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Name: Nellie Oleson
Brothers & Sisters: Willie
Likes: New York City, playing with her dolls, staying neat and clean
Dislikes: Working in her father’s shop, dust, big open sky, leeches, Laura Ingalls
Nellie Oleson, the rival of Laura Ingalls, thinks of herself as the prettiest, richest and most popular girl in school. She hates living on the prairie and dreams of the day when she’ll be old enough to go back to New York and be a real city girl. She loves the idea of wearing fine dresses and hoopskirts and dancing with elegant men. Nellie’s father runs the most successful shop in town. They prosper, until there is a plague of grasshoppers, and then with so many people moving back east, even they must be frugal.
Nellie loves being the center of attention. When Laura Ingalls moves to town and wins the friendship of all of Nellie’s classmates, Nellie is jealous and wishes Laura would move away with her family. But Nellie isn’t all bad. When confronted with challenges, she proves to be tougher than even she thought she was. And every now and then, she even catches herself having a little fun, until she realizes it isn’t very ladylike.
Fun Facts about Nellie!
| The character “Nellie Oleson” was based on three girls: Nellie Owens, Genevieve Masters, and Stella Gilbert.
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| In all of her writing, Laura Ingalls Wilder used people’s real names except in two cases: Nellie Oleson, and the Brewsters (whom Laura taught in her first term of school). She didn’t feel right using the real names when they were such unpleasant characters!
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| Genevieve Masters and Nellie Owens both went to school with Laura in Walnut Grove–Genevieve and Nellie each wanted to be the leader of all of the girls in the class and they each tried to get Laura to be on their side, but Laura refused and soon found herself the leader of the pack!
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"It didn’t matter that she was the prettiest and the richest. All those girls liked Laura Ingalls instead, and Nellie could not understand why."
— Nellie Oleson Meets Laura Ingalls
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Quotes for Nellie Oleson Meets Laura Ingalls
"After reading NELLIE OLESON MEETS LAURA INGALLS by Heather Williams, you’ll have some amused empathy for nasty Nellie."
— Dean Butler, who played Almanzo on the TV Show
"A tender and refreshing look at one of literature's best known mean girls."
— Elizabeth Cody Kimmel, who’s writing Mary Ingalls on Her Own
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