What You Did To Proclaim Your Best Friendship '90s

Proclaiming your best friendships is a rite of passage when you're a kid (and sometimes even when you're a teenager). Every friendship has its own special little secrets that make it unique, and from the outside looking in, every friendship has noticeable qualities that say "We're besties forever!" In the '90s best friendship had its own set of signifiers. These sorts of things aren't as important as you become an adult and realize that best friend isn't a person, it's a tier, Danny (thanks for everything, Mindy Lahiri!), but it doesn't make the rituals you and your friends had when you were growing up any less important or any less adorable.

There were things you did with your best friend in the '90s to proclaim your friendship that were based in '90s culture, movies and television. A lot of it had to do with braiding, but we'll get to that in a hot second. In the '90s, friendships had special photo styles, bracelets and even their own languages. If you had a best friend or a group of besties in the '90s, you'll definitely remember doing some of these things that people did to proclaim their friendship in the '90s.

1. Made Friendship Bracelets

Making friendship bracelets was the jam in the '90s. I would loop the threads around a toe and use that as an anchor to weave the strands together, and my friends and I would sit side-by-side like this making each other matching bracelets. If you were lucky and had a patient friend, they might have held the strands for you.

2. Made Friendship Hair Wraps

Once the friendship bracelets were done, you'd put a tiny braid in your friend's hair, and they'd do the same in yours, and you'd wrap those braids in colored cotton threat until you couldn't see the hair anymore. It was definitely a very visible way of showing everyone you were besties.

3. Assigned Yourselves A Planeteer And Called Yourselves By The Character Names

It didn't necessarily have to be Planeteers, it could have been Sex and the City characters, or whatever other group of friends fit your age and interests. Either way, best friend groups in the '90s could go days calling each other by the name of their assigned characters.

4. Shared Friendship Necklaces

Remember "friendship necklaces" in the '90s? They were generally sterling silver and you could get them at the drug store for a few bucks, and they came with two halves that looked like a heart or circle that had been cracked down the middle, and you'd each take a half and wear it.

5. Started A Baby Sitters Club

If you wanted people to know who your friends were in the '90s, all you needed to do was start a Babysitter's Club. Which obviously wasn't about babysitting at all. It was just about letting people know who your nearest and dearest were.

6. Took Aerial Photos Of Your Selves In A Circle With All Your Heads In The Middle

Now you take selfies with your friends. In the '90s, you all lay on the grass in a circle with your heads all touching in the middle and made a non-bestie take a photo from above with a disposable camera.

7. Wearing The Exact Same Shade Of Lipgloss, Even If There Were Ten Of You And It Looked Kind Of Nuts

For some reason it was always metallic pink too. And in huge groups, you'd all look kind of nuts all walking around with the exact same lipgloss. Also, this is how we got mono in the '90s.

8. Invented a Secret Language When Everyone Caught On To Pig Latin

At some point in the '90s every group of besties was using pig latin, but everyone caught on to that pretty soon, so it wasn't unique any more. That's when '90s kids started making up their own languages. It was a weird time.

9. Swapping One Dr. Martens Boot So You Both Had Mismatching Ones

I had purple Dr. Martens in the '90s and my bestie had green ones. We'd swap one boot each, so we both wore shoes of different colors. It made us look so cool.

10. Braiding Your Hair Into A Plait With Their Hair

I told you there was a lot of friendship braiding in the '90s. One thing we used to do was braid our hair into plaits with those of our friends. So we'd be like a big two of three headed friendship monster.

11. Making Matching Tie Dye Outfits

It wasn't easy to get your tie dye to match. That's why making matching tie dye outfits was a true testament to best friendship.

12. Making Matching Beaded Jewelry

Any '90s kid or teen worth their salt had a bead kit for hand-making jewelry. If you got one for your birthday or Christmas, that would mean only one thing: you and your friends would be making each other friendship jewelry all weekend long, and wearing it proudly as a mark of your friendship.

Images: New Line Cinema; Giphy (6)