Growing up during the 90s was a wild ride. We had elite entertainment like Hey Arnold, All That and Boy Meets World. The music scene was iconic with amazing artists for anyone’s taste. Posters of bands like Nirvana, The Cranberries and the Spice Girls were plastered over bedrooms all across the globe, and computer games like Oregon Trail were just starting to take over kids’ lives.
And while I’m happy to be an adult today, I have to admit that I’d love the chance to transport myself back to 1997 and enjoy one more cotton candy Trix yogurt. If you’re a fellow 90s kid who’s in the mood for a blast of nostalgia, you’ve come to the right place, pandas. We took a trip to the 90sKidz90s Instagram page and gathered some of their best memes below. Enjoy scrolling through, and keep reading to find conversations with Chelsea Woodward and Jillian Diaz Cringle, hosts of the Worked For 90s Kids! podcast, and Kathy Kenzora, host of the History of the 90s podcast!
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In my mind, the 90s were super recent. But it pains me to admit that this time was actually 25+ years ago, and the world has changed an incredible amount since then. What we call cell phones today would be unrecognizable to people in the 90s, and the internet has had a larger impact on our world than anyone could have ever predicted. Fashion from that time looks retro today, and even the lingo that teens use now wouldn’t make any sense to young people 30 years ago.
But no matter how much time has passed since the 90s, we still remember it like it was yesterday because that period is full of nostalgic memories. That’s why pages like 90sKidz90s on Instagram are such hits. This account, which has amassed an impressive 278k followers since its creation in 2015, can immediately flood visitors with memories from childhood. “From Johnny Tsunami to Britney and Justin’s joutfit, this page is for everyone who still dreams about being on Legends of the Hidden Temple,” the description states.
To learn more about the wild world of the 1990s, we reached out to Chelsea Woodward and Jillian Diaz Cringle, hosts of the Worked For 90s Kids! podcast. First, we wanted to know what comes to mind for Chelsea and Jillian when they think of this iconic decade.
“When we think of the 90s, we think of the beauty of being bored in an analog world. We were the last generation to not have the world at our fingertips, so we had to create our own,” Chelsea and Jillian shared. “A simple question such as, ‘Who was the main actor in that movie?’ could inspire a long debate amongst friends and maybe even a trip to Blockbuster, an adventure.”
“Now, instead of tuning into an episode of Pop-Up Video on VH1 to learn random facts about our favorite music and artists, we just pop out our phones and Google, the whole experience surrendered in 60 seconds or less,” Chelsea and Jillian continued.
“We associate so much joy with the 90s. Pop culture had a major boom, the grunge music was amazing, playground equipment was still deadly, the fashion was ridiculous but somehow iconic, and forbidden food items lined the grocery store shelves and our stomachs,” the hosts added.
We also got in touch with 90s expert and host of the History of the 90s podcast, Kathy Kenzora, to hear what she associates the decade with. “The 1990s was a time when peace seemed possible,” Kathy shared. “The decade began with the reunification of Germany following the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Thirteen months later, the USSR collapsed, and the Cold War was over.”
“In February 1990, Nelson Mandela was released from prison as apartheid ended in South Africa, and four years later, he was elected the country's first Black president,” the host continued. “The Good Friday Agreement ended an era known as The Troubles in Northern Ireland. And peace even seemed possible in the Middle East when Israel and the PLO signed a historic agreement that recognized each other's right to exist and established the Palestinian Authority.”
I've seen this pic a few times and I think she's cute! Edit: I found our they're a she.
Mood Ring's are not just a 90s thing though. They were created back in the 70s.
“The 90s were a decade of incredible change,” Kathy added. “When I started working in a newsroom in 1989, we were still using typewriters, teletype machines to get news copy and reel to reel machines to record audio. By 1999, we had computers, the internet and email, and all audio was now digital. In 10 short years, everything completely changed. It was amazing to experience such a massive shift in technology.”
The roundabout, the slide will just burn your a**e, but coming off a roundabout when it is spinning at high speed.....
I still have a huge scar on my ankle from getting my foot stuck under neath while it spinning really fast. Most dangerous by far
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Where are the monkey bars? Those could mangle you in a fall. Screen-Sho...49f1a4.png 
The slide. I fell off the steps side of a tall one and caught my groin on the handrail. I was about an inch from an impromptu sex change! Still have the 6 inch long scar.
