User blog comment:JKGame/Discord vs Deadpool: My Little Rap Battles Mid-Season Finale/@comment-31278711-20180825185025/@comment-25579736-20180912202025

@Shaun, it was actually kinda the other way round. In 2008-2009, everything MLP related sucked so bad that not even little girls were interested anymore. So, they got Lauren Faust, a woman who had a hand in cartoons like PPG and Foster's, to help them make a high-quality series and reinvigorate the franchise.

Faust's connection to it was what first got the grown men interested, as they were PPG/Foster's fans, and it snowballed from there.