Venturing into my early twenties has made me realize that younger me had it right. Not the high school version—though she had her own baggage and discoveries to work through—but youngest me: 5-year-old, 10-year-old me. Reflecting in this way always brings to mind Oscar Wilde’s quote: “I am not young enough to know everything.” It speaks to the naïveté of youth—the belief that one could know it all—yet there’s truth in it too. When you’re young, your world is still small, but within that narrow view, there are things you instinctively understand, things you have a natural inclination toward…
STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE & COLLECTIBLES
Starting with the world of Strawberry Shortcake. When I was a child, every day after I skipped down the yellow school bus stairs, my cousin and I would print off twenty strawberry shortcake colouring sheets and scribble until we got bored. I watched the animated series that began in 2009, and I used to buy the little picture books that came with stickers at the back–never using them, always saving them for something “more special.” In the end, I never used them after all, and they literally lost their “sticky” quality.
I used to collect the figurines, and I especially loved the ones that were scented like their respective fruit; the fragrance was baked directly into the plastic, and the scent lasted for years. I threw a fit when my mom surprised me with an unscented, non-plastic figurine, and it still haunts me. I never liked the way they switched her animation from short, unruly, curly hair to the blowout version in 2009. I always felt like I resembled the 2003 version most.
Fast forward to 2023, “Chromebook Warrior” and I were at Walmart when we found a line-up of all the characters. We wanted to choose a figurine for each friend—one that best captured their look. I, like most children, always felt like Strawberry Shortcake, but since “Ribbon Girl” loved her just as much, no one could have her. I took a look at myself, and I chose Huckleberry Pie. He has the old hat that 1980 Strawberry has, but he’s dressed in blues and greens with a big smile and unruly short hair. I loved him.
“Chromebook Warrior,” “Ribbon Girl,” “U-Haul,” and I were struggling to find a name for our group chat… and we landed on the “Strawberry Shortcake Cuties.”
I still love collecting little things. During the Shopkins craze of 2015–2016, I was a consumer, and once I shopped, I couldn’t stop. Later, I realized it wasn’t about the craze at all; I just loved small trinkets and objects. In university, I noticed people doing the same with Calico Critters, tucking them into their bags as a talisman of luck or comfort. I have a tiny Sylvanian family on the stack of books I have on my desk, and they keep growing. One sits on the edge of my MacBook as I type, just a friend to encourage my studying and writing. I have also grown to like Sonny Angels, despite their uncanny unsettling vibe. I dream of receiving the strawberry one in a blind bag… who is surprised?
STRAWBERRY MILK
Speaking of strawberries, I would always love strawberry milk the most of all the flavours, but my mom would refuse to buy them as they were the sweetest of the bunch. Every summer, when I would go back home to Lebanon, they’d sell small cartons of strawberry milk, and I used to go down to the small, wooden-built corner stores and buy a carton off the shelf. Still, when there is ice cream or cheesecake, I always order strawberry.
After watching My First Summer, “Ribbon Girl” and I rediscovered our mutual love of the pink beverage, smiling as we remembered how Grace, the secondary character, shows Claudia the simple joys of the world. One of the ways she does this is through strawberry milk.
I don’t drink it as much anymore, but it still shows up when I order strawberry matcha lattes.
TEDDY BEARS
Teddy bears are a huge part of my life since I used to get my Build-A-Bears when the Devonshire Mall location in Windsor was still open. I would buy closets, outfits, and purses for them. I stopped leaving bears on my bed, opting to give them to my dad to store away in the warehouse. But, funnily enough, when I started university, I discovered Jellycats. Despite their high price point, the fur was incredibly soft, and seeing other girls put them on their beds or pose with a book or headphones, I knew I wanted one too.
I adopted a lavender bunny from a small shop in Walkerville and named her after Christina Rossetti’s poem Goblin Market. I tied green ribbon around her long ears, and I bought her a buddy, a smaller bunny named Aurora with quilt-patterned ears. Later, “Ribbon Girl” got me a large pink dragon for my birthday, and they all live on my bed. I do not travel anywhere without at least one of them.
