I love to colour. I’m not a great artist. Far from it. But give me a fresh box of crayons and some blank paper, and I’m game.
The more colours the better.
Which is why I was a little surprised to learn that a staple colour in my crayon box (and in all parts of my life)—pink—was not always there.
The first box of Crayola crayons came out way back in 1903. It contained eight colours: blue, green, yellow, red, black, brown, orange, and violet. No pink. That shade didn’t make its debut until almost 50 years later in 1943.
What gives?
Well, the colour pink actually has a controversial history that includes mistresses, Nazis, prison cells, and more. I’m not going to go into all that here, but I encourage you to look it up some time. It’s fun and fascinating stuff.
In any case, you can find pink in pretty much every box of Crayola crayons now. And there are plenty of shades to pick from! My personal favourites include Piggy Pink, Pink Flamingo, Wild Watermelon, and Razzmatazz.
And yes, Crayola has some of the best colour names ever. Inchworm? Incredible. Fuzzy Wuzzy? Fur sure. Macaroni and Cheese? Making me melt.
Okay. That’s it. I’m going to colour now. Bye!