Agreed! My brother and I also fell off the step side of a tall one. He has a scar across his forehead in his hairline, and mine is in front of my ear.
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I had a friend in elementary school that broke his leg on the merry-go-round. Still went on it the next day with his cast on 😄
Definitely the monkey bars. My elementary school had decorative rocks under them. Incentive not to fall off, but a trip to the nurse's office when you did (guess which one I experienced?).
Some of us actually broke a bone after falling off. Must have been the asphalt underneath it....
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It's a toss-up between the merry-go-round & the slide; the merry-go-round for obvious reasons, but my horse got spooked & ran UNDER the slide knocking my cousin & me out cold! That was probably 37-38 years ago (we were about 10-11yo) & we're both still kickin'!
Those slides would provide 3rd degree burns, friction burns, and wedgies. It could hurt you without outside interference. The only other playground activity that could hurt you easier was the merry-go-round. With the right person spinning it could be absolutely terrifying.
Getting "depth charged" on the teeter totter. Depth Charged being when someone stopped with you at the highest point, and they then jumped off their end, dropping you to the dirt below.
Yep, happened to me, and on the longest teeter totter I had ever been on. Never even knew the kid, just some random stranger. Taught me to beware of who you trust when you don't have complete control over the situation.
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I did a freaking belly flop when falling from the monkey bars....my vote is with that one.
That red and blue carousel. In the early 1970s, some 8-year-old boys at my school proved their manhood by clinging for dear life underneath — yes, underneath — the platform, while it was moving at an alarmingly high speed as other kids rode the thing on top. Somehow nobody died. Decades before people started talking about toxic masculinity, I was one cisgender young male who knew that something was a bit off.
The top left is the reason my generation understands physics, specifically centrifugal force.
Ah, the monkey bars made of rusty surplus rebar over a bed of compacted gravel... those were the days.
My school had this giant metal dome of bars, a thunderdome if you will. Yeah, that's not there anymore
Number 4. I climbed a similar device, fell down and broke my wrist (at age 6-7)
When I was ten or eleven I went to the park with my younger cousins/siblings as the eldest attendee kid. They all got on the merry-go-round and since I was the biggest kid I spun them all. A few other kids joined in, but there was this one girl--who was only about 6/7) wanted to help push too. I didn't realize she was behind me and kept going at my speed and all I see in the corner of my eye is a blur of pink go flying. She couldn't keep up, held on as her feet left the ground, then lost grip and flew. Her parents saw everything and went to check on her. I also stopped and went to check on her. Poor kid wouldn't say a word. To her credit, she wasn't crying, but she gave everyone the silent treatment and just sat down on a bench. I felt so bad.
Smashed my face when I missed my grip on the monkey bars and fell to the ground. So much blood poured out of my nose!
The roundabout. Especially when you lay a moped on it's side and use the back wheel to spin it.
Missing metal monkey bars, with bars all the way through the middle, crisscrossing, and over 8 feet tall.
Fell off the slide in the 2nd grade straight onto my head.. unfortunately our school decided concrete+ pavement would be a more logical choice than the wood chips. Enjoyed a wonderful concussion and hospital visit. Climbed right back up that death trap with 0 lessons learned
I almost broke my coccyx when someone hopped off the seesaw while I was still in the air. I went slamming down to the ground, and couldn't move for almost 5 minutes.
Without fear of triggering the 30 year old 90s kids, they had these too in the 2000s when I was a kid. I can relate to y'all's pain 😂😭
My husband grew up in a government camp, had two older brothers & a bunch of other community kids. He said they had a crazy roundabout that had chains (I can't imagine it but...). Kids being kids, the figured out how to make it go faster. He said they got it going so fast that his oldest brother flew off horizontally, feet first & broke his leg. -I would only get on a roundabout if I was feeling brave & strong
The high slide was my nemesis. I could never make the transition from the top of the ladder to the slide and would creep back down the ladder in shame.
I flew off a Merry-go-round once or twice in my school days lol. We had a teacher who would spin it so fast for us and there would be 20 or more of us clamouring to get on so we could all get dizzy when he pushed it around. I think I flew a good 20 get away one time, got up and ran back to get on for another round!
