A major milestone for Leonor and Sofia

Their lives have changed a huge amount in the last year and on October 12th, their country's national day, Leonor and Sofia of Spain will embrace another change.  The daughters of King Felipe VI will attend the events marking the big day for the first time.  Now heir and spare, the girls will stand alongside their parents at the centre of their country's royal family as the world watches.

Leonoor and Sofia of Spain at their father's proclamation as king in June 2014

The girls have made scarce public appearances until this year but in June 2014 all that changed when their father became king.  Since then they have been seen at their grandfather's abdication, Felipe's proclamation as monarch and several times during their trip to Mallorca.  But their appearance at the military parade that marks the day is another first and signals the change in their royal role that will come as they get older.

Leonor and Sofia on one of several appearances they made in Mallorca this summer

Leonor, now Princess of Asturias, and her sister make up one third of Spain's Royal Family now but with their grandparents, Juan Carlos I and Sofia, taking a lower key role most of the attention now falls on the girls and their parents.  Which made it almost inevitable that they would be involved in some way in the big events surrounding October 12th. But confirmation that they will be there only underlines the fact that in just a year these two young girls have seen a major change in their worlds as they moved from the littlest infantas to a queen in waiting and her heiress.