Hello, ‘90s kids! Whether
you were born in this decade or just remember it well, you may have noticed
that the 90s are all the rage again. Full House has returned. We’re tying our shirts around our waists
(Hey Arnold!) and sporting black purse/backpacks (Clueless). The darker lip is
back (remember episode one of Dawson’s
Creek?), NSYNC and The Backstreet Boys are on our playlists, and we’re
spending money like it’ll never run out.
It’s nostalgic! It’s fun! It’s a happy memory of
cell-phone-free, Fruit Rollupy childhood days.
It’s Allllll That!
All this 90s nostalgia got me thinking. What did I learn from the 90s? How did that decade fashion me into the adult I
am today? The 90s were pre-911. In our boxier cars and on
our corded phones, we felt safe and anticipated our Jetsons-like lifestyles just on the other side of 2000.
We were all hope and glitter and neon as we rocketed toward the millennium's finale, and our TV sets recorded our brilliance.
For me, a lot of the 90s was about TV. Before and after school every day, I watched the
Disney Channel, Cartoon Network, and Nickelodeon like it was my job. There was a rough patch when
the OJ Simpson trial was on and my mother monopolized the only TV in the
house. But once OJ was acquitted, I was
back in front of the screen. I’d watch The Magic School Bus and Bill Nye the Science Guy, which taught me more about science than any elementary school class. Then there were
the simple adventure stories like Tail
Spin and Duck Tales (woo oo!). I also loved Captain Planet, Hey Arnold!,
Recess (those evil Ashleys in their
tire tower!), and Sailor Moon.
Forgive me, but I must pause at Sailor
Moon. I know that show
wasn’t everyone’s favorite, but it is an 80s/90s cult classic. Sailor
Moon gave me and many other girls something special: a show about girls
kicking ass and looking good doing it. It may also have given us unrealistic expectations. We dreamt of a masked man in a tuxedo rescuing us from danger. We wanted to be sailor
scouts with communicator watches and eyeglass
computers (uh, those are real now) fighting evil in high heels. We planned to be
the bravest, smartest, best-dressed heroines Tokyo and the world had ever seen, and
we'd “Moon Crystal Power!” those villains into the vortex for
good.
These plans were fantasy, but there was one realistic hope that Sailor Moon inspired when no other show
did. Sailor
Moon showed us that friendship came first. Even though the scouts found each other annoying, unreasonable, or spoiled and stupid, they became the constants in each other’s lives. When they weren’t fighting the bad guys,
they faced flunked classes, bad hair days, lost jobs, family illnesses, and broken
hearts. Unlike the masked heroes
that came and went, their friendship remained.
From watching this, many of us learned that success wasn’t having super powers
or a handsome partner; it was having nutty but loyal friends.
I haven’t found a show in the new millennium that models friendship like Sailor Moon did. Gossip Girl (2007 to 2012) is fraught with best friends betraying
each other, elevating their personal goals above their families, partners, reputations, and friends.
Pretty Little Liars (2010 to 2017) follows a similar narrative track, and The Vampire Diaries (2009 to 2017) is, well, just the supernatural version of the other two.
Although the 90s shows I described are more
child/teenager-based than Gossip Girl and its ilk, I think 90s kids were taught about
friendship, learning, and the environment more effectively than kids today. Maybe it was the safety of the 90s, the
plenty of it, but we learned things like “Dream Big!” (on every poster at
school), “The Power is Yours!” (Captain
Planet), and to "take chances, make mistakes, and get messy!" (Magic School Bus).
We 90s kids are still
all about that. We prefer the clever world play and absurd humor of Kenan & Kel, the loud librarian, and Principal Pimpel from All That. We slam dunk our dreams like Bugs Bunny on Space Jam, and we shoot for
relationships as loving and loyal as that of Corey and Topanga on Boy Meets World. We may still dream of
Tuxedo Mask, but we know when we’ve found a good group of friends and won’t give
them up for anything. We face danger like contestants on Legends of the Hidden
Temple. We recycle and reuse like it’s
our jobs because Captain Planet told us it was.
Wishbone inspired us to lose ourselves in a great book and is the basis for most of our literary knowledge.
And now we travel the world, hungry for adventure, trying to find that damned
Carmen Sandiego; where in the world is she???
We may have said goodbye to our Tamagotchis, may they rest in peace, and our VHSs, but we're still those 90s kids. We’re just playing at adulthood, and we're rocking it! Think of it this
way: an adult is not a kid who dies; an adult is a kid who survives. So, 90s kids, live it up! Recall the good old days of better Disney movies, Super Mario, and the first Harry Potter books, and tell me how the 90s inspired you to change the world.
Best wishes,
The Super Spinster
