If you’re a ‘90s kid, you'll know that there’s a long list of things that you had back then that made your childhood memorable. Kids today won’t understand it and would probably not be able to live with the same things that you did. Luckily there are people out there who have made modern-day memes based on things from the ‘90s that’ll have you reminiscing on your past. Like landline calls, platform shoes, Power Rangers, and glow-in-the-dark stars they’ll all bring up your ‘90s nostalgia. Check some of these and see which ones hit you in the feels the hardest.
The Struggle
Did you know that Capri Sun has been around since 1969 and available in America since 1981? That is over 40 years of stabbing straws right through the juice sachet. The best part is we would all still try to get the straw into the sachet fully and hold our finger over the pierced hole at the back just to be able to drink the whole juice before throwing it away with a frustrating force.
But if this image does not take you back then did you even do the ‘90s right? Kids nowadays will not understand this the way that ‘90s kids did, and that’s a shame.
Land Line
We have life pretty easy in the 21st century, with access to individual people via their personal phones, tablets, or email. Back in the ‘90s most homes only had one corded telephone so you could only phone that phone to get hold of someone in the house. There was none of that “let me messaged my boyfriend”, you had to call the house landline and just hope it wasn’t his dad who answered first.
Sometimes, if houses had two landlines, you could hear the call going on in one if you picked up the other one, and usually, you couldn’t tell if someone was doing that.
DJ Talking
Back in the ’90s before things like Spotify, sending songs via Bluetooth or mp3’s were a thing, people had to record songs from the radio via tape recorders. You would have to wait until your favorite song came on and frantically hit record and then stop as soon as the song was over. However, if you were too late, you would probably get a snippet of the radio DJ talking at the end.
Those were the good times, especially when you would use your parent's band tapes with prerecorded songs on and overwrite them with your own radio hits. It was cool until your parent’s found out.
Those Shoes
Those ‘90s shoes will probably make today’s kids gag a little because the platform style had seemed to have been in the in-thing back then. However, if we look at it back now, what were we even thinking. The plastic ones were way worse though because plastic and sweaty feet will most definitely leave you with a few blisters. But that would not stop the girls because those shoes were the “coolest”.
Looking back at it now, girls really did have the strangest taste and no matter what sort of pain you had to go through to look good, they would still wear it.
AOL Discs
For all our older kids, BMG music club was a mail-order company which would offer music CDs for really good prices. You were able to order 12 CDs and only pay for 1. However, when AOL started out, they would send people free trial disks to pull them in. It is almost the equivalent of getting a free trial when you signup for new software, except this one you didn’t ask for.
The world truly has evolved since then, just with very modern twists. Then you had CDs posted to you, now you just pay a subscription for all the music there is.
TY Beanie Baby
Original TY Beanie Baby teddies were collectible teddy bears that a lot of ‘90s kids had. There were tons of different types of ones, like Humphrey the Camel, Peace the bear, and McDonald's even got involved and did a selection of McDonald's International bears. The only thing was, that each bear had its own tag and if the tag tore or broke off, the worth of the bear would be much less.
Today, these bears are sold for over $1000, but if the tag was damaged it would be 40% less than its worth. So yes, life would be over if one of those tags were damaged.
Pain and Agony
This square on wheels may just look like a normal thing, but honestly, if you got in the way of one of these, you would be left in tears. These gym scooters were loads of fun to use in the gym, you could roll around while sitting or lying down and just feel free. But, if you had your hands on the floor and someone flew past you, your fingers would be blue for weeks.
They were supposed to be useful for fitness, yet we are still trying to figure out how. Because all they remind the ‘90s, kids, about is the pain and agony they caused to their hands.
Tiny Pizzas
These tiny pizzas were a hit in the ‘90s. They were very common around kids because of how they marketed them in their commercials. They had a jingle that said “pizza in the morning, pizza in the evening, pizza at supper time”, basically pizza anytime because it was pizza on a bagel. But one thing they never mentioned is how it could burn your tongue off once you bite into them.
Marketing back in the ‘90s was such a different vibe, yet they didn’t care to mention the important things like “allow to cool before eating” or “blow before you bite”.
