Little Debbie Is A Real Person (And Her Parents Were Surprised She Got Turned Into A Mascot)

If you've spent any amount of time in a supermarket snack aisle, you've doubtlessly seen her face: the little girl with the curly brown hair and button nose, smiling beatifically from under her wide-brimmed straw hat. If nothing else, the Little Debbie logo is a canny bit of branding. Young children, after all, are the primary demographic for the company's assortment of cosmic brownies and oatmeal creme pies — and if the little girl on the box seems so pleased with them, surely your child will be, too. But Little Debbie was no mere marketing creation: In fact, she's the granddaughter of the company's founders, and her namesake snack cake brand caught her parents by surprise.

Little Debbie was a product of the McKee Baking Company, founded in Chattanooga, Tennessee by Oather Dorris "O.D." McKee and his wife, Ruth. They began selling snacks out of their car in 1928, and by the 1960s, they were enjoying considerable success and were just about to introduce a mass-produced family pack of their snacks. To generate sales for the new offering, a logo was needed, and McKee was inspired to use the likeness of his four-year-old granddaughter, Debbie, after seeing a photograph of her smiling while wearing her favorite hat. McKee commissioned the popular artist Pearl Mann to draw the logo based on the photo, and the Little Debbie line was launched — much to the surprise of Debbie's parents, who only learned that their daughter would be used for the brand once those labels started to print.

We suppose that it would be hard enough to separate yourself from your family business, let alone when your beaming four-year-old mug graces every box it sells. So it's understandable that Little Debbie (now known as Debbie McKee-Fowler) joined the business aspect of McKee Foods. In fact, at one point she was the executive vice president, and even now that she's retired, she remains the chairman of the company board.

Today, of course, Little Debbie is every bit as beloved a snack cake institution as it always was. There's a Little Debbie park in Collegedale, Tennessee, with playground equipment patterned after its famous snacks. Some Michelin-starred restaurants serve Little Debbie-inspired elevated desserts. Unfortunately, there are no longer Boston creme rolls, which deserve a comeback. We'd take it up with Debbie herself, but honestly, all she'd need to do to win that argument is take out a box of Swiss Rolls and point at her face.