The main thing that I wanted to focus on for this week’s post is the concept of, “Coming of Age” and what that means for a woman. The story follows that all of the sisters can visit the seashore at the age of 15. Fifteen is a transformational age, especially for young girls who experience personal events that expose them to becoming a “woman.”

In this blog post I wanted to explore the ways in which cultures honor the age of fifteen, what fifteen means, and how that aligns with the little mermaids, coming of age story.

I first started with angel number, because I think it is important to understand the philosophical side before diving into the concrete representations. The number 15 is said to represent positive change, which is either already in progress or soon to be in progress. As a spiritual number, 15 means that we possess the wisdom and skills to pursue or life missions, reminds us to make positive choices, and most importantly to manifest our personal desires through action. This is extremely important for the Little Mermaid as she is a 15 year old who is going through a transformational period and leads herself through through her personal desires.

In hispanic culture, the Quinceanera, is a traditional coming-of-age celebration on a young woman’s 15 birthday. The purpose of the Quinceanera is to put an emphasis on religion, family, friendships, music, culture, etc. As a prequel to this instance, Aztecs would be considered for marriage when they turned 15 years old. This celebration of “coming of age” began to become a celebratory event for young girls developing into woman. This tradition later developed into the Quinceanera that is practiced all over the world, and developed fully in Mexico.

In general coming of age and puberty is celebrated/ honored in many cultures. I found the selected age important in this story and believe that it is an intentional piece to the story itself.