Game Boy Printer
Can you believe that printed selfies are not a new thing, they have been around for quite some time, just not the way we know them as in today's day? Back in the ‘90s, some privileged kids were able to have the Game Boy Printer which allowed you to print a picture taken on the camera via its thermal printer. It is almost like a polaroid camera but more suited for kids.
You could play a game and then take a picture of anything really, yourself, the dog, or even something a little more adult-like. We are sure some older ones feature a nude or two.
Acid
Any kid from the ‘90s knows this shampoo because everyone's mom bought this to make their kid's hair washing less painful. However, ‘90s kids will also know that “no tears” was an absolute lie, and getting this shampoo in your eyes could leave you blind for a couple of seconds. We are sure that any ‘90s kids looking at this now can automatically feel the burn in their eyes still.
This was a good effort from L'Oréal but was obviously not tested on normal kids with normal eyes because standard shampoos were most likely to hurt way less than this special one.
Rose
A smoking rose may seem like something that this century's kids would interpret differently like some might think this is a representation of Lana del Ray. But for the ‘90s kids, they would understand it and of course, this represents Seal’s song “Kiss From a Rose”. Although one might feel the song is about love from a specific person, perhaps an ex, there are talks that it is about drug use.
A lit cigarette in a rose may not seem like the best representation of a kiss from a rose, but truly, only those ‘90s kids will understand the real meaning of this one.
Oh the Cartoons
There are a few children's shows that have been remade for the 21st century, but the original ones were always the best. What kids will never understand today is that not all the cartoon shows were as available as they are today. Shows like Cybersquad, Clifford the Big Red Dog, Dragon Tales, and Arthur were amongst others that were freely available without having cable and that’s mostly all ‘90s kids could watch.
Shows like these will bring back serious childhood memories because almost all ‘90s kids would have had some sort of connection to these. Kids today are so spoilt for choice, they wouldn’t understand.
The Before Times
This meme represents how it was to live in the ‘90s perfectly and the funny thing is that at some point, today's kids have had to do this too, especially when they forget to take their phones with them to the loo. There was nothing more educational than the toilet session ‘90s kids had where they would read the back of shampoo bottles, and if a longer session, you’d read the soap bottle too.
Reading the shampoo bottle was almost more interesting than ready a magazine from the bathroom rack. No matter how many times you had to go, that bottle was always there to be reread.
Platform Sandals
Don’t take offense to this meme, because if you owned these, you are most likely at the point of life where you need to start treating those natural aging changes. Steve Madden's platform sandals were a big thing in the ‘90s. A lot of adults worse them, and kids used to steal their mom or grans pair and walk around the house in them because they had super squishy soles which kids loved the most.
If anything from the ‘90s could be shown as the poster images for the ‘90s, Steve Madden platforms should be it. Even men would feel slightly nostalgic if they saw these.
Magic Eye
Magic Eye pictures were really popular in the ‘90s. It’s actually sad that you don’t see them as much anymore. But as for this meme, it’s true, only ‘90s kids would be able to solve it. These Magic Eye pictures could be found in magazines and you always knew someone found one when the magazine was suddenly against their face and slowly pulling away until eventually it was met with an “I can see it!!”.
Life was so much simpler back in the ‘90s. Things like this would keep kids amused for quite some time. They really did have cheap and uncomplicated means of entertainment.
Original Savage
The ‘90s had some of the best movies around, ones that can still be enjoyed over and over today. The characters in a lot of the movies weren’t so harsh as a lot of them are in today's movies. This meme features a well-known scene from the movie “The Sandlot”, where “Squints” (in the glasses) pretends to be drowning in the pool so the cute lifeguard, “Wendy” can save him.
Just before her last breath to save him, he kisses her because he is actually conscious and then pulls this smug look. That’s where the saying “you little pervert” comes from.
Glow in the Dark
We’re not sure what it was with ‘90s kids, but almost all of them, mostly girls, had glow-in-the-dark stars on their ceilings. It really was something to see because it was never just one or two, it was always the full pack of 20 or 50 stars. But what would bring back nostalgia would be waking up in the middle of the night after you get smacked in the face by one of them.
As times have changed, you now get lamps that shine stars on the ceiling, so no more midnight startles from glowing stars. Just some distant memories and some great times.
