40 Things Only '90s Kids Will Remember (2024)

Capri Suns are straight-up delicious and their foil casing was pretty revolutionary when it first came out. It took some practice, but figuring out how to open one without jamming your straw through the top (or into your finger) was a serious skill.

Troll dolls were everything back in the day, and you couldn't have just one. A major downside: It was hard AF to brush their hair.

It was the stuff of high school dreams: 16-year-old Sabrina found out she's a witch and gets to perform magic all the time. How could you not watch?

When pool noodles became popular, it was kind of mind-blowing. Being able to float on something you didn't have to blow up just made you feel really, really cool—that, and being able to shoot water out of one end like an elephant, of course.

They were teeny-tiny figurines that were forever getting lost. But you just so happened to have a zillion of them, so it was all good.

CDs were way cooler than tapes, but they were kinda finicky. Blowing and shirt-rubbing were all socially-accepted ways to try to make your CDs play without skipping.

Way back before everyone had Netflix and Hulu, there was the family-friendly TGIF lineup to fill up your Friday nights. Full House, Family Matters, Step By Step...now that was good TV.

American Girl dolls technically came out in the mid-'80s, but they really blew up in the '90s. Reading about the adventures of your American Girl doll while she chilled nearby on her stand was pretty freaking cool.

Back before there was DVR, you had to rely on a VHS when you couldn't make it home for your favorite show. Unfortunately, you could tape over those tapes, which often sparked epic wars between siblings.

The Spice Girls, Destiny's Child, TLC...it was pretty much you, but in a band. And, you know, with cooler outfits.

You were either heavy into 'N Sync, the Backstreet Boys, or 98 Degrees, and obviously you were going to marry someone from "your" band someday. You couldn't ride the fence with these, either—you had to go all in with one or the other.

You could spend hours jumping up and down on one of these, and the fact that your parents thought they were dangerous only made them cooler.

Total Request Live, aka TRL, as everyone called it, was must-watch after-school programming. Voting for your favorite video to make the top 10 was the perfect way to use up time you should have been spending on homework.

No one knew what would happen at midnight on January 1, 2000. Would the internet crash and the world shut down? Despite people completely freaking out, nothing happened.

If anyone else dated Justin Timberlake, 'N Sync fans would have hated her. But this was Britney freaking Spears. The two were everywhere in the late '90s, and everyone wanted to be them.

Getting a Tamagotchi seemed like a good idea at the time—it was like a pet, but you didn't have to clean up after it. But after two days of forgetting to feed and play with it, you were kinda over it.

It's easy to pause your favorite show now when you want to eat, pee, or do whatever. Back then, you just had to wait for commercial breaks and scramble to jam everything in before they were over.

Forrest Gump came out in 1994, and it was huge. Everyone would quote "Run, Forrest, run!" anytime they saw someone running because, you know, it was so original.

The World Wide Web was technically invented in 1989, but it really took off in the '90s. Sure, you had to use dial-up and it took forever for really basic websites to load, but the internet was so, so cool.

Titanic came out in 1997, and everyone and their mom obsessed over the love story of Jack and Rose, and that damn boat ruining everything. Getting misty-eyed while listening to Celine Dion sing "My Heart Will Go On" was practically a rite of passage.