Ahhhhh, childhood. It was a simpler time — a time before student loans, having a job, and having to learn how to pay the bills. A time when our biggest worries were what we were going to play with our friends at recess and what our moms packed us for lunch. With all the vast responsibilities of becoming an adult, it can make one nostalgic for a time when the world didn’t seem so complicated. Without further ado, here are eight things from my 2000s childhood that remind me of a simpler time.
1) build-a-bear
Ahhh, Build-A-Bear, my go-to destination in the mall. If there was one thing child me loved, it was stuffed animals, and if there was one thing that was cooler than having a stuffed animal, it was making a stuffed animal. Whenever my family would go to the mall, my sister and I would always beg to go to Build-A-Bear. Whenever my parents would say yes, we would always feel such a rush of excitement. I would always have so much fun, choosing which stuffed animal I wanted, watching it get stuffed, putting one of those little hearts in it, and then finally, choosing an outfit for it. It was such an elaborate process and I loved every minute of it. It was so satisfying to carry the stuffed animal that you made in one of those carriers they gave you knowing you’d be able to enjoy it when you got home.
2) going to the mall
Honestly, it breaks my heart to hear about how malls are on the decline and are closing down nowadays. I always had lots of fun going to the mall when I was little. It was a magical place. So much to see! So much to do! I always loved going up and down the escalators, I mean, stairs that moved? Are you kidding me? You couldn’t see that very often. I also loved admiring all the fountains, and tossing coins into them, and making a wish. I loved going into all the stores and seeing all the cool things they had to offer. As previously discussed, I loved Build-A-Bear, but another store I thought was very cool was Hot Topic. It wasn’t like the other stores; it was dark and edgy and mysterious, and this intrigued and mystified me. I marveled at all the quirky stuff it had to offer — all the Gir hoodies, all the Nightmare-Before-Christmas-themed backpacks.
But the store that truly bewildered me the most was Rainforest Cafe. Now that was a store that terrified me, yet fascinated me. Smack in the middle of all the ordinary mall stores, was a rainforest, with little waterfalls and fish tanks, and animatronic animals that made a ton of noise. I was always terrified of the animatronics there; particularly, an alligator animatronic out front who scared the crap out of me. Honestly, I could write paragraph after paragraph about my experiences at the mall, but suffice it to say that going to the mall in the 2000s and early 2010s was an experience.
3) pbs kids shows
When I was little, my TV-watching experience consisted mostly of TV shows from PBS Kids. A lot of the shows were really wild. For example, who could forget the show Between the Lions? In case you’ve never seen it, it’s about a family of anthropomorphic lions who live in and run a large library and they read a book to the audience every episode. Along with them, there is also a plethora of other kooky characters, such as Click, an anthropomorphic computer mouse, and Barnaby B. Busterfield III, a curmudgeonly rock statue who was the founder of the library. The show also had lots of little sketches, but the one that sticks in my head the most is a segment called “Sam Spud.” Basically, it was about a potato who is a detective that solved mysteries in a world with other vegetables and kept making spelling errors and having to fix them. I don’t know why but this sketch always scared the crap out of me when it came on, and I would always cry and run out of the room when it came on.
Another really weird show that I liked from PBS Kids was called Word World. Basically, it was about a group of animals who live in a world where everything is made out of words. As in, they take the letters, build the word, and build whatever object they want. I’ll give them credit — it’s certainly an original concept. You don’t see too many shows in which everything and everybody is literally built out of letters and words.
Finally, the third show I want to talk about, which I’m sure most of you know about due to the memes, is Arthur. It is a show where a third-grade aardvark called Arthur (Gee, what is it with PBS and anthropomorphic animal characters?) and his other friends, according to the theme song “learn to work and play, and get along with each other,” and also, savagely roast each other. That show was surprisingly memeable, with memes like the famous clenched fist meme coming out of it. I could go on and on, as there is no shortage of material to talk about here, but this would have to be its own article. Keep your eyes peeled folks.
