My rainbow story begins...maybe before I was born. My mom always did (and still does) love rainbows. I think I might've actually inherited that love, because as long as I can remember, I have LOVED rainbows! And I have proof! We have a video of me at my 2 year old birthday party...I was to the part where they stick the presents in front of you and say "Open them up Katy." Well, they'd hand them to me one at a time and I'd slowly but surely get the thing unwrapped and then have it wrenched out of my hands and handed the next one. Well, my Grandmother (I love you MeMa!) had wrapped my present from her in wrapping paper with rainbows all over it. I dutifully took the gift from my mom, but then stopped. I didn't dig into it right away like the others...I stared at it and then said that beautiful word..."RAINBOWS!" I did eventually open the gift...I don't remember what it was...but I do still remember that paper.

So I've always loved rainbows, so naturally I loved Rainbow Brite when it came out. I watched the show, I had the dolls...I just made some kind of connection with the show and it's characters. I don't remember much about watching the show itself, but I do remember the fall of 1985. I turned 6 that year, and, of course, I had a birthday party. Well, my birthday is October 27 (4 days before Halloween), so I had a Halloween Party at Skateland USA and everyone dressed up. And guess who I dressed up as that year?...Need I say it? RAINBOW BRITE! My mom (I LOVE YOU MOM) made the costume for me. I won two costume contests that year with that costume!

I'm not sure what exactly happened after that fall, but my interests somehow shifted. After my RB stage I shifted into the He-man and She-ra stage (I love those shows!) and Rainbow Brite was somehow forgotten. I went on living my life without paying a bit of attention to the rainbow inside of me. I still don't understand how I did it. And then came 10th grade. I was out shopping one day, and something caught my eye. I went a bit closer and realized that it was a shirt that was covered in rainbow stripes. I picked it up and tried it on. It was definitely not the most comfortable shirt in the world and it cost more than I usually pay for clothing, but this time I made an exception. This single piece of cloth had somehow awakened that rainbow that I had long forgotten. I had the strangest feeling inside of me. I had never gotten so excited over a shirt before. But I did buy the shirt. I remember the first time I wore it. I was in the drama class at school, and we would have competitions called Speech Meets. We'd have to dress up for the competition, but after it was over, we changed into whatever we wanted to. Well, this time I had brought my rainbow shirt along so I put it on and headed back to my friends. No sooner had I stepped into the room until my friend Bradley Scott exclaimed "Hey! It's Rainbow Brite!" I didn't think much about it at the time, but as time went by, the name stuck.

In 10th grade, it was just starting out. By 11th grade, my name and the name Rainbow Brite were as one, and by 12th grade...I had evolved into the one and only RAINBOW BRITE! I started out subtly... by carrying a Rainbow Brite bookbag which I had cross stitched. Then, I carried a Rainbow Brite purse that I've had since I was a wee thing. After that came the religious trips to the Goodwill store looking for anything and everything Rainbow Brite that I could find. I do have a pretty good sized collection now. And now that I'm in college, I'm still a RB freak! My WONDERFUL mom made me a new Rainbow Brite costume for my 18th brithday, so I got to be RB for Halloween again, 12 years later!!! :) And now it has become a part of me. It's more than RB stuff...it's RAINBOW stuff. I wear two different colored socks at one time...Rainbow Brite t-shirts...I have a watch with a rainbow on it, a mouse pad with a rainbow on it, rainbow sickers, rainbow pens and pencils, rainbow disks, rainbow key identifiers, rainbow jewelry cases, rainbow fingernail polish, rainbow hair clips, rainbow gum...I even eat rainbow ice cream! Maybe it's a sickness, but I don't think so. It's just...Me. Rainbow Brite will always be a part of me, and I hope that now, she is also a part of you.