Posts about coming-of-age themes across media
Some were assigned reading, some were quietly passed between friends. Either way, these controversial books pushed Gen X readers in the ’80s and ’90s to question authority and think a little harder about the world around them.
Some stories are too timeless to stay on the page. Every generation finds its own version of Anne of Green Gables, Little Women, or Lord of the Flies, and each retelling tends to reflect the world it’s born into.
The Soundtrack of a Generation If you were a teen in the ’90s, summer didn’t smell like sunscreen, it smelled like dust, fast food, and freshly printed concert T-shirts. Festivals like H.O.R.D.E., HFStival, Lollapalooza, and every Dave Matthews Band show within driving distance were rites of passage for a generation that measured time by mixtapes,…
Before BookTok or e-readers, there were backpacks stuffed with paperbacks that were traded, borrowed, and loved until the spines cracked. Between math homework and mixtapes, my backpack always had at least one paperback tucked inside, usually worn at the corners, traded with a friend, or borrowed from the library. From Sweet Valley High to The…
Between 1992 and 1995, I spent more weekends than I can count folding tiny T-shirts at GapKids in Montgomery Mall in Bethesda, Maryland. It wasn’t glamorous, but working at the mall was its own rite of passage: equal parts paycheck, hangout spot, and backstage pass to the social hub of the ’90s. The Mall as…