Lunch
As kids, we all had our favorite snack that we enjoyed eating. And sometimes if our parents felt like spoiling us we would get something fancy in our lunchboxes. These Dunkaroo’s were those special treats that ‘90s kids would remember. They were cookies with an icing dip, and came with different cookie and dip flavors, like vanilla icing with chocolate cookies, chocolate Icing with graham cookies, or rainbow sprinkle icing with chocolate-chip graham cookies.
They may not seem like much, but for ‘90s kids these were the golden lunchbox snacks. You were too cool for school if you had these during your lunch break.
Inflatable Chairs
We’ve mentioned this before, ‘90s kids had things that seemed so simple, but really made them feel cool. Inflatable chairs were a thing, and they were not made for the pool, but for your bedroom or lounge. The advert always sold it for people and for the first few days it was great. Until the air in the chair no longer wanted to be in there and you’re left with a half-inflated plastic thing.
It was a short-lived buy, but just by saying you had one was enough because everyone has the same struggles with them. Yet, it still didn’t stop people from buying them.
Discman
The Discman was revolutionary for its time, it was like the iPod of the ‘90s except you had to put a CD in it. These were really well made, with a clip which could go onto your pants so you could dance around with your headphones and you Discman was close by. The only issue was when you jumped around too much the music playing would skip or get stuck.
But, if you could drive with your Discman and it wouldn’t skip when you drove over bumpy roads, you were just too cool for words. Thank goodness disc skipping is a thing of the past.
Pinball
Just like most things ‘90s, today's kids will really not understand the struggle of not having internet. What they will also never understand is how Space Cadet 3D pinball was the epitome of entertainment for a lot of ‘90s kids. This image brings back memories of frustration, continued effort, and complete joy when reaching a new high score. You had to hope that your finger movement and quick thinking were enough before losing the ball.
If any ‘90s kids want to have a bit of a trip down memory lane, just know that you can access the game online just by searching for it. You can thank us later.
THX
Just looking at this image makes our ears ring and we are sure that any other ‘90’s kids would experience the same. Any movie that had used “THX Ltd” for their audio and visuals had to have this short snippet presenting THX before the movie started, and if you were not expecting it, you would jump out of your skin in fright because of how loud the sound for it was.
It was so unnecessary for them to make such a statement that did nothing but deafen us. However, once you were over the terror, you knew a good movie was about to start.
Fake News
If we think about the type of fake news we get today, we would probably be reminded of which celebrities are said to have died, but haven’t, which ones are supposedly pregnant, but aren’t, and something about a new conspiracy around a virus. But back in the ‘90s, the only fake news that was known to kids was from “Vital Information with Lori Beth Denberg” on Nickelodeon, a fake information segment.
Here kids could learn about feeding worms to their brothers, responding impolitely to kind words, and the not so true about nursery rhymes. Kids are far too serious today to be able to enjoy this.
Simple Tinder
This meme reminds us how easy kids have it nowadays, with apps like Tinder or Bumble which make dating easy or allow you to just ignore someone you do not like. Back in the ‘90s, to ask someone if they like you, you wrote it on a piece of paper with the option to mark yes or no and had to pass it to them in person with the hopes of getting a yes back.
There was no way to ignore the message because it was easy enough to just say no if you didn’t like them. And even if your heart was broken, at least you weren’t ghosted.
Goals
In the ‘90s Saturday mornings would be filled with watching the group from Bayside High from “Saved by the Bell”. Zack, Kelly, Jesse, Slater, Lisa, and Screech were the cast that kept ‘90s kids urging for more. But it was Zack and Kelly that made everyone wish they had a love like theirs, especially from the most famous episode “Wedding in Las Vegas” where Kelly and Zack finally got married.
In the ‘90s people were not exposed to the imaginable love that movies portray today. Zack and Kelly had that ‘90s dream love that any ‘90s kid would have loved to have had.
Frosting
We have seen how Dunkaroos snacks were the epitome of ‘90s kids' lunchboxes but one thing ‘90s kids can also agree on is that the cookie packs never had enough dipping frosting to cover all the cookies that were in the pack. ‘90’s kids would want to smother the cookies in dip and it was not possible, your last few cookies would have to be eaten dry, like when it sticks to your pallet.
Out of the many snacks ‘90s kids had, these were probably most memorable because they were discontinued along with the memories they held. Now we left with normal cookies and homemade frosting.
