As The Pokeball Turns
As The Pokéball Turns is a Pokémon interview podcast that shares real stories from Trainers around the world. From personal journeys to lasting friendships, we explore how Pokémon shapes lives and builds community across the games, the TCG, and beyond. Join creators, community leaders, and everyday fans as they share what makes Pokémon more than just a game. New episodes drop every Wednesday and Friday. One voice, one journey, one memory at a time. Your next Pokémon adventure begins here!
As The Pokeball Turns
"Popplio Never Needed UGG Boots" ft. Jess | TRAINER'S EYE #185
Some comforts don’t just distract you, they keep you breathing when life gets heavy.
Jess, an admin for a Pokemon Facebook group, shares how Pokémon story moments became a lifeline through hospital stays, family pressure, and the quiet loneliness of feeling “different.” From a taped-up Game Boy Color in a medical room to the chaos and joy of her first midnight release for Sun & Moon, Jess unpacks why Popplio, and its misunderstood femininity, mattered so much and what it means to finally find people who get you. Along the way, we talk nostalgia, community leadership, and the long echo of being judged for loving something “childish."
Listen now for a reminder that your interests can be a shelter, not a flaw, then follow for more Pokémon podcast conversations about healing, belonging, and the memories that made us.
🔗 Women Pokemon Trainer Episodes:
Hear how women shape and celebrate Pokemon.
Sources
Opening Song: "Forget You" by Alex_MakeMusic from Pixabay
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Your next Pokemon adventure begins here!
My name is Jess, and this is my Pokemon story.
Opening Theme
David Hernandez:Welcome to As The Pokeball Turns, where every voice, every journey, and every memory brings us closer to the world of Pokemon. I'm David Hernandez and I'm joined by Jes, one of the admins from The Pokeball ZA Facebook group. Jes, welcome to As The Pokeball Turns.
Jess:Thanks David.
David Hernandez:And Jess, before we dive into the interview, I wanna start with this fun question. If a Pokemon could instantly appear and make your day better right now, which one would it be and what would it do for you?
Jess:I think it'd just be Popplio, because Popplio didn't really get a lot of love when he first came around. I think just having him there would like make my day like instantly better. Could blow bubbles, we could play. It'd be a lot of fun.
David Hernandez:Why do you think Popplio resonates with you so much?
Jess:I remember whenever, sun and Moon first came out, like a lot of. The leaks were coming out, a lot of possibilities about like the starters or evolutions and that sort of thing were dropping and a lot of people were not really liking Popplio because of its, final evolution Primarina. And it made me feel kind of bad because like I know that. having played Pokemon for such a long time, the possibility of having your starter be male is a lot higher than having it as a female. And I think seeing a lot of people be up in arms because of the fact that Popplio's final evolution is very feminine based, just kind of through a lot of people in for a loop because I don't think they've really liked it that much because of that.
David Hernandez:When did Pokemon Moon come into your life and what was it going on for you at the time?
Jess:Pokemon Moon came at a time where I was going through a lot in my life. I remember back in 2016, I was a year out of high school. my little brother had a lot of, medical problems, so I had to spend a, think a lot of time like hanging out with friends to just try and like, cope with that and just trying to like, take my mind off things. I remember picking up Sun and Moon at GameStop. It was my first ever midnight release. I was lucky to go with a friend of mine and she took me and we went to pick up our copies and it was absolutely chaotic, but it was a lot of fun too.
David Hernandez:Interesting. What do you remember about that Midnight release?
Jess:I think just seeing like the amount of people in the line, like I don't remember if like any other games came out that day, like apart from Pokemon, but I remember like the line was almost to the door and my hometown's GameStop was really small. So to me it just felt like really crazy seeing that many people in a store It was definitely not like Black Friday by any stretch of the imagination, but it was definitely a lot of people.
David Hernandez:Well, what was your first Pokemon game? Let's start there.
