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My granddaughter was prancing around the park. She was pretending to be Shadow Tempest, the latest villain she was emulating.

Barely 3 years old at the time, then and now she loves villains — female villains, in her case. On the way to the park,she selected a book from one of the three take-or-leave book libraries in our neighborhood. I read her selection, a “My little pony" book, to her when we reached the park. Dressing the part was an important part of her make-believe, and she was anxious to go home and don purple and black clothes to make playing Shadow Tempest more real.

This fascination with villains has been going on for a while, since about the time she was 2, while watching “The Wizard of Oz.” She immediately became fascinated with the Wicked Witch of the West. Dorothy and Glenda the good witch didn’t spark the same interest or enchantment for her.

When Halloween approached, she announced her costume selection was the wicked witch. Her preschool requested non-scary costumes, so she agreed to be Dorothy and did admire the ruby shoes.

There are other villains she admired. Another book given to her by her aunt featured Wonder Woman. Instead of Wonder Woman, another character in the book captured her interest more. Her name is Poison Ivy, also known as Batman’s nemesis. With her bright red hair, and dressed in ivy, she possesses the power to make plant life do as she pleases.

Another villain admired by her is Maleficent. Maleficent is the dark fairy that curses Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty). Maleficent has a pet raven that she rescued from near-death after being beat up by a farmer. Using her powers, she gave him the ability to shape shift into a human being.

Returning to town after a couple nights away, I noticed a new neighbor having a garage sale. A very vintage garage sale, it featured some unique items, including a taxidermied Raven. Packing unsold items up to donate, my neighbor gave my granddaughter a horse and colt, and my grandson a vintage toy car.

After returning home, my granddaughter expressed an interest in the raven. I thought about what my grandson, 2 at the time, would do to it. I imagined him tearing off the feathers and spreading them around the house. I imagined crawling into bed one night and finding a beak under the covers. It just didn't seem like a good idea.

She was very disappointed. Although her aunt did purchase for her a stuffed toy raven for her birthday, which must have made her happy because I haven’t heard her mention the other raven since.

There are those who might think this might be the start of a budding psychopath or a sociopath, but she has not demonstrated such behavior in real life. She is clearly not a psychopath because she is kind to our cat. Our cat jumps up by her in a nightly routine, greeting her with a noise, not exactly a purr but more of a trill noise, and arching her back to be petted.

And she doesn’t lie like a sociopath. She always comes clean when she tells a fib, like “Grandma, I didn’t use your toothbrush to clean the bathroom sink,” or “Grandma, I didn’t use your hairbrush to brush the cat.” She will smile and then tell me the truth.

She shows empathy and compassion, always ready to kiss an “owie” on her brother or any of the adults in her life.She is a well-behaved, calm, friendly child.

So what may be the allure of such villains? When villains appear, they make a dramatic entrance, they show confidence, power, and are in control of the situation. They are clever, focused, and smart.

A child has no power and is directed through their day by adults. Imagine what we must look like from their perspective — always looking up to us and how much bigger we are than them. How powerful we must appear.

And how many villains have rules to follow? How thrilling that must seem to a child.

Through role-playing — even a villain — a child learns to be a confident, powerful, take-control-of-the-situation type of person. According to psychologists, children do not differentiate evil characters from good ones until they are at least 7 years old.

They are also making sense of the world, conquering their fears. And our world has been full of fears: The pandemic changed a lot of things and put into us new fears that didn’t exist before. Young minds understand that things have changed. We try to hide our fears from our children, but sometimes nonverbal communication is harder to control. And they understand that normal day-to-day things have changed, such as grocery shopping, socializing, and activities attended. My own children, similar ages during 9/11, role-played during that scary time, using blocks to make the buildings, throwing makeshift airplanes into the blocks, crashing into them and trying to make sense of the tragedy that happened and the fear present in the world at that time.

I don’t fear that playing evil women villains means that she will become an evil woman. She is learning bold, powerful, strong qualities and self reliance. In many movies in the past, women’s roles were portrayed as needing someone to rescue them. The woman villains are portrayed as much more self-reliant and confident. So by her feeling more confident and powerful by play-acting her favorite villains, she can focus these qualities into real life.

Kristin Kiefer lives in Rochester with her husband, two young grandchildren and a daughter, and she has a son and daughter-in-law in St. Paul and many extended family members in the area. She loves to paint and read, is obsessed with beautiful sunsets and sunrises, and loves nature.