The Phone Cord
Besides having to worry about your parents answering a call from a potential boyfriend or girlfriend, once you got onto the landline in the’90’s, you had the struggle of not having a long enough cord to move far away enough from your parents. Remember, back then, cellphones were not a thing for normal people and the privacy we get from cellphones today did not come along with landlines back then.
So what you thought were your private conversations were actually not so private. So your parent knew about all your love affairs and all the tea that you had to spill.
True Fear
One thing ‘90s kids loved to do was collect posters from magazines or books and stick them straight onto the wall along with the other 12 posters already on the wall. Girls like to add posters or their favorite artists or bands and guys would add pictures of bands and hot girls. But there was nothing worse than being woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of a fallen poster.
You would think that hard paper wouldn’t make a sound, but any ‘90s kid will tell you that it does. It’s like a loud cracking that will awaken you from the deepest of sleep.
Lit
When the Disney Channel launched back in the ‘90s, it opened a whole new world for ‘90s kids to enjoy. The original Disney Channel had some of the best shows and movies. That is why when this short snippet of kids jumping around the movie tape came up, ‘90s kids knew that something great was about to come on for them to enjoy for the next hour and a half.
Disney Channel was such a treat for the ‘90s kids. Today, kids will never understand how lucky they are to have the choice of movies and shows that they do have.
Texting
Writing letters was not only for the 1800s, it was quite a big thing in the ‘90s too, especially between friends in school. The letters were never just short notes, they were usually 2-3 pages long and folded into cute triangles like this, which we know today's kids won’t even know how to do. We are sure that ‘90s kids have a collection of these triangle letter packs sitting in a memory box somewhere.
Because texting was not around just yet, this was as close as ‘90s kids could get to it, although we do not text 2-3 pages long today… at least most of us don’t.
Power Rangers
Power Rangers made their debut in the ‘90s and were a huge hit. If you did not have one Power Ranger you wanted to be and tried to reenact, then were you really a ‘90s kid?. But as we grow up and want to keep those childlike feelings, we are not surprised to see someone dressed as a Power Ranger on their bike as an adult becoming a meme for all ‘90s kids to enjoy.
Power Rangers should have been the mascots for ‘90s kids because it was rare to find someone who did not enjoy them or have one they longed to pretend to be.
Cynthia
The original ‘90s Rugrats series was one of the best shows that kids could enjoy from Nickelodeon’s channel. The world viewed from a toddler's eyes made great viewing for kids because it was somewhat relatable. But one character that was underestimated was Cynthia, Angelica’s doll who was thrown around and completely mishandled, but she made it through all of it like the tough doll she was, like how ‘90s kids made it through the ‘90s.
The latest remake of Rugrats in 2021 is nothing like the original TV series and would probably not be enjoyed as much as the original one was by ‘90s kids.
Blockbuster
Going way back into the ‘90s the struggle was real when wanting to rent movies to watch at home. VHS tapes were available long before DVDs, and now those are slowly fading away too as streaming services take over. However, when you rented a VHS tape, you had to rewind all the way back to the beginning for the next person to watch from the start, there was no automatic “play from beginning” options.
There was no frustration like that of getting ready to watch a rented movie and you had to sit for 15min while the whole movie rewound in front of your eyes.
Toys
However hilarious this meme is, it is sadly true that this is how obsessed some ‘90s kids were with the Power Rangers. This collection probably belongs to the same guy we saw above in the green Power Rangers suit. In the ‘90s if you had any Power Rangers figurines, collectibles, or costumes, you were just the coolest person around and girls would most likely be swooning over you and your Power Ranger things.
We don’t think people today will understand the impact Power Rangers made on ‘90s kids. It won’t make girls swoon over you today, but it would bring nostalgia back for the ‘90s kids.
That Drawing
Literally, every ‘90s kid drew this S on their notepads, books, letters, desks, walls… you name it. One thing is true, no one knows what it actually means or where it came from and we are pretty sure that only ‘90s kids still know how to draw it. However, we do know now that it has a few names which it has gained over the years from people calling it what they think it is.
“Super S”, “Superman S”, “Pointy S”, “Middle School S”, “Graffiti S”, and so many more are just some of the names people came up with for this strange S born in the ‘90s.