She’s been formally designated as the future Queen.

Buckingham Palace has already announced that if and when Prince William ascends to the throne, Middleton will change her title to Queen consort, as reported by Independent UK. Middleton will have her own coronation ceremony inside Prince William’s, but it will be a simplified ceremony, according to the paper.

She’s long since disproved the old narrative that she was Prince William’s soft-spoken, mild-mannered college sweetheart who set her eyes on the young prince long before they crossed paths in their freshman dorm.

She’s more than proven her worth as a senior royal, deftly filling the hole created by Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s fast departure and carving out her own niche in the fields of early education, child development, and mental health awareness, ensuring she’s ready to embrace the position that awaits her nearly a decade after formally accepting her post.

“If she needs to step up to the plate, she does it—and she always has,” a source said of the duchess.

Consider it done if that means balancing an increased workload—the responsibility of representing the royals’ future now firmly resting on her slender shoulders—while homeschooling George, 7, and Charlotte, 5, and tracking down 2-year-old Prince Louis.

“She is an adoring mother,” a royal household source told People. “She is contributing publicly in the way we would want her to.”

Kate has been celebrated as a beacon of stability. According to an expert, the Duchess of Cambridge is “consistent” with her royal work and continues to bring joy to people.

“There is a tremendous power in being consistent and making people happy,” Elizabeth Holmes, author of HRH: So Many Thoughts on Royal Style, told People Royals.

“There aren’t that many powerful people who can do that.”

The Duchess has also been praised for her unique look and take on royalty.

“You can look through 10 years of pictures of Kate Middleton and there are no off moments,” Ms Holmes said.

Kate has been the sole female member of the Firm of her generation since Meghan Markle and Prince Harry moved to the United States and stood down as senior royals.

“Kate is now the only real possible provider of the glamour factor.” historian Sarah Gristwood, author of Elizabeth: The Queen and the Crown, said.

Kate has been cautious to follow royal protocol and courtesy for the past decade as the wife of future King William.

She has avoided discussing political topics in order to maintain the Crown’s balance and neutrality, and she has accepted royal responsibilities.

We’ve seen the mother-of-three step up to take on more high-profile roles in recent years.

Kate launched her most ambitious effort yet in January, a national poll about early childhood development, as part of her legacy-defining work in early childhood development. Make no mistake: this isn’t a royal who shows up, shakes a few hands, delivers a sweet speech, and then dashes back to the palace for a well-deserved round of finger sandwiches.

“This is not a flash-in-the-pan campaign, with a well-known name as the figurehead, peripherally involved,” one of the experts assembled to assist with the effort told the Telegraph. It’s also not just one person’s whimsical notion that it’d be “nice to do something for children.”

“As was absolutely clear at that very first meeting, the Duchess has shaped this project. She is absolutely across the research and the data on early years. It would be easy for her to sit back and hand it to the experts in the room that day, with all their PhDs. But, as we saw, she has worked hard to become an expert herself. That interest in early years will outlast politicians and even scientists.”

It was no accident that Her Majesty chose Kate and William to hold their first formal Buckingham Palace reception in the same month.

In addition to establishing a number of her own patronages during her tenure as a duchess, Middleton has recently started to fill a number of charitable positions previously filled by the Queen, indicating that she is capable of filling roles that the monarch has long held.

In 2017, the duchess took over the Queen’s role as patron of Action for Children, as well as the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club and The Lawn Tennis Association. She has since been instated as patron of The Royal Photographic Society, a title the monarch has held since 1952.

Middleton is an aspiring photographer herself, having studied art history at St. Andrews College and recently assuming the role of her own family’s unofficial photographer, so this patronage seems like a natural match for her—not to mention a sure sign the future queen is steadily transitioning her responsibilities to the next generation.