I'm 24. Got into photography one summer back in high school, when I took full control of my family's favored point-and-shoot at that time - a Kodak Advantix camera. It just snowballed from there, and it also helped that I got into film school in college, though most of what I know in photography I learned from the internet (I basically had a lazy professor, haha).
Pentax, I got to know about the company and history when I got more into photography. I always enjoyed reading history and stuff. First foray to digital was a borrowed Toshiba from my sister (with the now-defunct SmartMedia cards). First digital was a 300D (arguably a legendary camera in retrospect), though, just because it was the cheapest at the time, and Pentax only had the *ist D at that time, which was too expensive for me.
When I wanted to upgrade, though, luckily I didn't buy any other lens for the 300D, so it was easier to go another direction. I ended up with Pentax. I flirted with other camera brands, but found the value-for-money with Pentax.