Prince Charlo Turns 10!

POISED BETWEEN TRADITION AND TRANSFORMATION, PRINCESS CHARLOTTE IS ALREADY HELPING TO SHAPE THE FUTURE OF THE MONARCHY

- By SIMON PERRY

With windswept hair, a $50 camouflage jacket and a sporty backpack strapped to her shoulders, Princess Charlotte beamed into her mother’s iPhone camera during a family hike in Cumbria in northwest England earlier this year. Captured by Princess Kate against the rolling hills of the Lake District, the image marked Charlotte’s 10th birthday on May 2—and signaled a turning point. Gone were the formal dresses and cardigans of birthdays past as the confident, adventurous young girl basked in her element. “She is quite a strong character,” says a palace insider, “almost wise beyond her years.”

Like her mother, who spent childhood holidays in those same hills, Charlotte thrives outdoors—whether scrambling up trails or hunting spiders in the garden. The Princess of Wales, 43, who recently shared how nature has become a refuge during her cancer recovery, has passed on that love. “I find it a very spiritual and very intense emotional reconnection,” Kate said in April. After a difficult year for the Wales family, the photo told its own quiet story of resilience, joy and a young princess coming into her own, with muddy boots and a fierce spirit.

From the start Charlotte has made history. Born May 2, 2015, she was the first female royal not to lose her place in the line of succession to a younger brother, thanks to the Succession to the Crown Act 2013. As the only daughter of Prince William, 42, and Princess Kate and now third in line to the throne, she’s grown up at the center of a monarchy in transition: shaped by crisis, modernization and the careful choices of two parents determined to do things differently.