My Little Pony Pioneer: Bonnie Zacherle

My Little Pony Pioneer: Bonnie Zacherle — page 1 — Chapter 1 A Childhood dream Bonnie Zacherle is a creator She is a designer and illustrator Early in her career as an illustrator Zacherle sketched an idea for a toy pony She had no idea how far the idea would go In time Zacherle’s drawing evolved into the original My Little Pony toy Decades later My Little Pony is still a widely popular toy When Bonnie first sketched her toy pony she was remembering her childhood As a kid Bonnie didn’t play with many toys What she really wanted was a horse of her own 4

My Little Pony Pioneer: Bonnie Zacherle — page 2 — The Korean pony that inspired Bonnie Zacherle to create My Little Pony was named Knicker Zacherle said her original toy ponies were chubby because Knicker was Bonnie was born on November 14 1946 in Norwood Massachusetts Her interest in horses began at age four or five Bonnie was living in Japan at the time Her father was working there as a veterinarian for the US Army His job was to look after animals coming in and out of the country One of the animals was a Korean pony Bonnie fell in love with the pony She decided she wanted a pony of her own Years passed and Bonnie never got a pony Instead she designed one that could fit in her hand Because of Bonnie kids everywhere can have their own little ponies 5

My Little Pony Pioneer: Bonnie Zacherle — page 3 — Chapter 2 Becoming an Illustrator Zacherle’s father influenced her love of ponies He also influenced what Zacherle studied when she first started college Zacherle’s father wanted her to be a veterinarian like him So Zacherle began college as a biology major at New York’s Syracuse University But Zacherle did not study biology for long Her true passion was drawing an activity she had enjoyed since she was a child So Zacherle switched her major to illustration and advertising design Zacherle’s new path may not have been what her father had wanted But she chose to do what made her happy In her new major Zacherle took an interest in developing characters She knew she wanted to be an illustrator after college But she wasn’t sure where she could put her talents to work 6

My Little Pony Pioneer: Bonnie Zacherle — page 4 — Syracuse University was the first US college where students including Zacherle could study fine arts Zacherle figured she would likely end up illustrating children’s books in the future She graduated from college in the early 1970s She soon found a job as an illustrator But Zacherle wasn’t working on children’s books She was illustrating greeting cards 7

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