If you're on the hunt for the perfect gift to get a '90s kid, look no further than the school supplies aisle. Depending on what you pick, you could earn brownie points for life. Why? Well, '90s kids are obsessed with school supplies. This is a broad generalization, I realize, but it certainly seems to be true — and it makes total sense, too.
When you look back at the trends of the '90s, you'll naturally hear about the fashion we wore and beauty fads we tried out. But '90s nostalgia also centers around a less likely fascination we all seemed to have: the supplies we toted around in our JanSport backpacks and stocked our desks with at school. Just think about it. Of all of the '90s trends that have seen a resurgence over the past few years, you have to admit a ton of the things getting renewed attention happen to be school supplies from that decade of old. And, hey, we're not mad about it.
Yes, you can bet that if you opened the desk drawer of a '90s kids today, you'd probably find some of the very school supplies they were obsessed with back in the '90s. Our love for said nostalgic office products is deep-rooted, obviously. Here are a few reasons why.
1. Scented Everything
If you're gonna be using something day in and day out, why shouldn't it smell delightful? In the '90s, scented school supplies like markers, erasers, stickers, and even pencils were all the rage. Judge us if you will, but being stuck in a cubicle all day is a lot more enjoyable if your notes smell like fruit-scented ink.
2. Back-To-School Shopping
Kids these days would rather stare at their smartphone screens or stay home than going back-to-school shopping, which seems bananas to any '90s kid. In fact, getting to comb through the aisle of colorful school supplies during this special shopping excursion was the only thing they made summer ending bearable. Now, '90s kids get both a rush during B2S shopping from both the nostalgia and the insane savings. Score!
3. Erasable Pens
Before erasable pens came along, choosing the proper writing utensil presented a conundrum: pens were more sophisticated, but more permanent. Pencils were more forgivable but didn't seem grown-up. We '90s kids learned early the advantages of having a steady supply of erasable pens.
4. Organizational Options
With so many amazing writing utensils at our disposal, '90s kids have long known the need for proper storage and organization. Thankfully, the '90s gave us that in spades: Trapper Keepers, Caboodles, Spacemakers, pencil pouches . . . we had and loved 'em all. OK, fine, we still have some of these at home.
5. Multi-Tasking Made Easy
In today's fast-paced world, it pays to have products that pull double-duty. And thanks to our exposure to them in the '90s, we know and seek out multi-taskers like multi-colored retractable pens and rulers that also help you stencil shapes.
6. Callous Prevention
While some people contend that pencil grips were little more than a scam or an excuse to pretty up our pencils, I still swear by them. When you take a lot of notes, you will develop callouses on your fingers — unless, of course, you cave into your '90s proclivities and arm your writing utensils with spongy, bright, and fun pencil grips to protect your digits.
7. Perfect Penmanship
Any '90s kid worth their salt spent a solid chunk of their school years honing in on the pens and pencils that made their handwriting look nearly perfect. That meant never being without mechanical pencils, Pilot ballpoint pens and Milky Pens, natch.
8. Pencil Flair
Listen, plain ol' No. 2 pencils are boooooring. In the '90s, we knew the value of giving our pencils more personality (that value was namely just fun). While we may not be sporting Troll pencil toppers anymore, we do still tend to gravitate toward pencils in pretty patterns and exciting colors.
9. Day-Glo Distractions
When you're sitting in a cubicle all day long, you need something to lift your spirits every now and then. Enter, super-bright school supplies in whimsical designs. You know who I'm talking about '90s kids, and don't pretend like you don't have some of this stuff in your desk right now. Lisa Frank 4 lyfe!
10. Pure Necessity
Technology didn't do everything for us. We couldn't type everything into a laptop. We didn't have art apps to create projects. In the '90s, we pretty much still had to do everything by hand. We couldn't have made it through the decade without a rad assortment of school supplies, so I'd say our continued obsession with such products is totally justified.
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