Feel-Good of the Day: My Little Pony Makes One Big Scientist

This is just amazing. Boing Boing’s Maggie Koerth-Baker filled us in on a lecture she listened to by MIT psychologist Sherry Turkle on her new book featuring various students and scientists disclosing “the objects that first drew their minds to math, computers, science and technology.” And amidst the standard objects you’d assume one would draw science from – like a radio or legos – Christine Alvarado used her My Little Pony as a way to help develop her science geekery:

I had several small plastic Ponies that I used to play make-believe with my friends. But I had one larger, plush My Little Pony, a bright-green stuffed horse with a vivid pink mane and tail that I played with all by myself. I would sit for hours on my own, braiding and rebraiding its tail. I developed a system for braiding the tail of my Pony that taught me about mathematical concepts– from division to recursion.

With science and math toys usually being reserved for the boys’ section of the store, actually utilizing a gendered doll to engage one’s scientific interests is just completely bad-ass. Goes to show just how resilient our minds can be, despite the suggestions placed before us. (Again and again and again…) Read Christine’s whole story.