5 things I'd bring back from the 90s

and one thing I'd leave behind

Friends,

I’ve only gone and been on another podcast! I know. Two in the same month. Must be careful not to oversaturate the media.

This time I was asked to be a test subject for a new strand on one of my fave shows, It’ll be Alright in the 90s. This new strand is a kind of ‘time capsule’ concept where the guest talks about a selection of things they’d bring back from the 90s and one thing they would happily leave behind.

When I got the invite, I immediately said YES. Totally up my street. We arranged the recording date and I started to think about what my choices might be, expecting it to be really easy. But it wasn’t as easy as I expected: turns out there are loads of things I treasure and appreciate and find fascinating about the 90s, but would I bring them back?

Here’s an example. In my teenage years, I loved disposable cameras, and they were a huge part of any shared experience or night on the town. But would I really swap them for the effortless and accessible way I can take photos and record life visually now? No. So I tried to be less literal about it. That helped.

I settled on a list of things I felt were exciting back then, and made life feel a little fuller.

Along with disposable cameras, I spoke about:

Writing notes and letters; the early internet; ‘event’ television; and mixtapes.

Nestled in that list, you can see the thing I really wish had died a death in the 90s: diet culture.

Or, more specifically: my own insecurities around body image and weight, which were fuelled by diet culture.

That took a little bit of, I guess, bravery, to talk about, especially on a show which takes a lighter look at the decade — though it’s not that difficult topics are shied away from, and I do appreciate Alex and Stu giving me the space to chat about such a personal thing. I did feel like I was monologuing for a while, but it had to be that way, really, as it was my own experience I was exploring.

There was, as you’d expect, more levity as we worked our way through the 5 items I’d like to bring back.

We each shared our experiences of communicating via note/letter writing; how exciting the early internet felt; the TV shows that felt essential and compulsory to watch in the 90s; the wonder of taking actual photos on actual film; and the importance of mixtapes.

I also did a little ‘quiz’ where I read out song titles from a tape I’d made in 1997, and Alex and Stu had to guess the band/artist. Yeah, it was pretty easy. (Anyone remember who sang Mmm Bop?)

In the week leading up to the recording, I realised that if there was a loose theme tying together all the things I wanted to bring back, it would be communication and connection.

Or — a different way of communicating and connecting.

Here’s what I mean: the excitement of getting a handwritten note, the way how the early internet opened up an entirely new way of connecting, the way we bonded over TV shows and music back then, the way we recorded our experiences.

I really hope you’ll listen to the episode (Series 4, ep11), it’s in all the usual places you can listen to podcasts these days: here it is on Spotify to get you started. If you’d prefer to listen on Apple or YouTube, you’ll find the links in this linktree along with social media links.

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Of course, I took the opportunity to share a few artefacts and readings from my teenage life

For the diet culture section, I read a pretty sad extract from my very first diary, written when I was 11 in 1992. It’s the first recorded instance I could find of me talking about how I needed to go on a diet.

And to demonstrate my point about how important handwritten notes were to Teenage Me, I read some old letters I’ve saved. For this, I had to get out my 90s biscuit tin, where I keep a lot of paper memorabilia like letters, gig tickets, old graffiti-d covers from my school books.

Look at the best before date!

Here’s a mini stash of handwritten notes (I have dozens more)

I read two of these notes out on the show.

First this one, which starts very innocently, but takes a dramatic turn halfway through:

When you listen to the episode you’ll hear the unexpected twist!

And I also shared a Very Serious Letter from my friend Laura that came in a Very Serious Envelope (Hello Laura, and thank you so much for giving me permission to share your wonderful teenage angst with the world)

But what was inside? Listen here.

Oh, and one last share to accompany the podcast.

This relates to our chat about the wonder of taking ‘real’ photos on real film.

In 1994, before the word “selfie” was even coined, I was in my bedroom with a film camera trying to make it look like I’d bumped into Howard Donald (from my fave boyband Take That) by taking this photo of me looking a bit lecherous if we’re honest, next to a poster of him.

If only the light wasn’t bouncing off of his forehead! I would have fooled you all.

Maybe also the folds in the poster are a bit of a give-away?

I hope you enjoyed this mini trip back to the 90s, and I would love to hear what you think of my choices of things to bring back or leave behind in the 90s — as well as what you’d choose yourself.

If you liked this post, please hit the heart button, share it, comment here or comment on Instagram. Always love hearing from you.

Until next time,

Teresa x

Extra things: If you’re into zines, or zine-curious, you might enjoy seeing the ones I make | Follow me on Instagram for more diary-related stuff, other creative pursuits, and photos of the local cats | If you like listening to me yap away, I appeared on the brilliant unfinishing podcast last month