4) webkinz
When I was in kindergarten, there was nothing more that I wanted than a Webkinz. I was so excited when, for my sixth birthday, I was allowed to get one from the Hallmark store. I still remember which one it was. It was a white terrier which I named Bridget. Anyhow, Webkinz were so cool because not only were you able to get a stuffed animal to play with in real life, but there also was an online world in which you could play with them. You could create a house for them, buy furniture for them, and design literally every room in their house. It was so cool! You could also go hang out at the Clubhouse, and interact with other Webkinz and play games with them, such as Pool, or Dogbeard’s Bathtub Battles, which was basically battleship, which I was never very good at, and always needed my dad to help me with. And who could ever forget the Curio Shop, where you could go to mine for gems, which was always a lot of fun, and go shopping for unique artifacts. Of course, there was always the W-shop, which I loved to go to to furnish my Webkinz house. I loved buying cool new furniture and food to feed them. For Gen Z kids, Webkinz were the moment.
5) toys “r” us
As a kid, whenever my family went out shopping, and we happened to be near a Toys “R” Us, I would always beg to go to it. I thought Toys “R” Us was the coolest, most exciting place ever. I mean, not only was it a store entirely devoted to toys, but it was a giant store entirely devoted to toys. Are you kidding me? As a kid, it doesn’t get any cooler than that. It was a magical feeling, walking through the aisles, checking out all the cool new toys there were to offer. It felt like heaven. Another thing about Toys “R” Us I looked forward to was their Christmas catalog. Every year, in late November or early December, they would mail out their Christmas catalog, which I would gleefully look through in order to figure out which toys I wanted to ask Santa for. It was so exciting! It also breaks my heart that Toys “R” Us went bankrupt because kids today will not be able to experience the joy that I, and others, experienced, wandering the aisles.
6) discovery girls
One magazine I have to thank for helping me get through my teenage years was Discovery Girls. It was very useful for a preteen girl in the throes of puberty and had a little bit of useful advice and features for everything, from advice on how to deal with arguments with friends to how to have a better self-image. But what I really liked were a lot of the regular features they had in it. For example, I really enjoyed “Discovery Girls of (insert state here)” where, every month, they would feature some girls from a particular state and they would talk a bit about what was hot in that particular state, and each girl would talk a bit about themselves, and they’d make a comic about an adventure they went on somewhere in their state. I liked hearing about what all the girls had to say about their lives. But what I really liked about Discovery Girls was the advice it gave you on how to have a better image of yourself. They had loads of articles about that — how to not compare yourself to others, how to not be afraid of failure, and how to deal with body image issues, too (like when they’d show how photoshopped magazine covers usually are so you know not to compare yourself to them). As someone who really struggled a lot with their self-image and confidence throughout puberty, those articles were a huge help. I also really liked articles about girls and women who either were pursuing their dream, or stood up to make a change, like an article about girls who decided to pursue a career in fashion, or an article about women who, despite all the obstacles in their way, never gave up on their dreams. Those articles were always very empowering and are partially what inspired me to be a writer.
7) baby einstein
One of the weirdest things I miss from my childhood was a franchise called Baby Einstein. It’s the reason why I’m afraid of sock puppets and the dark. If you don’t know, Baby Einstein was meant to expose babies to subjects like art and music. The videos would usually have classical music, and more memorably, would have toys and puppets over a white or dark background. Anyhow, Baby Einstein left an impact on three-year-old me. First of all, the puppets were spooky. They rarely ever spoke, communicating mostly in animal noises or squeaking sounds, which just sounded eerie. Oh, and did I mention the jumpscares? There would be a lot of moments when a puppet or a toy would suddenly appear, or make a noise out of nowhere, with some loud-as-hell sound effects. It’s part of the reason why I’m scared of the dark. You never know when a random sock puppet will jump at you out of nowhere. Also, a lot of the puppets looked weird.
