90s Con 2025
I don't care if it's cringe: nostalgia heals
Over the past few years, when I tell people I'm going to something called "90's Con," I usually get one of two reactions. It's either "how do you have a convention for an entire decade?" and general confusion or, "oh my god that's awesome??" general excitement and jealousy. I would bet the difference is entirely dependent on how into pop culture the person was (or if they were even alive) in the 90s but of course MY friends and I were in the second camp when we first heard about it. We didn't know each other in the 90s, but we share a lot of the same touchstones; we have a lot of overlap in the kinds of music, TV shows, and movies we were enjoying at the same time but miles or states apart, and this is a fun way to celebrate those things together.
A lot of people go to 90s Con specifically to see some of their favorite celebrities they grew up loving, which is absolutely fair. But I personally go to swim around in a pool of nostalgia with the friends I didn't meet until I was a full grown adult. It's like I got to take my favorite parts of my childhood and mix them with my favorite parts of adulthood. I loved hearing other people's stories about concerts they went to or shows they watched, bonding over our shared memories of how we felt about different pieces of media, learning who we had crushes on before we knew what crushes were, knowing who we clipped out of teen magazines to hang on our walls. I think of the eight of us on this particular trip, we are scattered in ages with a 12 year difference between the oldest and youngest, so we all have varied memories and opinions and experiences, and it was really awesome to share and learn. Also, a handful of us grew up in and around Boston so there are some hilarious instances where, despite not knowing each other at the time, it's very possible we were at the same concerts.
All that said, we HAVE met some pretty cool people over the years, and seen some really great panels about the content we grew up with. This year, we went to panels about The Craft, Cool Runnings, Scream, Charmed, and the TGIF shows (specifically there were people from Boy Meets World, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Family Matters on the panel.) It was fun to hear how those jobs affected them, what it was like for them to think back on the shows or movies all these years later, etc. It's also great to get little behind the scenes tidbits and stories that, with the internet being much less widespread and all-encompassing as it is now, we never learned about back then - and that, if I'm being honest, I might not have appreciated as much as a child as I do as an adult.
I also personally had the wonderful pleasure of meeting the one and only Soleil Moon Frye, who is someone I have admired from afar for literally as long as I can remember. The TV show Punky Brewster technically first aired before I was born, but it was in syndication when I was little and my dad and I watched all the time. Apparently I reminded him of the precocious, endlessly curious, somewhat different little girl, because ever since then he has called me Punky. If you met or followed me through online channels - any of them, really, unless you found this newsletter directly through substack - you might know me by my username, PunkyStarshine, which I made long before Twitter was ever a thing and is one I've stuck with ever since, meaning some of the friends I made online even call me Punky. I also sort of grew up "with" Soleil, because she was later on Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and then when I was adult, so was Punky Brewster in the 2021 reboot. Meeting her felt like a very full-circle moment and she was so incredibly sweet and kind and effusive and said she loved connecting with people about Punky, even after all this time.
For me, this weekend every year is mostly about the time I get to spend with my friends, and it's just a bonus that it happens with a 90s-themed backdrop. It inspires us to tell each other new stories that might not have come up in everyday conversations, it helps us find out more things we have in common, or lets us teach each other about things we might have missed. We met through pop culture, so it makes sense that we continue to bond through it.
It was also a bit of a trip to watch Yellowjackets together this weekend, a show that takes place in both the 90s and present day, with people who also have 90s nostalgia but are friends in present day. We actually watched it on our first full day and our last night, as a perfect full-circle moment of friendship.
These weekends also just do so much to heal my inner child. Which I feel like I talk about a lot here but it's something I feel very passionately about! That girl was SAD and she deserves to share in some of our adult self's joy as often as possible. I know some people on the internet call us “cringe” for being so into the 90s and leaning into nostalgia so often (even though our parents’ generation did the same thing; I didn’t teach myself Leader of the Pack as a wee child), and it doesn’t take a psychologist to figure out why we might be leaning into it harder than ever. The world is really hard right now, and engaging in things that brought us and still bring us joy should be celebrated, not judged. I don’t care if it’s cringe: nostalgia heals. Especially aforementioned inner child. Sometimes I wish I could my child self a letter and tell her that someday she wouldn't have to be embarrassed by how much she loves Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or that someday she will have friends who would appreciate wanting to have a Spice World themed birthday party more than the ones who actually attended, that someday she wouldn't feel like the odd one out, or left out, or like no one would ever understand her, or so goddamn lonely. Someday she will have friends to watch The Craft with and they would listen to killer playlists that are jam-packed with Spice Girls and TLC and all the other music from the CDs she wore out and eat as many Gushers as they want. Someday she will have friends who laugh WITH her instead of at her, and whose laughter will bring her more joy than she thought she would ever be capable of feeling.
I'll leave you with a quote from The Craft, which we did, in fact, watch this weekend:
We are the weirdos, mister.
And I wouldn't have it any other way.