LIP STUFF
Remember in 2013 and 2014 when girls collected EOS lip balms and lined them up like little rainbows on their shelves? EOS was the original Sol de Janeiro, Drunk Elephant, etc.
Their spherical shapes and satisfying names were unique and became essential for any tween or teenager at the time. That was only the start of my dependence on lip products, of which you can never have enough. My sister would let me use her Fenty Beauty gloss bombs, and in my first year, “Ribbon Girl” bought me a hot cocoa flavoured Glossier lip tint with the cutest, most scrap-bookable packaging ever.
Recently, I bought a ChapStick holder, one you can hook onto a carabiner, cylinder-shaped, just like the Katy Perry song. I got cherry ChapStick, then spearmint, and this past summer, when I was in Grand Bend, I saw a special flavoured “orange creamsicle” and bought two. I still see them in gas stations, mostly American ones—some classics don’t fade.
BOOKS AND WRITING
I left the best for last. When I was about 6, I would read my Barbie books to my mom before bed, revelling in the stories. When I finished reading them, I would sit in my living room with blank printer paper and a red marker, copying the stories down, word by word.
The earliest series I read was the Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne. As a third grader, my teacher left me in charge of the small library at the corner of the classroom. My favourite pastime after Arabic school was asking my dad to visit the nearest Goodwill to buy the used, popular books. I devoured the Harry Potter book series and revelled in the Hunger Games series (so you could imagine how I feel about the Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes and Sunrise on the Reaping getting released during my time in post-secondary). I asked for books every Christmas and read as much as I could, my biggest year being 86 books.
I would collect more books than I could read, and as they piled up under my bed, I would stay up reading Harry Potter or One Direction fanfiction on A03 until the sun began to rise and my mom would wake for morning prayer.
As for writing, I still have copies of my earliest story, called Escape! about a girl who gets kidnapped in the middle of the night. Oddly enough, my first novel, which I started in grade seven, centres around a girl who gets kidnapped, so maybe I was always supposed to write it. I can’t believe I ever thought Intertwined could be a picture book.
My love for books and writing has been a huge, lasting and impactful passion, informing many decisions in my life, such as my major in university, English and Creative Writing… and, right now, reader, you are reading my writing, as I dabble in non-fiction magazine style, prose writing and, since I started university, poetry.
It is a passion that I haven’t stopped sharing, as I am one of the co-presidents of the English Undergraduate Student Association, where we write, bond over favourite book-to-movie adaptations, and more.
My love of books and writing quietly set the tone for the way my personality has developed is introspective and in my head. The Strawberry Shortcake figurines and other collectibles represent my love of trinkets, of assigning meaning in the smallest things, and of teddy bears that, at any age, embody safety and love. So many things have slipped out of my life, and so much time passes without my paying any mind to things I once loved, but then I rediscover them again. For instance, I still spray the same baby perfume from when I was born, and I still write down my innermost thoughts, but baseball caps were never something that I thought would suit me. But it’s the newest thing I’ve started to collect.
Since I was a tween, Halsey has been the soundtrack to my life, and Manic got me through COVID-19. In recent years, Halsey was diagnosed with a life-threatening chronic illness and underwent chemotherapy, and, around that time, the tenth anniversary of Badlands, her first ever album, was passing. I listened to that non-stop on YouTube in grade school, and now, like Halsey, for good old time’s sake, me and many others, who feel that Badlands shimmers an innocent light back or wish to reclaim that era in a different stage of life, are going Back to Badlands for her sold-out ten-year anniversary tour.
There are moments, scents, artifacts, songs, and people who shimmer that innocent light back, like when you were young. Some people bring all these things in tow, without knowing that these are the types of things that once made you feel alive. In Taylor Swift’s song “Eldest Daughter,” she lists “Ferris wheels, kisses and lilacs” as these memories, and so I wrote an article about the things I’d list, and there are more… like I’m going trick-or-treating tonight with my friends and got full costumes.
What things would you list? Did someone bring it back to you? Did you rediscover it yourself? Keep whatever gives you that glint close to your heart.