The Disney princesses are known for following their hearts, leaning into love, and going above and beyond for what they believe in.

In some cases, the Disney princesses have shown extreme bravery and strength in their life decisions.

Heads up: Aurora from Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella didn’t make the cut for bravery on this list since they didn’t do anything extraordinarily courageous in their respective stories.

Here’s a breakdown of some of the Disney princesses’ bravest choices of all time.

Snow White fled her home at age 14

The bravest moment for Snow White occurred when she abandoned the home she knew and loved to avoid certain death.

Her jealous stepmother, The Evil Queen, wanted her dead. In fact, she wanted Snow White to be murdered in a heniously brutal manner.

Snow White was written to be 14 years old, making her the youngest Disney princess in the lot.

Running for her life to escape her plotted murder, and then starting over in a cottage full of dwarves says a lot about her courage.

Rapunzel abandoned the familiarity of captivity for self-discovery

After growing up trapped in a tower, Rapunzel shows a huge amount of courage when she decides to run away.

Instead of staying in captivity based on the comfort and familiarity of it, she decides to explore the great outdoors and discover the meaning of life.

Rapunzel’s exploration of life outside the tower opens her eyes to an abundance of self-discovery that would’ve been missed had she stayed in one place out of fear.

Tiana reversed the curse that turned her into a frog

Tiana spends the majority of her movie in frog form – which is unfortunate.

Still, the bravery of her character shines through as she embarks on an epic journey to get her human body back.

Her mission to reverse voodoo magic includes fighting shadow demons for Pete’s sake. You have to be brave to go head-to-head against shadow demons.

She eventually turns back into a human and ends up with Prince Naveen.

Anna went on a mission to find her sister

After Anna’s older sister, Elsa, flees their kingdom feeling ashamed about her ice powers, Anna goes out of her way to track Elsa down.

She links up with Kristoff, Sven, and Olaf and spends most of her journey on foot through cold weather and snow.

Later on in the movie, Anna fights back against Hans (a man she originally thought she wanted to marry) to protect Elsa.

Jasmine pursued her ambitions as a female leader

Jasmine is fiercely strong and independent in Aladdin. She hangs with a pet tiger and isn’t hesitant to speak her mind.

Movie Guide says, “Not only is Jasmine courageous, but she perseveres despite other people telling her she can’t do something. 

“All the voices around her tell her that because she’s a woman she can’t be a ruler, but she doesn’t listen to the negativity, and she doesn’t give up. She pursues her ambitions.”

Ariel risked her life to save Eric from drowning

Ariel showed incredible bravery when she risked her own life to save Prince Eric from drowning on the night of the storm.

His ship was going under and he certainly wouldn’t have survived if it wasn’t for Ariel.

Although she’s a mermaid, Ariel isn’t immune from death if she were to get hit by a large piece of the ship or burned by a flame.

She very well could have died while rescuing Eric, and she could’ve exposed the mermaid race as well.

Pocahontas educated the colonizers about her culture

In the animated story of Pocahontas, the young princess bravely interacts with colonizers who look nothing like her and consider her to be a savage.

Even though Powhatan orders her and the other natives to stay far away from the settlers, she breaks the rules and goes her own way.

In the fictionalized story, Pocohantos and John Smith fall in love. Getting involved with him is a risk to her own life as she does everything she can to help him and the other colonizers better understand the culture of her people.

Belle sacrificed her freedom for her father’s release

Bella trades her life for her father’s life. If that’s not bravery, what is?

The beast captures her father and keeps him locked up until Belle volunteers to trade places. She’d rather be locked up by the beast than allow her father to go through the trauma.

Belle’s love for her father is her motivator, and it’s incredibly courageous.

Elsa harnessed her ice power through love

Elsa struggled with feelings of loneliness and isolation as she spent the majority of her life hiding her ice powers. It even placed a strain on her relationship with her younger sister, Anna.

After accidentally creating a neverending winter in her kingdom, she came full circle by dispelling the eternal winter and allowing warmth to flourish.

She made sure Hans got arrested and learned exactly how to keep her ice powers under control: Through the magic of love.

Merida rescued her mother from the bear curse

Merida comes from the movie Brave. The title of her film literally says it all.

Her wild red hair is just as untamed as her ferocious spirit throughout the 2012 movie’s storyline.

Merida doesn’t want to be married off to some dude she isn’t in love with, so she competes for her own hand in marriage. Pretty ballsy!

When her mother accidentally gets transformed into a bear, Merida embarks on an intense mission to reverse the curse and bring her mother back to normalcy.

Moana brought the mystical relic to the goddess Te Fiti

Although Moana insists she isn’t a princess in her Disney movie, she’s still acknowledged as a princess. Therefore, she fits right in on this list.

Moana leaves her safe little island for an adventurous voyage across the sea where she goes head-to-head against monsters and difficult challenges.

She must bravely reunite a mystical relic with the goddess Te Fiti before it’s too late, and somehow, she pulls it off.

Mulan risked her life at war to save her father’s life

Mulan is arguably the bravest princess of them all for pretending to be a boy to save her father’s life.

When the military came to her home, they wanted to collect her elderly father to fight in the war. Not only was her dad old, but he was also physically weak.

Mulan chopped off her hair, faked a deepened voice, and provided a fake name to trick the military into thinking she was a boy ready to fight on her father’s behalf.

She risked her life, not only by participating in the war, but by lying to the government about her gender.

Lying about her gender is a crime that could’ve been punishable by death. Protecting her father’s life was more important to her.