Young girls like to dress up and pretend to be princesses, especially on Halloween. But did you ever wonder what it would be like to be a real princess? Well, this is a true story about a real-life princess who grew up to become a real-life queen.

The girl's name was Elizabeth and she was born in England way back on April 21, 1926. Elizabeth was a princess from the moment she was born. She is pictured here as a baby with her parents, the Duke of York (her father) and the Duchess of York (her mother). 

The young princess was the toast of the town and her picture was everywhere, including the cover of Time Magazine. At first, she could not say Elizabeth very well, so she called herself Lilibet. And before long, everyone was calling her Princess Lilibet.

Elizabeth's grandfather was King George V of England. He looks pretty healthy in this photo from 1923, but his health was already in decline as the result of a fall from a horse in 1915. When he died in 1936, his oldest son (Elizabeth's uncle) became King Edward VIII of England.

Edward's reign as king was pretty short. He was coronated in January 1936 and abdicated (quit) in November of that year. He did that so that he could marry a woman named Wallis Simpson, a commoner who was also divorced from her previous husband. In those days, that was not permitted.

When Edward abdicated the throne, his younger brother (Elizabeth's father) became King George VI. 

Elizabeth was only ten years old when her father became the King of England. And, with her father as king, Princess Elizabeth was next in line for the throne of England.

On the opposite page, you will see a photograph taken at the coronation of King George VI. A coronation is a ceremony to crown a new king or queen. Elizabeth, the older of the two young girls in the front, is standing with her father (the king), her mother (the queen consort, who would carry the title of Queen Elizabeth), and her younger sister Princess Margaret.  

Princess Elizabeth is practicing the royal wave under her mother's watchful gaze. That wave would come in handy for many years to come.

With her father as king, Elizabeth's family moved into Buckingham Palace, a huge and opulent estate in London, England. With 775 rooms, all richly appointed and maintained by a large staff of servants, it has been the site of many lavish parties and important historical events. Imagine growing up in such a place!

It is called Buckingham Palace because it was originally built for the Duke of Buckingham in 1703. King George III acquired it in 1761 for Queen Charlotte, and Queen Victoria made it the main residence of the British monarch in 1837. 

Princess Elizabeth was educated at home by a succession of tutors and received private tuition in constitutional history from the Vice-Provost of Eton College. This was important because as soon as her father became king, there was a very real possibility that she might be the future Queen of England.

As the king's oldest daughter, Elizabeth was the heir presumptive. If she had been a boy, she would have been the heir apparent. If the king and queen had had another child and if that child had been a boy, he would have become the heir apparent (first in line to the throne), even though Elizabeth was older. 

In all the fairy tales about princesses, there is always a Prince Charming, and so it was with Princess Elizabeth. Her Prince Charming was the dashing Prince Philip of Greece and Denmark. They first met in 1934, before her father had become king, and then again in 1937, after he had become king. Following their third meeting in 1939, Elizabeth declared that she had fallen in love with Prince Philip, but she was only 13 years old at the time.

Two months later, England entered World War II, the greatest war in all of human history. During that war, Princess Elizabeth served as an ambulance driver and mechanic in the Auxiliary Territorial Service.

After the war, Princess Elizabeth married her Prince Charming. Prince Philip renounced his Greek and Danish titles, converted from Greek Orthodoxy to Anglicanism, and was given the title Duke of Edinburgh. He even changed his family name to Mountbatten, his English mother's maiden name.

The wedding took place on November 20, 1947 at Westminster Abbey, the traditional site of royal weddings, funerals, and coronations. It was a lavish affair befitting a princess who was also the heir presumptive to the throne of England.

Elizabeth soon gave birth to two children, a boy in 1948 and a girl in 1950. The boy would be known as Prince Charles and the girl as Princess Anne. The young family received a lot of attention, as royal families with young children always do.

Then, on February 6, 1952, the royal couple, who were in Kenya at the time, received word that Elizabeth's father, King George VI, had died. Elizabeth knew right away that she had become the new Queen of England, so they returned home immediately. She was only 25 years old at the time.