How old was Nellie Oleson(Alison Arngrim) when the TV show was first aired in 1974?

Alison Arngrim is most famous for playing Nellie Oleson on Little House on the Prairie. Mary and Laura Ingalls were terrorized by Arngrim's character (played by Melissa Sue Anderson and Melissa Gilbert). Here's how old Arngrim was when she played Nellie on the Little House series.

 Even though some fans can't stop thinking about Arngrim's Little House on the Prairie character, she says she's glad to have played her. In her book, Confessions of a Prairie B****, Arngrim writes that being in the series gave her the life she had always wanted. Arngrim says being in the series helped her "put food on the table, clothes on my back, and a roof over my head."

 Nellie Oleson may have been one of the most hated TV characters in America, but Arngrim says she wouldn't be where she is now without her. How old was Alison Arngrim when she started playing Nellie Oleson? From 1974 to 1982, Arngrim acted as Nellie Oleson. 

When Little House on the Prairie started airing on March 30, 1974, she was 12 years old. Arngrim says she was tiny for her age. She says that when she was younger, she weighed about 20 pounds less than what was normal for someone her age. Melissa Gilbert, who played Arngrim's co-star, was only 9 when the series started.

 Arngrim joked that Gilbert was so small that she probably could have fit in her purse. She also joked that the actress who played Laura Ingalls could probably "chew her way out" of the purse because she had such big teeth back then. Alison Arngrim and Melissa Gilbert grew close.

Even though Arngrim and Gilbert played enemies on TV, they were very close friends off camera. Arngrim says Gilbert is like her "baby sister." The actors became so close that they talked about tampons.

 Gilbert says that Arngrim taught her all about the feminine hygiene product and how to use it. Gilbert says in her book Prairie Tale that her mother never explained what tampons were for. She says that someone told her that they were used to apply makeup.

 "My mother never told me how things work," Gilbert writes in her autobiography. "When I was 10, I found a box of tampons under the sink in her bathroom. When I asked what they were for, she said they were for putting on makeup."

Arngrim says that Gilbert was always looking out for her. She showed her how the Little House on the Prairie set worked and who she could trust. When Arngrim first met Gilbert, the young star warned her about her co-star, Melissa Sue Anderson. 

Gilbert told her Anderson was "evil," so she hated her. Arngrim didn't think that a girl who looked so sweet could be bad, so she gave her the benefit of the doubt. But Arngrim says that Anderson "threatened" her in a conversation.