Gail Vaz-Oxlade has no problem with the term "princess."
"My dad called me princess when I was growing up," Vaz-Oxlade said. "But I took that as an indication I could have anything I wanted, I just had to find a way to do it."
That last bit about "finding a way to do it" is the key, of course. And that brings us to Vaz-Oxlade's new program Princess, which debuts Tuesday, Sept. 7 on Slice.
In Princess, author and money maven Vaz-Oxlade - also the host of Til Debt Do Us Part - attempts to rehabilitate real-life princesses.
And when we say real-life princesses, we aren't talking about anyone with royal blood. Rather, the focus is on financially irresponsible young women whose reckless behaviour is threatening to put themselves and their loved ones in the poor house.
"Part of the problem is that we common folk try to equate ourselves with the princesses we see on TV," Vaz-Oxlade said. "The princesses I'm concerned about as influences are the high-earning, big-spending girls, who set a level of attainment that the low-earning, big-spending girls are using credit to achieve.
"If Paris Hilton decides to drop $2,000 on a pair of shoes with somebody's name on the bottom of them, that's no big deal to her. Never mind daddy paying for it, but Paris Hilton also makes a lot of money herself, through endorsements and all the other stuff she's doing. But if you're making $30,000 a year, where do you get off thinking you're entitled to buy a $2,000 pair of shoes?"
Amazingly, Princess reveals a number of women who think exactly that way.
"People have to apply to come on any of the shows I do, because we require them to make an enormous commitment to the process," Vaz-Oxlade said. "And unlike a lot of other shows, there's no guarantee you're going to get (bleep) from me."
Well, you will get (bleep) in terms of criticism, but not necessarily (bleep) in terms of money and merchandise. Besides the advice they receive, participants on Princess get $5,000 if they do everything Vaz-Oxlade says, but less if they don't.
"This show in particular is even more difficult, because we also need their peeps around them," Vaz-Oxlade continued. "So those people have to have some vested interest in the princess changing her ways."
Even considering everything that has happened in the economy over the past three years, it's shocking that there still are young people in North America who are on pace to ruin their financial futures without even fully understanding the concepts of credit or compound interest.
"To some extent credit is to blame for this, because it's easy non-money," Vaz-Oxlade said. "I don't even want to call credit money, because it's money that hasn't yet been earned, so it's non-money.
"But to a larger extent, it's parents who are unwilling to read the riot act to their kids. It's one thing to blame the credit-card system, but what this really boils down to is, it's the parents' responsibility."
One of the participants on Princess complained to QMI Agency late last year when the show was being taped, claiming Vaz-Oxlade had been too cruel during the challenges and too chintzy with the payoff.
"A lot of people say I'm very 'tough love', but I don't see it that way," Vaz-Oxlade said. "I don't think I'm 'tough love'. I'm just practical. I'm telling the truth. "I come across as tough only because everybody else is such a wuss."
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