How My Little Pony Saved My Mother's Sanity

When I was young, my mother despaired of ever getting me to play with "girl toys". She bought me dolls and dress up clothes and a kitchen set and a doll-sized cradle and high chair. I played with sticks and mud and my brother's Legos and Hot Wheels. I wanted karate lessons. I only asked for science toys and books about horses.

Enter My Pretty Pony and My Little Pony.


Once I got My Pretty Pony it was all I played with. I loved it quite literally to pieces. And then a couple years later when My Little Pony was introduced, I was instantly obsessed.I had it all.

I had the carrying case:

the baby nursery:

the Pretty Parlor:

the Show Stable:

the castle:

and so.much.more.

My mom was thrilled. It was pink stuff! That I would play with! I loved them so much (still have almost all of it too!) and that was all I asked for from 1983 to 1990. And I bought the occasional special order one right up to 1992 when they quit making the original line.

But here's the fun bit: I was crazy obsessed with these things. All my ponies had these elaborate back stories I made up for them. There was Majesty who was the queen, Moondancer who was her slightly frumpy sidekick, Cotton Candy and Blossom that were the crazy old lady ponies; Firefly who was a rock star but still really sweet, Applejack who was the ex-gang member who had cleaned up her life (seriously wtf was wrong with me?? A gang member?? I even drew a gang tattoo on her with a ballpoint pen!) and Glory who was a complete show-off until she had a baby. I had probably 30 or 40 ponies and they ALL had a story. I didn't have a lot of friends, so I suppose I made up for it with MLP.

Here's a picture of a very small me in awe of receiving the My Little Pony Baby Buggy, complete with Baby Cuddles! (I made up a story about her, too. Her mom died. Morbid. lol)