The Disney "Princess" who famously pretends to be a boy is Mulan. Although technically the daughter of a war hero rather than a royal by birth, she is a core member of the official Disney Princess franchise. In the 1998 animated classic, Mulan disguises herself as a male soldier named "Ping" to take her elderly father's place in the Imperial Army. She cuts her hair with her father's sword and undergoes rigorous military training, eventually saving China from the Hun invasion. While other female characters in the Disney universe have shown "masculine" traits or independence—such as Merida in Brave or Raya in Raya and the Last Dragon—Mulan is the only one whose entire narrative arc centers on a deliberate gender-bending ruse to protect her family. Her story is celebrated in 2026 as one of Disney's most powerful examples of breaking traditional gender roles, showing that courage and strategic intelligence are not limited by gender or social expectations.