What it's REALLY like to be a part-time 'princess'

Just like some of the characters she plays, Jenna Bell never set out to become a princess. It was a happy twist of fate that led her to become a princess-for-hire on the children's party circuit.

With a degree in animation from Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, Bell moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to start her career as a 3D artist for Turner Broadcasting.

It was in Atlanta during a Halloween parade that she was discovered.

Dressed as the Snow Queen, Bell says she couldn't walk ten feet without people stopping her for pictures, and she was eventually approached by someone holding children's events at a nearby ice-rink - they needed a Snow Queen character for their parties.

"At first I was timid about it all. I've never acted in my life, I'm terrible in crowds, and I kept asking my friends, 'Is this weird? Do people do this?'"

Upon the encouragement of a good friend, Bell decided to give the gig a try. "Everything just spiraled from there," she says. Along the way she's made many friends in the industry, including her business partner, who originally hired her to work princess parties with Ever After Entertainment, "and it's become a part of my life I don't think I can live without now."

Bell currently splits her time between working as a graphic artist on weekdays, playing a princess on the weekends, visiting sick and underprivileged children with a nonprofit called Princesses With A Purpose in her spare time, and planning the opening of fairytale party venue The Enchanted Cottage with her business partner.

In addition to scouring Bell's recent Reddit AMA, we spoke to her to find out what it's really like to be a part-time princess. Here's what she said: