Toon Tunes: Reggie Rocket
You know her, you love her, and if you’re anything like me, you grew up wanting to be her. Reggie Rocket of the Nickelodeon TV show Rocket Power is Otto Rocket’s cool tomboy sister who resides in Ocean Shores, California.
She is the only girl in Team Rocket, and she is the femme super force behind it all. Watching her shred at a new extreme sport every week helped me to feel very empowered as a kid. It challenged me to try sports like skateboarding and surfing too, despite the traditional view of them being “boy sports”. Reggie was always a funny, smart, and driven role model to me, which is why I decided that she deserved a Toon Tunes playlist.
I vividly remember watching Rocket Power episodes then skateboarding with my friends on our street while playing “Sk8er Boi” by Avril Lavigne on my boombox in the driveway. Reggie was also the first to introduce me to zines. She made one for the town with Sam in her garage called The Zine (see the best line in Harvey Danger’s masterpiece, “Flagpole Sitta”: “I wanna publish zines, and rage against machines”). And who could forget the classic episode where she starts an all-girl surf team called The Power Girl Surfers? She was undeniably the coolest cartoon around, and while it was tough to make a playlist about a pretty flat and perfect character, I did my best to choose songs that summed up her fun-loving nature and strong will to beat the boys. Woogity woogity woogity!