to bond.

* {{Expy}}: As a "birthday present," JP sends Mia a dystopian novel featuring a love triangle between a blonde and a brunette. [[Literature/TheHungerGames Sound familiar?]]

** Mia holds no hatred towards her ex [[spoiler: JP ]] and thus is able to grit her teeth when he sends her a birthday wish over Instagram. It's also why she is confused when [[spoiler: he turns out to be Rabble Rouser]]

* GoodCannotComprehendEvil: Discussed in this book; Mia mentions how good people can easily get taken advantage of, and she is very hurt and confused when it turns out her stalker is [[spoiler: her ex-boyfriend JP]].

* NoHoldsBarredBeatdown: Michael delivers one to JP when he catches the latter selling tickets to their wedding. He's mentioned wanting to do one in the original series.
* PapaWolf:

** He also acts as ReasonableAuthorityFigure about his stepson Rocky talking about farts and volcanoes

** At the end of the book, the Royal Genovian Guard persuades [[spoiler: JP]] to work on a Russian icebreaker.

* TookALevelInJerkass: JP! Not only does he try to sell tickets to Mia's wedding, but it turns out [[spoiler: he was stalking Mia as Royal Rabble Rouser]] while asking her to read his dystopian novel.

* RealityEnsues:
** Philippe at the beginning of the book gets arrested for driving a race car in New York, where it's illegal. Grandmere rightly worries that this will affect his election campaign chances.
** While Mia has forgiven Lilly for the hate site, and for everything, there is still that awkwardness due to what happened. As a result, Tina becomes Mia's best friend, and proves to be kinder and more loyal. Lilly in the meantime works to be a better friend, and help.

* RealityEnsues: Lilly tries to release a new school literary magazine titled ''Fat Louie's Pink Butthole'' and publishing her own stories in it. Oh, and she tries to charge money for it. Principal Gupta gets wind of it, heads to the cafeteria where Lilly has set up her booth, and busts her because the stories in question are NC-17 and not appropriate for underage students. The gym teacher confiscates the copies and promises refunds to everyone who made a purchase; students selling items on school property is SeriousBusiness. As an added bonus, the teacher advisor in charge of the club, Ms. Martinez, is chided for not reviewing the copies before they were published and is ordered to do so for the new ''Zine'', as the magazine is retitled.

* PrincessesPreferPink: ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Princess in Pink'' where Mia wears a pink dress to prom,]] despite Grandmere's insistence that the colour is inappropriate for anywhere other than a wedding. The maid-of-honor dress she wears for her mother's wedding is also pink. Mia turns it into a Glinda the Good Witch costume for Halloween [[spoiler: when the wedding falls through.]]

* PrincessesPreferPink: ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Princess in Pink]]'' where Mia wears a pink dress to prom, despite Grandmere's insistence that the colour is inappropriate for anywhere other than a wedding. The maid-of-honor dress she wears for her mother's wedding is also pink. Mia turns it into a Glinda the Good Witch costume for Halloween [[spoiler: when the wedding falls through.]]

* PrincessesPreferPink: ''Princess in Pink'' where Mia wears a pink dress to prom, despite Grandmere's insistence that the colour is inappropriate for anywhere other than a wedding. The maid-of-honor dress she wears for her mother's wedding is also pink. Mia turns it into a Glinda the Good Witch costume for Halloween [[spoiler: when the wedding falls through.]]

* {{Transgender}}: Ronnie, Mia's neighbor.