Vasilisa the Beautiful is a Russian fairy tale collected by a Russian poet, writer, editor, ethnographer and translator Alexander Afanasyev. It tells the tale of a beautiful girl named Vasilisa. When her mother dies, she gives her a magic doll. Her father remarries, and she gains an evil stepmother and two stepsisters. Despite the stepmother's attempts to diminish Vasilisa's beauty, she continues to grow more beautiful.