About Princess Madeleine’s new exclusive cover for Swedish ELLE

This past Wednesday (17th December) Swedish ELLE released their first issue of 2010, featuring no other than Princess Madeleine on the cover. The magazine rarely writes about the Royal Family and the Princess does not give many interviews either, but when royal friend Josephine Zapata Genetay offered them a partnership that would land them an exclusive insight to Madeleine’s personality and work for World Childhood Foundation, the 14-page story and accompanying cover was a done deal.

The article is mainly about her work for the foundation, accompanying the texts are three news studio photographs and also photographs from Josephine’s and the photographer’s meetings and travels with Madeleine and Childhood staff all taken by photographer Mattias Edwall. It gives a little glimpse into what kind of person Madeleine is and what she actually does in her job. During her years as project manager it has been kept very under wraps and not much has leaked out about her journeys and work at the office. Something I appreciate is also that the clothes she wears in the studio photographs are labelled as private, not making her into some fashion poster woman for big designers as other royals have sometimes become in their glossy magazine spreads.

I have chosen not to translate the whole thing because of three reasons. One is that it’s a long story, the second that a lot of the text describes their stays in Stockholm, Moscow and New York, with descriptions of people, places, projects and so on, and the third reason is the language – to be honest I have to say that the writer of the story is not a writer or professional journalist/reporter and it shows. So here is a collection of quotes from the ELLE spread, all freely translated from Swedish to English by me.

- Since mum founded Childhood in 1999 she has told us in the family about her project travels. I always wanted to hear more and had many questions. When one comes home one is extra touched and mum is good at telling, she awoken my interest. I wanted to make a contribution and try to help when I understood how terrible many children are having it.

- After graduation I studied art history. That was interesting, but I wanted to do something more. I started travelling with mum on her assignments for Childhood, for example to Brazil. The first project trip went well and I thought it was very interesting. Therefore I decided to take an active role in Childhood. It is one thing to read reports and listen to mum. To see things with your own eyes is a completely different matter.

- Yes, he might not be a real prince. But he is my prince.
(A child at a children’s home outside Moscow asks if Madeleine has a dream prince)

- If everyone helped the world would look better. I know that not everyone can afford to donate money, but one can do other things. One doesn’t need to move mountains, but maybe one could pick up a grit?

- At one point of my life I said to myself “I’m a princess and what should I do?” – to just cut ribbons might not really cut it for me. I want to make a greater contribution.

- I don’t know if I’ll be a project manager for another five years, it depends on my other schedule and my family. But I feel so strongly for Childhood that I will definitely continue to have a role.
(On life in five years)

- Just like many other young people we both work a lot so when we are off it is nice that we have shared interests like hunting and skiing. Of course it can be hard to make it sometimes but that is probably how it is for everyone. Together we do the absolute best of the time we have.

- I work nine to six and sit in front of the computer a lot just like at any other job. Of course we go on project visits as well, but a great deal of the work is reports, contact with project responsible and evaluation of the work.

- It is great to be a small organisation because we can have constant dialogue with those we cooperate with. We try to visit each project once or twice per year and that is the part of my job that I like best. I have visited projects in Russia, Ukraine, Thailand, China, South Africa, Brazil, USA and Estonia.

- Just after graduation I did a personality- and recruitment test. The result was that one hand I should engage myself socially with helping people and on the other hand that I suited well for working with art design and other cultural areas. That coincides perfectly with my education. That is also what I think is most fun and am interested of.

- I will continue working with Childhood and my official commitments as usual. Right now focus is on Victoria and Daniel’s wedding and I look forward to that. Of course I have my own thoughts regarding the wedding and of course I think about the dress, date, church and all that, but it will have to wait a little. Right now I work hard for Childhood and enjoy being engaged.
(On the time before the wedding)

- From every trip I have a strong, sometimes heartbreaking, memory. I’m always completely beat when I come home. When mum and I were in Ukraine we visited an organisation that works with victims of sexual trade. We met two girls in my age that had been on vacation in Turkey. They were completely normal middle class girls who had been kidnapped, stolen of their passports, sold and forced to sex with different men. In the end they had managed to escape. To hear their story and understand that it can happen to anyone was an eye-opener.

- There are many different ways to help and support others in. The most important is that one engages and show support. It is not always about money. One can be a volunteer or mentor. By helping others one also gives something to oneself. One feels good from feeling important and needed.
(A message to ELLE’s readers)

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