As we get older, there’s that one smell, one taste, one pair of jeans that draws us right back to our youth. For some, it’s specifically something that made them feel like they’d gone from child to adult(ish) in a split second. A woman on Threads wanted to know what that exact thing was for others, and Gen Xers showed they were ready for the nostalgia challenge.
A woman named Etta C Castles (@ettacastles) posted a simple question on Threads dedicated to women of a certain age. “Gen X ladies: What was the ONE possession you had as a teenager that made you feel like you had officially ARRIVED?” She then answers, “Mine was my giant pink-and-purple Caboodles with the pop-up mirror. I had Love’s Baby Soft, enough jelly bracelets to cut off circulation, and absolutely nowhere important to be.”
Bubblegum pink everything
She then posted a photo of her teenage self applying bubblegum-pink lip gloss in front of the aforementioned pink-and-purple Caboodles makeup kit and mirror. In fact, the photo contains a lot of pink, including nail polish and bracelets. Her expression clearly reads, “I’m a real teenager now,” with a quiet, adorable smirk.
Fellow Gen Xers resonated with the post, dropping well over a thousand comments and replies in just a few days. Answers ranged from fashion (like Swatch watches and Guess jeans) to stereo systems to solo travel. Arriving as a Gen X woman wasn’t just about clothes and accessories. It was a lifestyle that read, “I’ve got this! Watch me go.”
Designer jeans
Fashion, of course, largely signaled our ability to control how we presented ourselves to the world. One commenter shares, “One item. Three words. White Guess jeans.”
This commenter explained there was often a disconnect with their parents. “My Silent Gen mom did not understand the allure of designer jeans. I begged for these. $15 on the super clearance rack at Miller’s Outpost. This was the exact style I got. Wore them to a skate party at the roller rink. I. FELT. BITCHEN.”
One woman shared the lengths she went to in order to get the clothes she thought would impress, only to find her “real” self a bit later. “I babysat my ass off at 12-13 to purchase the following: Guess jeans with the ankle zipper, Esprit sweatshirts, a Swatch, an oversized too big Generra sweatshirt with the people on it wearing the same sweatshirt. Thin skirts with a slit up the back. Capezio mary janes. That tan Liz Claiborne purse. Le Sportsac bag. I had a vision of being much more wealthy than we were. It was way too much to keep up. I moved on to being a weirdo who wore a lot of black and shopped at thrift stores.”
A camera changed her life
For this Threader, a camera sparked a whole new interest in high school: “I went to visit my dad in Korea and came home with a decent Canon camera, which led to me being on the school newspaper staff!”
Flowery perfume and clear phones
We couldn’t mention Gen X actualization without the baby powder scents and the rotary phones. The flowery bottle of Anai Anai’s perfume (and Debbie Gibson’s Electric Youth) stood out, as did the ultra-neon, clear rotary phones, which showed up in nearly every John Hughes movie. Once we could smell the part and twist our hair while taking a call on one of those “futuristic” phones, we had “arrived” (or at least we thought so).
