Chris Wahl
Ah, the good ol’ days, when we all thought frosted tips were the peak of fashion and having a room full of Beanie Babies was considered an investment strategy.
Millennials, let’s take a trip back in time and laugh a little at ourselves. Remember planking in the most ridiculous places just for kicks?
Or how about when we couldn’t stop doing the Harlem Shake at every opportunity — yes, even at grandma’s birthday party? It’s hard not to cringe, but hey, those were the days, right?
Join me as we revel in the past with some help from the subreddit r/Millennials where folks share their fun and outright bizarre fads we couldn’t get enough of.
1. Puka shell necklaces or spiky hair probably.
2. JNCO jeans. My largest pair had a 69 inch wide leg. I won an award for having the largest pant legs ever.
3. Weird pointless asymmetry being the only cool way to wear anything. Wearing your backpack on one shoulder only instead of both because that’s for nerds (my poor back!). Wearing your belt with the buckle waaay off to the side. Side bangs. Side ponytails. Baseball cap backwards and off-center.
4. I have a tribal tramp stamp and waxed my eyebrows so thin they’ve never been the same. Good times.
5. The trucker hats that Ashton Kutcher made famous.
6. My mom really got into McDonald’s mini TY Beanie Babies. I helped with her collection.
7. Gaucho pants and those wide circle belts ?.
8. All the band buttons on my corduroy vans bag. I recently found it 20 years later and it’s such an artifact.
9. Two polos…with both collars popped. I’m ashamed. ??♂️.
10. I planked at the summit of Mt kilimanjaro in 2011 when it was cool. Unfortunately it’s the only photo of me at the summit.
11. Those plastic choker necklaces and chunky highlights.
12. Frosted boy band tips. I’m not proud.
13. Posting albums with hundreds of photos on Facebook. Here’s every millisecond of the past weekend everyone! Enjoy!
14. Getting my belly button pierced ?♀️ my mom was right that the hole never goes away.
15. Jeans under dresses ?.
16. Jeans so long the bottoms were just tatters. Was a weird matter of pride how destroyed your pants were.
17. Lace-up low-rise pants. There is a picture of 16-year-old me wearing jeans with an orange lace-up fly that I modified myself, and it is terrible. I thought I was so cute ugh.
18. The long sleeve shirt under the short sleeve shirt look ?.
19. The body glitter fad.
20. Whale tail: where your thong was visible above the waistband of your low-rise jeans.
21. Skater aesthetic despite not being able to skateboard whatsoever ? I was obsessed with Blink-182 and pop punk and wore mostly brands like Hurley, Vans, Quicksilver and wanted my mom to buy my clothes from Pac Sun and Hot Topic. The “t-shirt over a long-sleeve shirt,” puka shell necklaces, and studded and seatbelt belts were frequent parts of my wardrobe. What I really wanted was a “skater” boyfriend. I lived in fear of being called a “poser.”.
22. Facebook statuses being song lyrics about your mood. Basically we went from moody away messages, moody MySpace post, to moody Facebook post.
23. Sweat bands on the wrist, the chain wallet, and safety pins everywhere.
24. Those shiny button down shirts in bright colors like lime green that everyone wore for a while. Frosted tips. Those bowling shirts with flames on them. There was a time when I was for all intents and purposes, Guy Fieri.
25. I remember when bib overalls were fashionable but you were lame if you actually fastened both straps. I remember my grandma calling it hillbilly air conditioning.
26. TYpiNg lyke DiS. What was I thinking? Thank goodness there’s no records of my communications from high school.
