When I was really young I was convinced that I had a huge pet grizzly bear (and a wolf but that's another story).

I told everyone that would listen all about the bear (that lived in a tall shed on top of the hill near my house).

When they asked I'd show them the bear by holding out one hand and pointing into the palm of that hand with the other hand saying 'look, it's there, in my hand'.

Even I don't understand.

Stephen

Until I was 5 or 6 I had 6 imaginary monkeys who went everywhere with me. Some days my Grandad took me to nursey school by bus. My Mum would wait with us at the bus stop and then cringe with embarrassment as she had to lift each monkey onto the bus with me, and I counted them on! One day my uncle was driving me to nursery school. As he got into the drivers seat I screamed. He quickly ran round to my door and opened it, thinking he must have closed my finger in the door. I can still see his face when I told him I was ok but he had locked all my monkeys out!!

Marina

When I was around two or three, I had an imaginary racoon called Marshmallow Marshmallow. The local children's library has different events every Summer, and I remember that one of my favorites was the Stuffed Animal Pet Show, which was meant for very young children, or those who had no pets. Despite the fact that I had a multitude of stuffed animals, I insisted on entering Marshmallow Marshmallow. Evidently the fact he was a real racoon, not a stuffed animal, didn't bother me.

I won the 'Most Imaginitive' category.

Mariel

My parents used to tape record me talking and singing. When I heard the girl on the tape talking back to me, I was sure there was another me in the tape recorder! Despite my parents best efforts to convince me otherwise, I have a tape of myself whispering, "I know you're in there. I'm going to press rewind and listen to you talk now."

Anon

When I was four, I would hold my hand close to my face, flat and facing up so I could talk to it. But that's only what other people saw--I was really talking to Bowser the white mouse.

Kendra

when i was six i had and imaginary friend named mr. lipstick man and he was a little spider who lived in the keyhole of my front door. he wore a top hat and had big red lips. i spent hours sitting three inches away from the lock talking to him and his brother.
his brother was mr. robin face, the miniature bird who lived in my mailbox.

Sylvie

When I was very little I had 4 or 5 imaginary friends. My mom told me a few years ago she used to worry about me, because I would change my voice and pretend to have conversations with them - with me speaking for them. :)

The only one I remember clearly is Goldilocks. She loved to cut off people's heads and eat them with catsup and mustard.

When my older brother and sister would pick on me I would threaten to call my imaginary friends if they didn't treat me better. They always just laughed...

Sarah

This is my experience with my daughter's imaginary friends. She had three main imaginary friends : Meanie...mutagenic bat/rat/boy with an attitude problem, Gogonagi...a giant six foot long rat....and Silly Beaver...a tree eating rodent. What upset me most was my daughter would wack herself on the head over and over saying.." Get out of there ! Get out of there !" ...when i asked what was going on she would say " That silly Beaver jumped into my brain again!!"....
I never really got any kind of explaination from her as to how this all happened or came from or meant.
I would sort of bite my lip and hope that it didnt mean she was truly crazy or possessed or anything...so far she seems to be ok for a teenager.

vitus the mad

My imaginary friend was called Swacky Boom, who was a sort of elf-like guy usually fond hovering cross-legged at ceiling level in the corner of the room.

He liked his tea stirred a special way, in ever decreasing circles, then in a cross pattern.

Dunno where Swacky is now, but I hope he is still enjoying his cups of tea.

Aldo

I used to have an imaginary friend named Laura who hailed from the 1800's. I spent most afternoons after school showing her the modern world and especially how to ride a bicycle! She never did master that!

Laura's friend

I used to have 3 imaginary friends- 1 girl(Ashley) and 2 boys(Peter and Jon).
The girl didn't like me, because they were girls and I didn't think girl liked girls (catty-factory I guess) So we always got into fights.
Peter didn't like me because Ashley was prettier and Jon was always talking to me about liking Peter. Then, one day Ashley and I got in a fist fight and I actually came out of it with bruises (god knows how...)
After that, they all left.