Take, for instance, a dragon puppet in Baby Mozart, a Baby Einstein VHS I used to watch a lot when I was little. He was dark green, with gargantuan yellow horns and pointy scales down his back. He had these eyes with enormous whites and giant black pupils that looked like he was staring down at you, and most importantly, a giant, bright red, forked tongue. His scene is very ominous: a pitch-black background fades in, and the dragon saunters in while strange-sounding music plays. Then there’s a whistle sound effect and he stares at the screen, almost as if he’s staring into your soul, and cocks his head inquisitively several times. Then, he backs up suddenly, looks around a few times, then out of nowhere, shouts BLAAAHH! Then he makes a shriveled-up face, like he just ate a lemon, and strolls off as quickly as he came.
This scene was so scary to me as a kid, not just because of how weird the dragon looked or all the weird sound effects or black background, but because there was entirely no context to the scene. What was that dragon doing? Why was he looking at us? What were all those weird noises? The fact that we have entirely no idea what’s going on here makes the dragon more scary than he’d otherwise be. But despite all I’ve said, despite how scary Baby Einstein could be, I still am fond of it. It just was unlike anything I had ever seen before, and even though it was scary, its bizarreness intrigued me. Also, I have a lot of good memories of watching it at my grandparents’ house when I was little, and I miss that time very much because even though Baby Mozart was scary, I miss my grandparents.
8) american girl
If you were a girl in the 2000s, then you’re probably familiar with American Girl dolls. To start off, I had a Just Like You doll because I thought it was so cool to have a doll that looked like me. I enjoyed getting and making her different outfits but I usually got them from JoAnn fabrics cause we all know how expensive American Girl stuff is. I also really enjoyed the American Girl magazine. Like Discovery Girls, it was also a great help with getting through my teenage years. It had a lot of good advice for a girl navigating through middle school, but a lot of fun stuff, too! They had a lot of activities, such as crafts to help organize your room, or games you could play with your friends. They also had fictional short stories, which Discovery Girls usually didn’t have, and I loved reading those. I wished I could write as well as them, and they also inspired me to write.
Speaking of stories, remember all the Historical Characters? Those were dolls that were characters at certain points in United States history. They had backstories and books explaining it. Even though I didn’t own any Historical dolls, I loved scanning the catalog for all the descriptions of all the dolls’ lore and checking out their wardrobes and accessories. I even read a few of the books, such as Marie- Grace and the Orphans where Marie-Grace, a historical character from 1849 New Orleans, tries to help an orphan baby. Last but not least, we have to talk about all the self-help books American Girl released. From learning to adjust to middle school to learning how to deal with crushes, American Girl had it all. But the most important book, in my opinion, was The Care and Keeping of You. That book was so useful to me going through puberty. I mean, it explained everything, from shaving your legs, to how to buy a bra, to periods. It really helped de-mystify a lot of the mysteries surrounding puberty. American Girl definitely left an impact on me, and I don’t think I’ll forget it.
So that’s my list! It feels nice to reminisce over the simpler days of the past, especially now that we’re all older and we all have to deal with the responsibilities of adulthood and life is more complicated than we ever imagined when we were little. The only constant in life, really, is change, and life has changed so much since we were little, in ways both good and bad. This change can sometimes feel sad because a lot of the places and things (and sometimes people) we used to love when we were little have all gone away, or don’t exist in the same way as they did before. It feels upsetting to us because we will never be able to see or experience that stuff the way we used to, and the only way we’ll be able to visit it again is in our memories. Given all this, it can be easy to bury yourself in nostalgia and not pay attention to the present. But if we spend all our time looking backward, we can’t see where we are going! Even though life and the world seem so scary and bleak, we have so much of our lives ahead of us with so much to look forward to. College, jobs, traveling, getting married, having kids (if you want). The point is, we have too much of our lives ahead of us with too much to look forward to spend all our time looking back!