Jess:My first experience that I played myself was Pokemon Gold back in 2001, I think 2001 or 2002. I played on a game boy color that was heavily doctored. I spent a lot of my childhood in the hospital, all of different medical problems. So, my game boy color had like one of those extra battery pack finger maji and it was taped on with, medical tape, so that way, like it wouldn't fall off. And it was pretty much like my best friend ever, I also had a GBA SP that I got, I think in 2003 or four. And I used that as well a lot. I still have the uh, G-B-A-S-P and I still have like a game boy color, but not the og. Unfortunately, that one died quite a few years back, so had to put it out of its misery to say the least.
David Hernandez:What role did Pokemon play for you while you were in the hospital?
Jess:It's helped a lot. Um, I remember, my mom tries to like, help the best she could, but like video games helped a lot. Like I didn't just play like Pokemon either, you know? I played like Pokemon and Kirby, the Regrets Movie Game Boy Color Game. I remember playing, the Little Mermaid two pinball. I remember like playing a few, like. At a time and just kept them at like a study rotation so that way I wouldn't be like too bored between that and like coloring and just trying to do like other activities to just keep my mind off things.
David Hernandez:I think one thing that people can forget, and maybe for those who don't even know about it, is just how exhausting it can be. Just being in the hospital for such a long period of time. You know, I remember when I was younger, you know, I had a lot of breathing issues. I had asthma pretty bad, so I spent a lot of time in the hospital. I was there consistently every year. One thing that I always remembered and still sticks to me to this day, was just how much I wanted to go home. You know, the food got old. It just was not fun. Being in it was no fun not being in your place with your own toys around your own family, being in your own bed. It just made a huge difference.
Jess:It's not, and it makes it hard to sleep and eat because like nothing just feels right. you got wires and people you don't know coming at you every which way, and it's not fun.
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David Hernandez:Did you have any people you played Pokemon with growing up?
Jess:Kind of, um, I have my childhood best friend. we played a lot of Pokemon together growing up. but a lot of like the people that I went to school with, like either other games or Yu-gi-oh like I remember my elementary school. being divided between like Yu-gi-oh and Pokemon. There was like very few people that like liked both. It was usually either one or the other. now that I'm obviously like married, my husband's introduced me to Yu-gi-oh. We've played Yu-gi-oh a few times together, but I still prefer Pokemon more. I'm not like really good at like trying to plan moves for turns in advance.
David Hernandez:Why do you think Pokemon stuck with you compared to the other franchises?
Jess:Honestly, I'm not really sure like, I think just like the familiarity of it really, and just like being a fan for so long. It's just kind of like what you're drawn to most, I guess, I remember in high school I still heavily enjoyed Pokemon, but I tried to keep like that part secret because you know, like at that time of my life, I didn't wanna be like judged or made fun of, obviously, and it didn't really help much either because I remember her at one point telling my mom about like something like Pokemon related and she had the audacity to say basically that I wouldn't find anyone that would like me if they knew that I would, that I still liked Pokemon because she saw Pokemon as like this childish thing, obviously because, you know, cute creatures obviously means it's geared towards children. And It stung, but like that was something I try not to like ate on too much because obviously, you know, like I'm married now, my husband likes Pokemon as well, but at times like it's ring in my ears sometimes whenever like I least expect it, I'm trying to like work through that obviously. But like I said, sometimes it still comes out. In my ears and it's not fun.
David Hernandez:Did that make you feel like you didn't fit in with what people expected you to be?
Jess:Yes, because at that point, I was a teenager, you know, like teenagers shouldn't worry about like newest phones or gossip or like, I remember Ugg boots being a big thing and like didn't latest iPhone, but like I didn't care about any of those things. growing up, I always hold myself a tomboy because that's just what I liked, you know? Like I wasn't adult kid. I was like a race car kid, like racing cars down to the swine glass doors to go outside and back, you know? And that just kind of stuck with me as I've gotten older too, you know, I don't really wear a lot of brighter colors. I just wear what I like and I'm happy with that,
David Hernandez:It was just a different time. Pokemon just wasn't as popular and for many of us who grew up with a franchise, we kind of had to hide our interest from others'cause we would be made fun of, you know? Was it difficult or what was it like for you making friends for you during that time?
