My Little Fixation with My Little Pony

Despite being in the target audience of My Little Pony during the peak of my love for the show, I felt that liking it was lame, so I was hesitant to ever mention it to others. 

In 3rd grade, the first discussion about My Little Pony arose on the bus ride home. All the older kids, who me and my friend Rozanne thought were the coolest people ever, were talking about how uncool My Little Pony was. I don’t remember what about the show they thought was uncool, maybe that it was childish, girly, and cliche. Nevertheless, I too adopted this sacred ideology, despite never watching a second of My Little Pony. I wanted to be just like the cool kids on that bus.

There would be a couple more times the older kids on the bus talked about My Little Pony, and I would continue to agree with every word they said without a second thought. Yeah, Twilight Sparkle is dumb. What a silly dumb name for a talking unicorn. But then one day, I actually watched a My Little Pony episode. For whatever reason, episodes were very accessible on Youtube. So I watched a random one, just to really see how uncool it was. I watched another, just to further examine the childish nature of it all. And another to observe the talking colorful horses and their antics. Soon enough, I was watching about three episodes of My Little Pony a day. Dedicating all of my one hour limit of screen time to three 22 minute episodes of My Little Pony. It certainly wasn’t cool, but it wasn’t really bad either. The world of Equestria really was interesting. They had many different cities with their own culture, intricate weather systems run by pegasi, and a history of racism between earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns, which was resolved with the power of friendship. There was a large and colorful cast of characters and villains, each with their distinct role and hobbies. Although many episodes did end with a cheesy “Dear Princess Celestia, today I learned blah blah blah…” the rest of the dialogue was very fun and never left me feeling stupid or bored. 

Despite my creeping obsession of My Little Pony, I still talked poorly of it on the bus with the older kids. I did not want them to know that I unironically binge watch My Little Pony, in fear of being seen as just another lame 3rd grader. It was strange how highly I valued the opinions of these older kids who I only saw about one hour a day. How much I pandered to them, despite my classmates, who I literally spent six hours a day with, also sharing a love of My Little Pony. I suppose hanging out with them after school made me feel special, and I was desperate enough to hang onto that feeling to agree with whatever they said. 

Once those older kids had moved onto middle school and I was now the old 5th grader, I felt more confident with my love for My Little Pony. There was now no one to make myself look cool in front of. Since then I haven’t been super embarrassed by my interests to the point I actively hide them. I suppose embarrassment only arises when people of your peer group or people you look up to find whatever you’re into strange. Or maybe, being in a peer group that may dislike certain things dissuades you from ever looking at if for yourself in the first place. If I had believed what the cool kids said about My Little Pony a little more, it’s very possible I would never have watched it at all.