Sparkly Magical Princess visits makes children smile during lockdown

A high school student has spread a little fairy-tale magic to make lockdown more bearable for children in Cadishead through princess visits.

Kayleigh Jackson, 16, from Irlam High, has been dressing up as different Disney characters and princesses and walking around Cadishead throughout the pandemic.

She does princess visits, birthday parties, messages, and FaceTime calls, dressed as some of the most popular characters.

She also creates her own homemade princess and character cards.

The cards she makes are hand-drawn and customisable to any character, princess, fairy, or prince, including a signature and the recipient’s name.

Visits last around five to 10 minutes and are conducted over Zoom or through FaceTime.

She said: “I’m in my last year of school, I’m going to be going to college after I leave school to study media make-up and hairdressing. I always loved dressing up and doing cosplays ever since I was little and that’s how I came up with the idea of my princess visits.

“I saw my friend doing something similar last year. She was going around doing walks and I just thought why not and so I went with it.”

Her mother, Liz Chamberlain, said that Kayleigh came up with the concept during lockdown and that the visits are all self-funded.

Liz said: “She’s not actually earning any money (for herself) at the moment and the little that she makes goes back into buying outfits.”

During April, Kayleigh also came up with the idea of doing socially-distanced princess-themed Easter basket deliveries around Cadishead to help her invest in other outfits and to keep spirits high.

She hopes to meet new people and cheer up kids in person after restrictions are lifted and when it is safe to do so.

Kayleigh said: “I’ve not been able to do as many parties as I thought I would have been able to do but as we come out of lockdown, I hope to do garden visits and parties.”

All visits, cards, birthday messages and calls can be booked by either messaging the Sparkly Magical Princess Visits Facebook page or by directly messaging Kayleigh on the platform.