I think for many people, characters are some of the first things they start out drawing. I remember recording episodes of Pokémon on VHS and pausing the TV so I could draw the characters exactly as I saw them, and I got pretty good at mimicking style and shapes early on. Because of this, it was one of the few things I felt like I was good at when I got to art school, and naturally just wanted to pursue it because it felt easy.
"When I learned more about what it took to be a character designer for real I still enjoyed it, but found it more challenging. You have to create an appealing drawing, yes, but you also have to find visual shortcuts to tell the audience as much as you can about that character before they even speak. It's much harder than it looks, and I still have a lot to learn.