Being Nostalgic Over Your Teen Years is Completely Normal 

By: Aneesha Mahapatra

I remember being 16 and sneaking out to a party after telling my parents I was sleeping over at my best friend’s house because we had to study for the SATs. I remember my girlfriends and I spending hours on Omegle screaming every time a cute boy popped up and immediately freaking out and skipping the old weirdos. I remember filming vlogs in schools on my IPhone 8 that featured my best friends and teachers because I thought that would kick off the start of my influencer career (It didn’t unfortunately). Wasn’t life so much simpler when our biggest worries were whether our crush saw our Snapchat story or if our parents would notice we stole a sip of their alcohol?

I feel like there’s been a wave of nostalgia for girlhood recently. Specifically, the cringy and completely unhinged experience of being a teenage girl in the early 2000s- 2010s from reliving the Tumblr 2014 era, 2x speed on TikTok/ Musically, and anything One Direction related. Social media is flooded with “girlhood aesthetic” videos, where girls reminisce about their younger selves. It was focused on the messy bedrooms covered in tapestries and boy band posters, the school dances where everyone thought they were a Hip-Hop artist, the weekend sleepovers full of prank calls, and devising a plan to talk to your crush in class.

I mean, at 13, I started reading Wattpad and all the fanfics you could think of (yes, I wrote my own and I’m really embarrassed). I wanted the entire Pretty Little Liars and Bethany Mota collection at Aeropostale, and I thought I was Ariana Grande by wearing mini skirts and over the knee boots my freshman year of high school. Before you ask, yes I would also listen to Halsey on the school bus and look out the window thinking I’m completely different than the rest of my grade because that’s what girls our age did back then. 

Looking back, life was easy and fun in a way I didn’t even realize. On weekends in high school, my plans consisted of going on a photoshoot in the middle of a field, going on a Dunkins drive, or going shopping at the lamest mall in my small hometown. My main stress back then? Figuring out my after school plans with friends if I didn’t have activities going on or wondering what cheesy Netflix original I should watch on my laptop like The Kissing Booth and geeking out over it. 

Everything felt exciting and fresh, like every little moment mattered. There were no worries about rent, careers, or having it all together. The world revolved around group chats with inside jokes, sneaking really gross and cheap tequila into a water bottle, and whether you thought your crush made eye contact with you in the hallway. 

So why are we all suddenly wishing to bring back those years? Maybe it’s because adulthood is exhausting and depressing. The constant pressure to have a five year plan even if you think you’re “going with the flow”, pay big girl bills, and present ourselves as organized, successful versions of who we were always “meant to be” even though we still don’t know who we are as we grow older. 

Being a teenager was being free-spirited. Sure, you got into fights with your parents for being rebellious, or your crush rejected you, or maybe you got into stupid kitty fights with the girls. But, there was still something that made you feel different than the person you are today and not worried about the consequences of your actions because life just didn’t feel real then. 

Maybe it's also because social media has turned life into a carefully chosen collection of snapshots, where every moment has to look perfect, be productive, or get attention. We’re seeing people our age be 10x more successful than us and have their whole lives figured out financially. Obviously, it’s going to make us wish we were teenagers or even kids again so we could “start over” and not compare ourselves to them. 

I know my friends and I miss the chaos of being young and the way we used to document life without overthinking, trauma dump on our spam accounts, and reading things that a young teen shouldn’t be reading until 3 am. Maybe we just want to feel that thrill again, the excitement of being a teenager, standing in your best friend’s bathroom and reapplying a lip gloss you stole from Target because you thought you were so cool. Then, sneaking off to a party you definitely weren’t supposed to be at and singing to songs like “Young, Wild, and Free”.  

As women, getting older means juggling priorities and responsibilities we didn’t have when we were little. While we still have fun now that we’re not underage and can actually consume alcohol, it’s different. We’re no longer making last minute plans or sneaking out to parties without a care. Instead, we’re thinking about work, our long-term goals, and worse, marriage which makes us feel like we’re somehow stuck in a bubble with all these thoughts and thinking about “What’s next?”. 

It’s sort of a weird in-between thinking about your past self and who you are now. I’m not the next Blair Waldorf like I thought I was going to be when I moved to New York City, and I at least know that I never will be. At the end of the day, we’re still young women trying to navigate a world that constantly pushes us forward. The freedom we had back then feels distant now, and no matter how hard we try to relive it, things won’t ever be the same. But maybe that’s what made those moments from our teenage years feel so special, they were our free moments to cherish without any real pressure.