goals of your average 90’s teenager
August 29th, 2013 @ 12:26 pm
back in the early 1990’s, my BFF cousin marie and i were always trying to be cool/older than we were… i titled this “goals of your average 90’s teenager” because the desires/goals of your average teens/tweens back then are so different from now. i blame it mostly on technology.
i remember growing up wanting/looking forward to my own private bedroom phone line, a tv/VCR in my room, my own stereo, a perm (i never did this), a beeper, a scanner, my own computer, my own AOL account… now, i don’t even know what they long for. their own ipads? iphones? ombre hair? either way, on the technological side, all 5 things i longed for can now be found in ONE device.
i feel like my generation had it weird/lucky. we had such a major technological crossover in the mid/late 90’s that the newer generations will never experience, and we appreciate the technology as it evolved. i mean, sure someday we may have floating cars… BUT, will our cars of today feel like the rotary phones of yesterday? iiiiiiiiiii don’t know about that.
my friend amy and i were discussing pagers/beepers as of last night, and how back when we were tweens, it was SOOOOOOO imperative that we have them. back when i had mine, i had to BEGGGG for it. i guess the monthly cost must have been like $10-$20 a month before the $1.99 smartbeep franchise came along. at the same time that i had my beeper (with all like, five people that would even page me, one being my mother), i also always had my magic diary in tow.
it’s sort of funny how we were back then as 13/14 yr olds compared to the ones that exist now.
when i think back to these times… here’s a list of what were my steeze (no really, this shit was SO cool), the important things that made me, me (i’d probably be bullied if i were these things as a fresh teenager, NOW).
jessica leigh – circa 1994/1995:
- “floating” lion king disney pens: there was scenery from the movie and a character that would float in water/oil whatever it was from left to right. back then, anything/everything lion king was a MUST. in fact, so many disney things were a must back then. anything winnie the pooh was also very important (lol).
- my colombia bugagoo jacket (obv. not man’s size, but these were the same colours)
- my purple jansport bookbag, complete with white-out paws and band-aids on the straps
- my composition notebook diaries: inspired by my mother’s friend leo. back in the 70’s, leo had so many friends come over to his house, that he started these books that he would have everyone sign. visitor#/name/date/a little note? i guess it seems a little crazy, but also pretty darn cool. i used to look through them for HOURS. there would be drawings and memories, etc. anyways, he always told me to do things like that, so that we could keep memories. so i started something like that when i was 13. it turned into a diary vs. memory/scrapbook. either way, it’s pretty entertaining to read now. there are even notes that were passed back and forth between junior high friends and myself, that when i read them, i just facepalm.
- brown lipstick/lip-liner
- pleated plaid skirts from rainbow (pre-ratchet clothing days, and VERY clueless inspired)
- my magic diary: i had my classmates info in there – even people i would NEVER call, just so i could create their faces digitally. it was also the first instance of text messaging in my life, as if there was another magic diary in the room, magic lasers would connect you and a friend. i had two of them, the first one you couldn’t do that with, but my SUPER magic diary you could. anyways, always in tow.
- lisa frank: unicorns, the painting panda, the masquerade masks, the penguins/polar bear, the gumball machines… need i say more? look at the lips in my header, i’m still not over it.
- these looney tunes stationary things from CVS. pencils, tins, erasers, etc. i was all about daffy, yosemite sam, sylvester and marvin the martian.
- my slip-on sunflower keds (was i 45? wtf?)
- my olive/purple nike ACG hiking boots
- crunchy hair
- leotards that snapped closed at the crotch
- cd’s always on deck: the offspring: smash, green day: dookie, STP: purple, aerosmith: big ones, nirvana: nevermind (it was really my mom’s, but whatever.), weezer: the blue album, soundtrack: empire records, wu-tang: enter the wu-tang: 36 chambers