Jess:Yeah. Like honestly, I will be very candid. I didn't like really have a lot of friends growing up. No matter if I was like in elementary, you know, or in high school. I basically. Due to though, was that like I felt like I could trust with things because as you know, like as you're growing up, as you're going through a lot, you know, like the last thing you want to be seen as something that's abnormal. You know, you wanna be seen as someone that's as normal as possible. And that was really hard for me too.
David Hernandez:Did Pokemon end up being something you kept more to yourself because of that?
Jess:I pretty much just enjoyed those things in secret and really only told people, like I said, that I knew I could trust, which honestly wasn't very many because you know, like growing up in a small town and having known most of the people I went to high school with since we were kids. You know, like they're off, like developing their interests. They're trying to figure out like what they wanna go into college for. They're trying to like do like big sports things. They're trying to like, basically just like make names of themselves. But I, at that point was still like really lost because I didn't know what I wanted to do. And like I have an older sister too, and like, she was like this perfect model student. at times like. having teachers that would, you know, accidentally call me by my sisters name, you know, I'd have to have to like correct them too and be like, no, I'm not my sister. Please do not hold me to the same standards you held her. You know, like I'm a smart student. I will be Brave enough to say that, but there are still a lot of things that I don't know, and there's a lot of things that like, I'm still like unsure of too, you know?
David Hernandez:It can be very frustrating because you kind of wanna be seen for who you are, not for what your siblings did. I connect with it because I remember early on I was compared to my sister because she attacked a teacher at the time, and I had the same teacher going to the same school. And I remember my mom told me I had to keep my relationship or my last name or any connection to her quiet. Otherwise I would potentially be seen as a troublemaker. And I always felt that I was seen for everyone else but myself up to even this day sometimes.
Jess:Exactly. It was very frustrating too, and you know, like. The more that my mom kept trying to like push me to like be this person I knew deep down, I'm not, it really like hurt because at times like I felt like I couldn't breathe because of the pressure. Like, I mean that as a metaphor of course, but like, it just, it really hurt because like. I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, you know, like as soon as I left high school, you know, like I wanted to wait until I knew for sure what I like wanted to get into as an adult. Like I didn't want to do college right away, even though my mom kept trying to push that.
David Hernandez:You know, you're an admin of a Pokemon Facebook group. What was your early experience like running such a huge group?
Jess:it was definitely a, uh, really big undertaking. Um, when I joined in, I noticed the group was like a huge, unorganized mess. I noticed that the admins weren't really responsive. I noticed the group was public. I noticed a lot of posts that weren't like, related to Pokemon at all, were like falling through the cracks. So I spent a good, like, I'd wanna say month and a half, just trying to fix it all. It took a lot of trial and error in finding like people that like actually like wanted to help and were like trustworthy enough to help. And at one point back with, I think it was either Sword and Shield or Scarlet and Violet, but at one point, We were at 125,000 people, but we have since like, lost a lot of people because we were kind of inactive for a while due to, a not like really releasing yet, and like The Pokeball community itself just being kind of like quiet. So we've lost quite a few people since then, but we've slowly been building back up
David Hernandez:what's been the most rewarding part of running that community?
Jess:It's definitely a lot of work, but it's really rewarding because as an adult you get to see like other people that are also adults and just also people that like can be older than you and still like heavily enjoy Pokemon. Like, I've seen like a lot of people saying that they're playing with their kids and their grandkids, and it's been like really nice to see that Pokemon has reached such a big audience that you probably wouldn't like really experience otherwise.
David Hernandez:Do you have any meaningful connections or cool stories you've made through that group?