For me, it was the trapeze bar on a playset. Back in 5th grade, my friends and I were having a contest to see who could swing on the trapeze bar and let go and land the furthest. Well...I won but, I swung so far that I landed outside the woodchipped area and hit the back of my head on the metal bar surrounding the play area. I woke up in the nurses office. I was okay. Only thing I really remember upon waking up was asking the nurse if I won. SMH
Oh I fell off something similar but at school but luckily landed on the woodchips below and just got winded.
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Oh the metal slides. Sliding down was the fun part, but having the red streaks down the back of your legs after then being fried, was not so fun😳!
Oh the days of the metal slide. You come down with red marks in the back of your legs.
The slide, cause my brother and I, TweedleDum & TweedleStupid, got this awesome idea once to take turns riding a scooter backwards down the slide
It's great that some were still around in the 90's to enjoy before schools and parks had to remove the last of them for insurance and litigation reasons. The metal slide was the most likely for small stuff like burns even b4 shorts were allowed (not at mine) or in summer but my vote goes to the red&blue m-g-r (& monkey bars close 2nd) for the occasional bone break/concussion. In pre-sneaker days, sometimes during the winter, the metal slide could be great fun but possible concussions and definitely a quick trip to the office if caught but that's for another time
The roundabout, because you had the dizziness and sickly feeling to deal with as well as bare flesh hitting concrete at speed.
I'm still amazed I never fell off the McDonald's playground roundabout.
No idea who thumbed me down but...get a life!
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We were also curious if the podcast hosts enjoyed living in the 90s. “Even though we had very different experiences growing up, one thing we have in common is we absolutely loved growing up in the 90s,” Chelsea and Jillian told Bored Panda. “Whether the world was safer or our parents were delusional, we as kids had so much freedom back then.”
“After school, Chelsea and her friends would hop on their bikes and explore the woods, or ride to get ice cream, creating silly games born of their imagination along the way,” they shared. “Jill was a classic ‘90s latchkey kid, with afternoons spent watching cartoons and MTV with her sisters, or playing in their backyard. Our parents were never completely sure where we were, we just had to be back before dinner.”
True story: the teacher told us to do the first problem so she could explain how addition worked. I did a whole bunch, then when she came to check covered it up with my pencil case, then got busted for working ahead AND trying to hide it. Called me out in front of the whole class. So yeah, I learned anxiety in school.
Not one of them tasted anything like chicken soup.
Kathy also added that she misses the “appointment TV” of the 90s. “There was nothing like going to work or wherever and talking with everyone about an episode of your favorite show (i.e. Seinfeld) that aired the night before,” she shared. “We experienced more things collectively in the 90s. Today, our viewing habits are so fragmented that it's rare to have those kinds of experiences.”
However, Kathy noted that she does not miss all of the TV shows from the 90s. “I was not a fan of shows like Jerry Springer and Jenny Jones which were all the rage in the 90s,” she shared. “It felt icky to watch people who were often at their lowest point in life. Especially now that we know a lot of times those people were plied with alcohol before coming on the show, so that they would open up more.”
Pogs, thanks for the nostalgia BP. I remember having what I thought was one of the coolest slammers, it was heavy, but had a purple grippy side that smelled like grape. Ahh, to be a kid again...
Chelsea and Jillian also shared what they don’t miss from the 90s. “Like every furthering decade, we as a society need to continue to learn better and do better,” they told Bored Panda. “The 90s started in the midst of the HIV/AIDS crisis, and the negativity surrounding the LGBTQ+ community was painful.”
“Same sex marriage wasn’t even recognized! Diet culture was just starting its ‘thin is in’ movement, and body positivity was not a notion that would come around for years,” they added. “Sexual harassment in the workplace was tolerated, and girls were told ‘boys will be boys.’ These are just a few things we are glad have started to change since the 90s.”
Lolo ball! I loved these. The game,how many bounces you could do without stopping...Great fun!
If you’re interested in delving into 90s culture yourself, Kathy recommends starting with music and films. “For example, if you want to immerse yourself in the Seattle grunge scene, listen to some Nirvana and then watch the movie Singles. Also, the movie Reality Bites is a pretty good snapshot of what it was like to be in your 20s in the 90s. The soundtrack is pretty great too.”
