I wrote this last year and beat the dead horse in my status, topics, and EQD's comment boards. But because far too many people continue to make this mistake, it's time to reiterate.

As far as the animation and IDW comics are concerned, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic's market audience/target market is all ages. They're all-ages, gender-neutral, and family-friendly pieces of entertainment. Its base demographic is five-year-old kids regardless of gender, but its overall market includes older kids, teens, and adults. It's the same market audience as pre-Tales G1, Pixar, many of Disney's classics, The Railway Series, classic and the last two seasons of Thomas & Friends, Mario's main series, Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, and pre-1993 WWE.

But unlike G1, FIM's market audience for its first-party toys is different. Instead of all-ages and gender-neutral, it's marketed to young girls. It's one of the few products of the first-party market to cater that demographic singularly.

Also, unlike FIM, Equestria Girls's market audience is tween girls. EQG's base demographic is older than FIM's, but its overall target market is much narrower than the main series.

But there's a difference between market audience and target audience. Market audience is defined as to attract certain demographics, but it doesn't mean they're going to buy something. The target audience is who you're going to sell to.

What do I mean by that? Contrary to what everyone thinks, kids — and little/tween girls — are NOT FIM's target audience. In fact, kids are NEVER a target audience. Why? Because kids aren't the ones who'll buy the products or record the shows most of the time. Those who hold onto the income (and therefore buy/record them) are their guardians, the true target audience of FIM and EQG.

Since FIM debuted in 2010, the claim that FIM's target audience is "little girls" has been false. Don't kid yourself into thinking otherwise.