5. At least pretending to be a pioneer (thank you, Kirsten of the American Girls; also thank you to Across the Wide and Lonesome Prairie by Kristiana Gregory in the Dear Americaseries)
This one is fairly straightforward. Actually, all of these are. But Kirsten was the doll I had, and the doll I loved, and yeah, as I’ve recently mentioned, I was totally her for Halloween one time when I was little. Which is neither scary nor glamorous, so nobody got it at all, but I thought I was pretty cool.
4. Babysitting (the entire Baby-sitters’ Clubseries)
They seemed like they were having a really good time watching other peoples’ children, okay? When I was young enough to idolize my own babysitters, I was young enough to idolize these fictional ones. Of course, I’ve never actually babysat in my life, and the idea unnerves me now, but at the time.
3. Ice skating (Alison Goes For the Gold in the Magic Attic Club series)
Alison was probably actually my least favorite of the Magic Attic girls. I didn’t get on with her super-well. But I was already obsessed with ice skating as a child (thank you, Michelle Kwan and Tara Lipinski and Nancy Kerrigan) so this definitely added to that little problem of mine. Naturally, when I grew up and finally actually went ice skating, I hated it. I hated it spectacularly a lot. I was not, and am not, good at it. But I still do like watching it.
2. Gymnastics (Megan’s Balancing Act in the Magic Attic Club series)
Megan, on the other hand, was my favorite of the Magic Attic girls. She was the redheaded bookworm with glasses, and I loved her the most. I also had a little bit of a gymnastics thing, though less of one, but this one ranks higher on the list because I actually did take a few kiddie gymnastics classes as a child. Mostly the kind where you walk back and forth on a balance beam and then ribbon-dance and jump on a trampoline to music, but still.
1. Horseback riding (Heather Takes the Reins in the Magic Attic Club series and also the entirety of the Saddle Club series)
I was okay with Heather. She wasn’t my favorite favorite, but I liked her well enough. And I liked her horse story a lot (my Megan doll may have had the Heather horse riding outfit anyway). Also, the Saddle Club. I actually followed through with this one and went to horse camp one summer, for a total of two weeks, one of which was an overnight camp. I loved the horses, I hated the people, and I never went back, but sometimes when I think about it, I still get nostalgic for riding.
–your fangirl heroine.
