My first memory was hearing traces of it online in the early 2010s. As a kid, I thought they were being ironic in loving MLP and it annoyed me seeing it being referenced so much by those too old for MLP. (Ironically I had no qualms about liking Barbie movies back then since they had atmosphere and fun characters, so maybe I was being a bit hypocritical. You know how kids are.)
But overtime as I was getting into various fanfictions mostly about Teen Titans, I think I looked at some cool fancontent for MLP in maybe 2014, I think it was some Royal Guard or something. I started to see MLP fancontent as cool. Then I watched the MLP episodes. While I was surprised they were not as adventurous as I was led to believe from fanart of say the Mane Six in battle armor, from 2014 I was hooked.
At first I only read fanfics and fanart. And only recently have I actually genuinely watched the show. And now I am a true fan. Althoigh I kind of miss my childhood being more creative and interpreting things without knowing the show as well. But I am glad that I’ve become a fan and hope to leave a creative mark on it one day.