I love trading cards and have since I was a kid. This will probably date me but I began collecting trading cards with baseball cards (huge Boston Red Sox fan) then Star Wars cards and Superman cards. Those would be the original versions of the films from 1977 and 1978 respectively. In other words I am an old-timey trading card collector.

I collected many different cards over the years, never losing my fascination with them. I started to play Magic: The Gathering some time ago and that got me collecting cards again. From there I collected Neopets trading cards, then Webkinz, got into the trading cards (and game) for World of Warcraft (many cool series with incredible art) and finally my favorite, the Free Realms card game, which I got into last spring and have been playing non-stop.

Except for Neopets and Webkinz most trading cards are made with males (boys, guys, whateveh) in mind. Neopets and Webkinz cards are probably purchased by more girls but they are in general for kids and tweens, non-gender specific.

When I found out about Bella Sara, trading cards for girls – the first ever made for a female demographic – I couldn’t wait to check it out.

Hidden City Games, run by Peter Adkison, the founder of Wizards of the Coast (a company that made trading card games popular again through Magic: The Gathering and the kawaii little Pokémon cards) got together with Danish social worker and avid horse fan Gitte Braendgaard and Poul Villadsen,who had created a series of trading cards called Bella Sara. Gitte was inspired to create Bella Sara during her tenure as a social worker, caring for the disabled. In line with the focus of her former career, Bella Sara features socially conscious, positive messages and imagination-building game play, designed to uplift girls. The trading cards for girls depict beautiful, mystical and magical horses. Gitte named the series after her daughter, a horse lover named Sara, who became the Goddess of Horses in the magical land called North of North (sounds a bit like Denmark, to me).

I found out all about the cards through their interactive website bellasara.com that has online mini-games, horses to play with (groom, feed, love), a cottage to decorate and now soon to be unveiled online adventures with avatars and quests. It is an entire world of delights aimed at girls but enjoyed by females of all ages.

The cards are a marvel. They also have plushies. board games, novels, card folios, special tins with cards and stickers, an awesome huge sticker book and sweet little fuzzy miniature horses that you can collect too.

The artwork is spectacular ranging from high fantasy to magical faerie to kawaii. The mini-games are fun and easy to play – you can zen out on them.The games are similar to sites like Neopets and Webkinz. Everything online is free, there are no ads and it is a safe and secure environment for young girls to play in.

You can purchase the card packs (they are $2.99 per pack and you get 5 random trading cards plus temporary tattoos and a sticker and a Bella Sara horseshoe card which unlocks all kinds of goodies online) at stores like Walmart, as well as online through Bella Sara and on ebay too.

I’ve been enjoying the beta-testing of the new online adventures that Bella Sara will be offering soon. These new trading cards have already inspired other cards geared toward girls with The Littlest Pet Shop trading cards and new online destination. I hope to see this continue to be a boon for cards because they promote friendships, community, collecting and spark intelligent game-play too.

Plus I am a sucker for trading cards, stickers and goofy online mini-games.