Jess:I've made a couple friends through the group. one, I actually graduated back in October because he had his second baby, so I just sent him a quick message, you know, so Congrats. it's been nice, I guess in like a weird sense to say. Say that like, my mother was wrong and you know, like you can find people that like the things, the same things you do like as you get older. You know, like something that like you think you can regulate to a certain age group actually doesn't like exist at all. You know, like it applies to all the age groups and it's nice.
David Hernandez:You know, how important is it for you to see other women in The Pokeball community now compared to what you experienced growing up?
Jess:I think what really I guess kind of like helps is like knowing that like. There's other women out there that like Pokemon because like back when I was growing up, I remember like Pokemon being like such like a niche topic, And it was like, like we said in the beginning too, you know, it was like mostly gear towards like boys and men. It wasn't really something that like women would like really have like much attachment to, you know. Like whenever these, like these s Barbies and pockets and things like little girls would enjoy you.
David Hernandez:You know, you talked a lot about your Pokemon experience, but I want to ask like, what's been your most favorite set of games to play? The ones that you look back on, you could play over and over and over.
Jess:This is going to be a really wild take, but like every single Pokemon game I've played, whether it be like mainline or like spinoff, I've enjoyed, like I am part of the really niche audience that like really enjoyed like Pokemon channel, Pokemon Ranger. The Pokeball Rumble games and like where everyone has like a Pokemon that they just like can't stand. I don't really have one. I like all of The Pokemon equally because I feel like they work so hard to like, make each one unique, And you know, given the fact that there's over 1000 Pokemon now, yet they're still going. That's, that says a lot about their commitment.
David Hernandez:Why do you think Pokemon has lasted this long and has left such a huge impact?
Jess:It's crazy to think about that. The fact that Pokemons been going on for almost 30 years just like really boggles my mind honestly. because like, I remember like looking back, you know, like you didn't really know how long Pokemon was going to last. Many like set of games could sell so poorly that, you know, it could very well just be their last. But even with the games, you know, that didn't sell that well, they still like kept it going. They still well like tried to persevere and like push past that and like really worked hard to like make the game something that like everyone can enjoy. And I think honestly with the fact that, the switch can connect with people near and far now has really helped bring a lot of people together too. I think honestly just the fact that like now you can play at home or you can play on the go, it's cool having a causal that like you can hook up to a tv, but also something you can just like play in your lap on like a long car ride or plane ride or what have. Because I remember growing up wishing that like some of my other like, cons, what was that weren't handheld, could come with me to places, you had to like pack up basically a suitcase just to transport it,
David Hernandez:Right. Another thing I love is how you're able to join each other's games. Now, who would've thought back then, you know, playing the GBA or even the Game Boy Advance, or I'm sorry, the Game Boy Color, who would've thought that we could join each other's games now and shiny hunt together? It's just really crazy how folk, it's really crazy how far Pokemon has come from the early days.
Jess:Yes, absolutely. It is like, I remember like whenever Scarlet Violet came out, you know, like just knowing the fact that, you know, like whenever the, uh, the blueberry academy DLC dropped and people could like actually do like all the different quests together or just like really follow my mind because I was like, wait, what do you mean? You can like actually see what your friends look like and you can actually like run around with them and like catch a Pokemon and one together and all kinds of things. It's amazing to see how far technology has come.
David Hernandez:Well Jess, that's gonna be an interview, but I want to finish on a last question. It's gonna be a fun one. Okay. What six Pokemon would be on your dream team?
Jess:Oh gosh. lemme think. Popplio, Minun, Mimikyu. Crobat, Delphox, and Breloom.
David Hernandez:And thank you for listening too. As The Pokeball turns, if this story resonated with you, share the podcast with a fellow trainer and don't forget to follow us. For more voices, more journeys, and more memories. I'm David Hernandez, and remember, your next Pokemon adventure begins here.
