what is littlest pet shop?

littlest pet shop, often shortened to LPS is a toyline launched by Kenner Products in 1992. Kenner eventually merged with hasbro in the 2000s, resulting in the toys changing appearance, as shown here. Kenner's version of littlest pet shops will be refered to as generation 0 (g0) whilst modern day littlest pet shops will be refered to as generation 1-onwards.
(g0) (g1)

my connection to LPS

i began collecting littlest pet shops over 12 years ago, when i was a small girl. at the time they were too expensive, so i didnt have many. i mostly got them from the dollar store & for birthdays and christmas. when i began collecting, they were in the first generation, the hallmark of g1 being the chihuahua, given he was the first LPS made for generation one! (lps #1!)
after a while, i discovered the LPS community on youtube, a community where children and teenagers alike would make series akin to TV shows using just these little toys. i was AMAZED. i spent all day watching LPS videos after school,i loved making them myself on my old flip phone and qwerty phone whenever i was bored. to this day i make small skits using them whenever i'm super bored because of how close they are to my heart!

lps popular

my favorite series is LPS popular, something you've probably heard of given its the most well known lps series--created by SOPHIEGTV. the series follows 16 year old savvannah reed & her starting highschool. turns out, the school is the same one her childhood friend, brooklyn hayes goes too. shes excited, cant wait to see her old friend again after over 10 years. however, when she gets there, brooke has changed. shes a stuck up, mean girl with a boyfriend who she constantly cheats on. savannah still tries to converse, hoping that her childhood friend wasnt as bad as she seems. sadly she becomes brookes next victim. within the first few days, brooklyn and her friends absolutely terrorize savannah, which causes a domino effect of brookes boyfriend, sage bond, becoming close to savannah. time passes and savannah gets a makeover in hopes of no longer being bullied. this leads to her becoming competition against brooke due to her being all around kinder, especially to others, which brooke is not happy about. brooke constantly tries to one-up savannah and goes as far as to plan a sabotage, operation fry the sausage which in the end, fails. eventually savannah meets tom, kinda "dates" him for a bit, things go wrong and she gets with sage, brookes now ex boyfriend. brookes pet cricket, gigi, runs away, after brooke in a fit of rage causes injury to her. savannah finds her and takes her in as her pet. gigi has seperation anxiety so savannah brings her to school along with her, this leads to brooke physically attacking savannah and in an attempt to defend herself, savannah tosses brooke against a locker, causing injuries that lead to threats of a lawsuit if savannah doesnt "give sage and gigi" back.

i love lps popular because i strongly see myself in savannah when it comes to being bullied and her eating disorder.shes always trying to prevent causing offense to others and sticks by her friends and stays true to herself, no matter how many hurtful rumors fly about her. i also love brookes character building that shows that some bullies bully because something is wrong at home. brookes father is absent & her mother tries to buy her love whilst beating down on her which worsens her bullimia, claiming its out of love. tom reminds me a lot of a guy i used to like a lot. theres a constant debate over team brooke, team savannah, and team tom and team sage. personally, i'm team savannah, because despite everything, she has never dipped so low as to attempt to make brooke go bald or start rumors that she has a disease.

my favorite character!

alicia!! i love alicia! alicia is a 16 year old girl who is notably the best friend to rachel & brooke. shes so bubbly and sweet, and despite being part of the clique, she remains a lot kinder than the rest. during operation fry the sausage, she didnt play much of a malicious role, she was just kinda there for comedic relief of types. alicia is known for being a bit of an airhead, asking brooke if she has a "couch cushion" instead of "concussion". sadly she sticks by brooke, despite everything brooke has done. rachel has confronted this fact, when alicia expressed missing seeing brooke at school she retorted with "brooke never learnt to play nice," & "if making out with your [alicia]'s boyfriend & humiliating you infront of the whole school was being a good friend, then yeah, she's the best." i think that rachel is quite sweet, but i feel as if since shes aware that brooke is a piece of sh** she shouldnt remain by her and go as far as to visit her in the hospital as brooke continues to plot savannahs downfall. alicia is friends with two unknown girls in the series, two of which we'll probably never get closure on, but its interesting nonetheless.

gen, lina & savannah

gen & lina are the best friends to savannah who met her the first day of school. they all immediately took a liking to eachother, despite savannahs "different" way of dressing. genny and lina being friends prior. when savannah tries to befriend brooke they get a bit upset, knowing that brooke is no longer, and possibly has never actually been a kind person in any capacity. they quickly forgive savvanah after she apologizes & all is well. when savannah begins taking a liking to sage, they cheer her on, which like discussed earlier, they do get together later in the series! i think that lina and genny are the exact friends i wanted growing up, and they're just so amazing in every way, i remember watching LPS popular as a kid thinking that id have friends like them, which didnt happen, but its okay. they've always stood by savannah through thick and thin.

there is speculation on if lina is a lesbian, which i personally, think she is. from her lack of interest in boys to her general vibe, it seems as if she likes girls, its never been directly confirmed, but hopefully in a later episode it is. fans have shipped characters from LPS POPULAR since its inception, from sage x tom

to brooke x savannah

to savvy x genny x lina, shipping has always been a thing! i personally like the idea of tom x sage & genny x rachel, even though genny x rachel isnt logical in any sense, i think half the fun is the lack of logic and the general absurdity of the pairing.

so.. what happened to lps popular & why hasnt it been updated in several years?

SOPHIEGTV, the creator, got into a serious accident a few years ago, leaving her incredibly injured and unable to make and edit videos. it has been confirmed however by her that LPS popular is coming back sooner or later, even if it takes a while. this has lead to fans creating their own renditions of lps popular. lps popular carried the community for several years & is part of the recent resurgance in popularity of the little plastic animal toys. LPS popular is rated 13+ but people of all ages enjoy the show. with the introduction of youtube kids mode, a wrench was thrown in populars plans because videos marked as kids are not monetizable. recently, it was figured out that you do not have to mark it as kids if you swear, which sophiegtv has dropped implied in her videos, so if she simply actually does it, they'll be monetizable once more.

in conclusion...

LPS popular is revolutionary and a hallmark of internet culture as we know it today, which sounds dramatic, but i beleive it to be true. to this day, adults look forward to a new episode of a show made with kids toys and the lps community even outside of LPS popular still continues to thrive. LPS popular was so impactful that it drove up the prices of SEVERAL littlest pet shops, which is insane to think about. imagine a toy going from 10 dollars to 300+ dollars because of one youtube series that a girl began at a young age. how amazing is that?