Girl Who Dressed As Hot Dog For 'Princess Week' Is Chicago's Hotdog Queen

By Mae Rice in Food on Jul 26, 2016 2:50PM

Portillo's, purveyors of fine hot dogs and beefs and Chicago vibes, has crowned the Hot Dog Princess with a new title: Hot Dog Queen of Chicago.

You have to remember Hot Dog Princess (real name: Ainsley) because we can't live in a world where you don't. She is the girl who dressed up as a hot dog for "Princess Week" at her dance studio, a phenomenon chronicled by every media site and every person who captions photos "It me" starting in early May. She even got a shoutout from Ellen Degeneres, and her own eternally-bumping hashtag: #HotDogPrincess.

Now, she's also literal Chicago royalty. As Portillo's documented in the video above, the hot dog empire flew her to Chicago for a hot dog coronation. (Should those words go together? Maybe not.)

Ainsley and her family visited Navy Pier, where she briefly donned a hot dog hat (even though hot dogs and hats are really not the same shape). Ainsley also confidently ordered a chili-cheese dog at Portillo's. Then, Portillo's founder Dick Portillo crashed her family's Portillo's meal and crowned her the Chicago Hot Dog Queen "with the power vested in me by the Chicago-style hot dogs."

It's a beautiful and strange moment, for which we have the internet to thank.

If you want more context on Ainsley and her hot dog suit, here was the photo of her and her dance classmates during Princess Week that started it all:

“She loves princesses, but she wanted to be original and wear a hot dog costume instead,” Ainsley's dance teacher, who posted these photos, told Buzzfeed.

It's so hard not to say "it me" right now, but we're holding it back.

[H/T Reddit]