Last week, Walt Disney Pictures unveiled a teaser trailer for the upcoming live-action remake of The Little Mermaid. In response, fans are celebrating the fact that the film’s main character, Princess Ariel, will be played by Halle Bailey, a move that was first announced back in 2019.

Over the past few days, many have taken to TikTok and Twitter to show videos of Black girls watching the trailer for the first time. The beautiful display of reactions have ranged from shock and awe to pure excitement over a Black woman holding the role, a profound achievement given the divided state of affairs in both the United States and the western world as a whole. One video in particular, from TikTok user @chelipooh, shows a girl responding to the revelation in near disbelief: “It’s Ariel, isn’t it? She’s Black! What? Period! Finally, I’ve been waiting for another Black person…”

Bailey recently took to Instagram to reveal that she’s seen many of the aforementioned videos, thanking all who have helped to spread love and positivity:

“People have been sending these reactions to me all weekend and [I’m] in truly in awe … seeing these little babies reactions makes me so emotional … this means the world to me … thank you all for your unwavering support.”

In a past interview with Stylecaster, Bailey opened up about how “emotional” she became during her performance of The Little Mermaid classic “Part of Your World” — the very song that she can be seen performing in the trailer:

“It was really surreal to film. It was really emotional for me. It was three days of intense being all over the place. I was crying the whole time because I was just like, ‘What the heck?’ We’re all connected to that song and it means a lot to each of us.”

Digital strategist and consultant Leslie Mac decided to create a Twitter thread showing all of the Black girl reactions, as she feels that “we could all use this joy [right now].” You can check them out below.