What It Meant To Be A Tween Girl In The Late 90s / Early 2000s

We were the generation that pioneered this "tween" thing.

Let's set the mood with some background music:

Now let's enter the time vortex and travel back to the 90s!

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(Oh wait... that's just my screensaver...)

First order of business: you regarded the Mary-kate and Ashley fan club box as a sacred vessel, and used it to store your most private personal possessions...

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...like your Mary-kate and Ashley mood diary...

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...the MASH game that verified without a shred of doubt that Justin Timberlake was your soulmate...

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(not that you needed a silly piece of paper to confirm what you already knew in your heart)

...and probably one of these conduits of absolute truth.

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The only 30-second experience to ever leave you satisfied came from one of these bad boys:

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(and your keyring carried more Hit Clips cartridges than actual keys).

Limited Too was Mecca...

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...and you insisted on making the pilgrimage every weekend.

Particularly when you needed a crop top or some cutoff overalls to match your platform backless Keds.

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The Bath & Body Works "Art Stuff" collection just made sense.

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You didn't even question what it had to do with "art," you just wanted more glitter.

You liked to coordinate your glitter body splash with your Lip Smackers...

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...and your were totally P.O.'d that your mom wouldn't let you *send away* to join the Lip Smackers Color Club. (Parents just don't understand.)

Wearing tinted Lip Lix made you feel like a super mature teenager.

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(Let's be honest: Lip Lix is probably to blame for your coffee addiction.)

The week the Scholastic Book Fair came to your school was the highlight of the school year.

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(And you were always super jealous of the kids that got to shop the fair with a blank check from their parents.)

Reading The Babysitter's Club inspired you to start your own small business / mystery solving empire, as soon as you were old enough to babysit...

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In the meantime, you'd just practice by taking care of your many Tamagotchis.

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Magazines taught you everything you needed to know about clothes, celebs and boys...

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...and there was no great life question that couldn't be answered with a quiz!

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*h0w cAn hE KiSs mE uNdEr tHe MiStLEt0E wHeN hE dOeSn'T eVeN kNo i eXiSt?!*

You were super excited to have your very own website...

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(probably on gURLpages or Angelfire...)

...which was either all about the Olsen twins...

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(but could never be as cool as Angela's Olsen Fan website)

...or show-casing all of your cartoon dollz

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You learned a lot about modern dating from the AOL chatrooms.

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bEEcHBl0Nd3xX: A/S/L?

h0t_HuNK69: 18/m/california, add me on aim?

Speaking of AIM, your Buddy List was THE social hub...

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...and you never left your computer without setting a super sassy Away Message.

AIM Away Message: Can't IM, taking the Twist quiz in my fuzzy green butterfly chair.

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Real life.

The Sims helped you envision your future...

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(having lots of babies with Justin Timberlake, before perishing in a tragic swimming pool accident and / or kitchen fire)

...but you never fully understood what "vibrating" meant

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(...and were too afraid of having your computer privileges revoked to ask your mom.)

You were destined to be the 8th member of the S Club 7...

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...and this would become apparent to the powers-that-be, just as soon as you were old enough to move to Miami and pursue a career as a hotel singer.

Getting a dELiA*s or Alloy catalogue in the mail was tantamount to Christmas morning...

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...and you vowed to save all your lunch money and allowance to buy a really cool baby blue halter sundress with white platform slip-on sandals (even though you were probably still too young to fit in them).

You most definitely wore one of these...

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...with the matching bicep bracelet and anklet, duh.

The 90s were a really tough time for figuring out what mood you were in.

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Luckily you had one of these handy rings to help you tell the difference between amorous and angry. (How did people even understand their innermost feelings before mood rings?!)

The Polaroid i-zone was pretty much your Instagram...

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...and you stuck these sticker strips on everything.

Like any 90s tween DIYer, you knew your craft kit only needed two things:

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Pony beads and embroidery floss. BRB, making friendship bracelet.

The original Disney Channel Original movies were, like, the movie event of the season...

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...especially when they came on after a marathon of one of your favorite shows!

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(Seriously, how much did you want a twin sister in the 90s?!)

You probably didn't know it then, but the late 90s / early 00s were the best years to be a tween!

Nobody expected us to grow up too fast or have YouTube channels or cellphones... we were perfectly safe being inbetweeners with our watermelon glitter lip gloss and slumber parties and trips to the mall. This is what it meant to grow up at the turn of the millennium; the first and last generation to truly be regarded as tweens.