Coming of age in the late '90s, early 2000s was wild. I'm talking dial-up internet days, — pre-Myspace — when MTV still played a fair amount of music videos, we ordered our clothes from physical catalogs, and collaged our bedroom walls with pages from Seventeen magazine. It's an era I've been thinking about a lot lately, thanks to the proliferation of nostalgia-centric content creators on Instagram (and TikTok, which I don't use). These 30-something women have carved out space for themselves by reminding fellow millennials of our cringeworthy choices in fashion, beauty and other tween/teen rites of passing, from layered tank tops to what it was like to have a job at one of the hottest mall brands of yesteryear. If you're in the same demographic as us, consider giving these four hilarious ladies a follow.
@isabelgalv
With her signature makeup look of foundation that's six shades too dark, concealer-covered "nude" lips, and racoon eyeliner, paired with the reveal of her poorly blended, clip-in hair extensions each time she turns away, Isabel Galvin's teenage persona is only slightly exaggerated. Many girls really did try to look something like this in 2003, 2005. Galvin's getting-ready reels recap our generation's most sought-after fashion trends like layered, popped collar polo shirts, "statement" belts, and our deep attachment to "comfort camis." (If you know, you know.) After spending our entire teenhood wearing at least two tunic-length tanks under our skin-tight Abercrombie/Aeropostale/American Eagle graphic tees, how can we be expected to stop?
@itskatesteinberg
Out of all the millennial nostalgia content creators, Kate Steinberg hits closest to home. You see, during breaks from college, I worked part time at Victoria's Secret in NorthTown Mall. It was when the Pink loungewear line had a hold on so many of us with its ubiquitous, flare-leg yoga pants with the blinged-out, foldover waistbands. We all drenched ourselves in Love Spell body spray, decorated our dorms with the free-with-purchase polka dotted dogs, and tucked said yoga pants into the tops of our folded down Ugg boots. Among the many moments relived by Steinberg are "sexy" tanning bed stickers, the actual stress of $1 flip-flop season at Old Navy, wearing Bump Its in our already over-teased hair, getting our makeup done at Sephora before prom, and how we still feel burned by snooty Plato's Closet employees telling us our clothes are "a little out of style."
@overthemoonfaraway
OK kids, let me tell you a story about what it was like before text messaging... before cellphones... before Facebook. We had a thing called AOL Instant Messenger, AIM for short, and it's how we mustered up the nerve to talk to our crushes, but also total randos in unmoderated chat rooms. Our screen names had to be EdgY and cute, like xxXCutiePie23Xxx, and we'd spend hours online after school until our sisters intentionally left the phone off the hook to disconnect us. Amid the gut-punching fashion and beauty nostalgia from Erin Miller, these social replays of early 2000s life for tweens/teens always send me back. The disappointment of your high school boyfriend not getting you anything for Valentine's Day? Crushing. Uploading an entire Facebook album (or two) of photos from last night's party, taken on a pocket-sized digital camera? Oooff. We really did that.
@jennaabarclay
Even though many of us were gladly out of high school, maybe even college, by the time the 2010s hit, Jenna Barclay isn't going to let us forget about the awful fashion trends we became captive to as newly turned, 21-year-old "professionals." Barclay's content also goes as far back as millennials' middle-school years, but I'm not ready, and never will be, to be reminded that the hipster girl fashion era — our obsession with those Southwestern-inspired, geometric pattern sweaters, pendant statement necklaces and wearing business-casual fashion to the club — was more than 10 years ago. Then she takes us along on a Target run to prove what goes around always comes back around... And that none of us are prepared for the return of Y2K fashion, which is now considered vintage. ♦
