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Bro's Little Pony: YA Novel Tackles Hasbro Show's Unlikely Audience

This article is more than 8 years old.

As a young girl living in the Bay Area, young adult fiction author Natalie Whipple fit the target demographic for My Little Pony back when the animated TV series premiered the ‘80s. If advertisers had their way, she should’ve been begging her parents for the pastel, plastic toys the cartoon meant to sell. Instead, it wasn’t until she needed something for her three children to watch on Netflix that she became a fan of the revamped 2010 series.

By then, Whipple was closer in age to My Little Pony’s new, unexpected and surprisingly profitable consumer group—bronies, a mostly adult, male Internet-spawned fandom that threatens to become nearly as mainstream as the toys that inspired it. With her new book, My Little Brony, written under the pseudonym K.M. Hayes, Whipple brings the equine franchise full circle.

The story of Drew Morris, a 14-year-old who learns to stand up to bullies after becoming a fan of My Little Pony, Whipple’s novel was written in response to a Media Bistro ad from Skyhorse Publishing for a young adult author who “knew the brony fandom” and was willing to write about it.

Today, Whipple knows My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic as well as her kids do, even dressing up as bookish unicorn Twilight Sparkle for Halloween with her 3-year-old son, dressed as baby dragon Spike, in tow. She discovered local brony meetings, where fans dress like the characters, share fan art and fanfiction, practice trivia about the show, and other activities, and began attending in order to research her book.

“I have three small children so I’m always looking for something to watch on Netflix,” the 31-year-old Utah resident said. “We turned on [My Little Pony] and soon I found myself watching it with them because the story was so fun and the characters were so cute and interesting. I ended up becoming almost a bigger fan than my kids.”

The original My Little Pony show launched in 1986 to sell a toy line of ponies with brushable manes. The latest iteration is 2010’s My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, which premiered with 1.4 million viewers a month, but expanded to 4 million by the end of the first season. Developed by Lauren Faust, the creative force behind The Powerpuff Girls, it remains the biggest hit that its home channel, The Hub Network, has had to date.

It turned out that it wasn’t only kids and their parents watching the show, but a large group of older male fans in their 20s and 30s. Bronycon, an all-ages Baltimore, Maryland convention, attracts more than 9,000 fans annually. The Brony Study, in which two psychologist researchers studied the burgeoning fanbase, determined that 86% of survey respondents who identified as bronies were male, and the average respondent age was 21. Neuropsychologist Dr. Marsha Redden, who co-authored the aforementioned Brony Study, believes that in times like these, bronies are drawn to a respite from the evening news:

“I think bronies are a reaction to the U.S. having been engrossed in terrorism for the past ten years, living on the edge the same way my generation lived through the Cold War. They’re tired of being afraid, tired of angst and animosity. They want to go somewhere a lot more pleasant.”

The brony phenomenon has been covered into the ground, making it sometimes difficult to tell if these new fans are being sincere or ironic. While the movement did begin on the anything-but-sincere 4chan as a mix of genuine love and hipster fascination, it’s hard to imagine that a force that propelled Hasbro ’s girls’ category to its first $1 billion profit year is anything but true. Not surprisingly, however, the social implications of a bunch of boys and men entering a space intended for an audience of girls are far reaching and yet to be resolved.

For Whipple, it seemed obvious from the start that her novel about brony fandom ought to center around bullying. Whipple drew on her own experiences of being bullied as a teen to tell Drew’s story about making friends and fitting in at school in small town Texas. Drew's experiences are fictional, but real instances of brony bullying have happened. One brony, Grayson Bruce, endured so much harassment over his My Little Pony backpack that administrators asked him to leave it at home. (Not surprisingly, bronies of all ages flocked to his defense.)

“It makes me really sad but I feel like a lot of older fans of My Little Pony do get teased and ridiculed for the things they like just because it happens to be more pink and bright,” said Whipple. “I don’t think it needs to be criticized when it’s actually a really good show and constructed really well, especially from the writer’s standpoint.”

So far, My Little Brony has gone through a first printing of 10,000 copies and is “selling well,” a spokesperson for Skyhorse said. Whipple plans to write a sequel if asked.

Since the book is unofficial and not tied to the show except as an homage, Whipple doesn’t know what My Little Pony writers think of her book, if they’ve seen it. However, she has heard from countless fans who have left reviews or participated in her Q&A on the MLP Forums, a gathering space for My Little Pony fans. Fans are especially responsive about the book's frank portrayal of bullying and how Drew and his friends triumph by the end of the novel.

“I’m glad that they find comfort and validation within it. That’s what I was hoping for,” she said.