4-Year-Old Learns Important Lessons by Dressing Up as Great Women of the World

Daniela Peña, who goes by @_analabanana on Instagram, has found a fashionable and fun way to teach her 4-year-old daughter, Ana, about powerful and influential women in the world.

The mother and daughter, who hail from Bogotá, Colombia, team up to recreate famous images of women — similar to the way that others, including this Brooklyn family, have used Instagram for stylish teaching moments. As a fashion designer, Peña developed the idea for the Instagram account when Ana was even younger than 4.

“I choose to stay home with Ana to take care of her, and that was a decision I made with my husband. At the beginning, it was a lot of free time because she was napping a lot because she was a baby. Then she grew, and she was enjoying it a lot,” Peña tells Yahoo Style on the evolution of the account. “She was saying, ‘I want this and I want that!’ She really loved posing for the pictures. One day I found a book for kids, and it was telling stories of great women of the world.”

Ana has dressed up as a number of notable women in history, film, and pop culture — many of whom have made great contributions to society. She recently dressed up as the popular superheroine Wonder Woman.

“Ana got really excited when I told her we were dressing up as a superhero from a movie,” Peña shares on her daughter’s costume.

“She got even more excited when she learned about Wonder Woman — a female superhero who was a princess but also a warrior with super strength,” Peña says.

“You can see the fierceness in Ana’s face in the pictures she really got into the heroine character,” Peña shares. “She also learned how she can be like Wonder Woman in her life by believing in her strength and fighting for what she believes!”

Ana also recently copied Emma Stone’s look for her character Mia in La La Land.

Peña captioned the image, “Mia (Emma Stone) La La Land ‘Here’s to the ones who dream, foolish as they may seem. Here’s to the hearts that ache. Here’s to the mess we make. She captured feeling, sky with no ceiling, the sunset inside with rain.”

She also made a miniversion of Emma Watson’s look from the Paris premiere of Beauty and the Beast. The caption notes that the actress’s custom Louis Vuitton dress was created from used plastic bottles.

Peña “loves” Watson because she’s “a role model that I want for my kid who teaches girls that they can be intelligent, and that beauty is not only what you can see with your eyes but something that’s in your soul.”

The dress that Peña created for her daughter looks very similar to Watson’s Louis Vuitton frock, designed by the creative director of the house, Nicolas Ghesquière. Peña’s creation appeared to impress Ghesquière, as he liked the three posts she shared of her daughter wearing the homemade piece.

Watson’s stylist, Rebecca Corbin-Murray, also appeared to love the re-creation. She posted the image with the caption, “Major fashionista in the making!! Never too young to love fashion — and never too young to care about where your clothes come from and who made them!”

In the past, Ana has channeled others who have made an impact in the fashion industry. In early February, the 4-year-old sported a blond wig, black sunglasses, and a sleek black coat with white sandals to mirror Anna Wintour, the editor in chief of Vogue.

She dressed up as another Vogue icon — the magazine’s creative director at large and renowned stylist, Grace Coddington — a month before.

For this costume, she slipped on a rather large red wig — similar to Coddington’s signature untamed mane — and a black jacket.

Another fashion figure Ana has emulated? Jackie Kennedy. In December 2016, Ana wore a red coat, with a matching hat and white gloves, that mirrored the Oleg Cassini suit that Kennedy wore in 1961.

She even posed as Coco Chanel! “Gabrielle Bonheur ‘Coco’ Chanel was a very talented and creative French fashion designer and businesswoman,” Peña wrote in the lengthy caption of the image.

“In 1917, she was so inspired by the sailors’ uniform that she incorporated the stripes into her nautical collection,” she continued. “The casual design helped break away from the heavily corseted fashion of the time, changing the world of fashion forever. There is a special set of books: ‘little people big dreams’ biography books for children about inspiring women. A major inspiration for this project.”