Black-eyed Rose

When I was very small, I conjured myself an imaginary friend whom I named Rufus (though I've no idea why). I never told ANYONE about him, he would always ask me not to, I always thought he seemed really frightened at the prospect of anyone other than me knowing of him. Rufus was always changing his age, he was the same guy all the time, just at different stages of his life. He would be a tiny kid, same age as me wanting to play in the dirt and tell me silly stories about horrid things that REALLY lived in wombat holes, or a teenage kid who knew all about cricket and always watched me play, or this kind of 20-30 something scrawny adult, scruffy, unshaven, dishevelled - but who knew EVERYTHING and looked after me whenever I was scared of something. Very occasionally he would appear as an extremely old guy who had lived so long that any questions I had about dragons were adequately answered due to his first hand knowledge of this 'ancient species'.

I did have a sister so I can't really claim him as a sibling substitute, and really have no idea what part of my mind decided I needed an imaginary friend, but I loved Rufus dearly and even once I knew he really didn't exist I kept on pretending, just to cling on so he wouldn't be a complete non-entity (as I assumed he would be if I let him slip into obscurity.) I'm nearly 19 now and I still bring him out and dust him off every now and then just to make sure he still lives (And, I think because it has become psychologically reassuring)

RRR

When our oldest boy was 5, we bought him a bow-tie, in a brown paper bag, for his first school concert, but his little brother cried because he'd missed out on a present.
In a moment of desperation, we told him, "There's no need to cry, your present is still in the bag."
Of course, the bag was empty, but we told him that only Mommies and Daddies could see the little Fresh-Air inside.
Well, we had that little Fresh-Air doing somersaults, jumping in and out of the bag and all sorts of circus tricks.
He carried that crumpled little brown paper bag around for months, showing it to envious friends and to grown-ups with looks of barely strangled laughter on their faces. We had to warn family in advance that the Fresh-Air was being brought for a visit.
Things came to a head 6 months later when he realised that nobody was feeding the Fresh-Air.
We told him, "He's eating the inside of the paper bag"...
"But there's no holes in the bag", said he, triumphantly...
"But it only eats the inside of the bag", we shot back...
That bought us another couple of weeks. He swears blind now that he twigged it straightaway.
We all know different...

Biggles

The maple tree in my yard was my "boyfriend". One day we had a tearful breakup because I told it/him, "I can't see you anymore, I'm in love with the apple tree!" Well, those trees were better men than any around here.

Eronwyn

I used to believe that we were all just part of Alvin the Chipmunk's dream. I constantly tip toed around the house because I thought if I woke him up, "the end" would come and would fulfill the prophecy. (My parents were religous freaks.)

Bethany

I used to believe that everything in my room was alive. I thought they'd come to life once I left the room. I couldn't figure out why I could never catch them while they were moving, even if I snuck up to my room. How could they know I was coming? Then it hit me. The carpets must have told them I was coming. I tried to wager with the carpets. "Just let me see if they're moving and I'll vacume you...please?" And when that didn't work, I just barged into my room and yelled at everything. "I know you're alive, so you might as well not hide it anymore. C'mon, I won't tell anyone! I promise!"

EmAufder

I used to believe that any person or animal that I drew might come alive and get angry at me (for drawing it badly?) Somehow, I alleviated my worry by always drawing the mouth second-to-last (so that it couldn't complain) and the eyes last (so that it couldn't see what I was doing until the last possible second).

Anon

I used to believe that the reflection in my bathroom mirror was named "Reflectia" and lived in a another world. I'd have conversations with her, thinking this really wasn't strange at all. There was also a girl in the medicine cabinet mirror, but she was mean.

Seven

I used to believe that when I went to the toilet, the things in the room would come alive and talk to me. For example, the shower curtain was a REALLY fussy lady called Fiona who was obsessed with cleaning, the football loving Craig the toilet roll holder and David the gay toilet seat who didn't mind me sitting on his face. I would literally spend HOURS talking to all of them. I was a wierd kid...

Mrs Tre Cool

I once had an upper floor bedroom that had a great view of the sky and I wished to leave earth to sail around the stars and planets. I used to stash coins under the carpet by the window, so that the pirates from space would see that I was good at hiding money and come to take me along with them.

Ghostibelle