And of course, you can always check out Kathy’s podcast, History of the 90s, on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!
I still remember when KFC came out with these. My Wile E.Coyote one lasted for ages until it sprung a leak sadly.
Chelsea and Jillian also recommend checking out music and films if you want to immerse yourself in 90s culture. “Start with some iconic grunge bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam, watch the movies that defined the 90s, like Titanic and Clueless. Familiarize yourself with the current events of the time, such as the OJ trial, the Y2K melt down, and the Bill Clinton impeachment.”
“Look for old episodes of Pop-Up Video, Daria, and Total Request Live online,” the hosts added. “Fashion wise - you can’t go wrong with a bucket hat, and Starter Jackets were all the rage." And you can always tune in to Worked for ‘90s Kids! on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Google Podcasts!
Are these photos reminding you of how iconic the 90s were, pandas? We hope you’re enjoying this blast from the past, and we’d love to hear in the comments below what you miss the most from that time period. Keep upvoting your favorite pics, and then if you’re interested in checking out even more 90s nostalgia from Bored Panda, check out this totally fly article next!
Note: this post originally had 103 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
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This list should be titled "Millennial Nostalgia" There are things here from the 80's, 90's and 00's, as well as things that are just 'kid' things that still apply to kids now.
as someone that was born in 2003, I grew up with a good 3/4 of these. it always ticks me off a little when I see these things gatekept for only the millennials or the 90's kids to feel nostalgic over because it's kinda just denying my childhood in a way.
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Because if you were a "90s kid" you were a tween in the 2000s.
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To all commentors: No, this list is not entirely accurate, and no, we 90s babies are not attempting to gatekeep nostalgia. For we are now of the age our predecessors were when they also looked back and dreamt of days more innocent and cringe, and we felt the same as you do now. Give it some time, your turn will come. You may not see it, but the documentation for it could not have existed during our time, as the internet was also just being hatched from its little nest and learning to fly. You will understand, be it 10 or 20 years from now. Twas not long ago I saw Gen X as my enemy. Then, they became 'okay.' Then they became "not unlike myself." Time is a funny thing. *pats Gen Z and Alpha heads*
Yeah, many of these are simply not 90s. Yes on the eyebrows, myspace, and the CD changer but that's about it.
I was born in 2000 and can relate to nearly all of these. 90s kids always think they've got a stranglehold on nostalgia when really it transcends generations.
Ooooh just you wait. The 80s kids did to us what we're doing to ya'll. Your turn to repeat the favor for the next generation will come. It is a rite of passage, dear youngling.
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At least when they are older, people could have experienced them in the 90s. But many of them are newer.
Load More Replies... This list should be titled "Millennial Nostalgia" There are things here from the 80's, 90's and 00's, as well as things that are just 'kid' things that still apply to kids now.
as someone that was born in 2003, I grew up with a good 3/4 of these. it always ticks me off a little when I see these things gatekept for only the millennials or the 90's kids to feel nostalgic over because it's kinda just denying my childhood in a way.
Load More Replies... Because if you were a "90s kid" you were a tween in the 2000s.
Load More Replies... To all commentors: No, this list is not entirely accurate, and no, we 90s babies are not attempting to gatekeep nostalgia. For we are now of the age our predecessors were when they also looked back and dreamt of days more innocent and cringe, and we felt the same as you do now. Give it some time, your turn will come. You may not see it, but the documentation for it could not have existed during our time, as the internet was also just being hatched from its little nest and learning to fly. You will understand, be it 10 or 20 years from now. Twas not long ago I saw Gen X as my enemy. Then, they became 'okay.' Then they became "not unlike myself." Time is a funny thing. *pats Gen Z and Alpha heads*
Yeah, many of these are simply not 90s. Yes on the eyebrows, myspace, and the CD changer but that's about it.
I was born in 2000 and can relate to nearly all of these. 90s kids always think they've got a stranglehold on nostalgia when really it transcends generations.
Ooooh just you wait. The 80s kids did to us what we're doing to ya'll. Your turn to repeat the favor for the next generation will come. It is a rite of passage, dear youngling.
Load More Replies... At least when they are older, people could have experienced them in the 90s. But many of them are newer.
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