I recently did a rewatch of Life With Loopy, a kooky regular short in Nickelodeon’s animated sketch comedy anthology KaBlam! (1996-2000). Loopy is a 7-year-old girl always going down some rabbit hole (or in one case, a toilet, to see her late fish in Fish Heaven), to the curiosity, amusement, and sometimes chagrin of her older brother, Larry. The execution of her many ideas is misguided, but her heart is as big as her quirky imagination.

As a kid, I related to Loopy – head in the clouds, boundlessly creative, always having fun, wearing sick platform shoes. I’ve decided to get back in touch with my inner Lupicia Cooper, and it’s going very well!!!! Here’s what I’ve been up to this summer!

Fitness Classes

Catch me at Methodz every Thursday AM (Bushwick) this summer!!!!! Core Strength is 8am-9am, Dance Cardio is 9am-10am. Each class i only $15, which is an AMAZING value. (You can hardly buy a sandwich for $15 these days.) Come to my classes for the rest of the summer!!!!! Also please share with any of your friends who are fun/love dance! 💖 💖 💖

I’m also teaching CORE:30 (6-6:30pm) and CARDIO DANCE (6:35-7:20pm) at Grind House (Flatiron) on Tuesday nights (only exception is this upcoming Tuesday 6/28). Both studios are on ClassPass, and all the info is in one place on my very cute website.

If you can’t make any of these times, or if you want private solo lessons or group events, please inquire within. Happy to set that up for you. You can also watch Cher or Carmen Electra or Lisa Rinna or Richard Simmons workout videos on my website, because why not?!

Fitness Pop-Ups

Spandex The Musical and I are Instagram mutuals, because of course we are, and they invited me to a dance cardio class with 80s teen superstar Tiffany. She is starring in the upcoming Off-Broadway musical and was super nice. Also got to meet her aerobics instructor, who was wearing an INCREDIBLE oversized non-functional belt. (Wow, the 20-year trend cycle never fails!)

Movie Screenings

I went to a screening at the Roxy of Rhythm is a Dancer, moderated by my lovely friend Abbey Bender. Lauren Caster directed, produced, and starred in this movie about a 29-year-old woman – terrified to turn 30 – whose performing career in New York “isn’t working out”. She goes home for the summer to her lesbian mom’s house and finally meets her biological father (aka. her bio dad, rather than ‘dad’ or ‘donor’). It’s based on her real life!

There were a couple of O.C. Easter eggs in the film, mainly Tate’s character living in Newport Beach/Orange County and the name drop of Lauren’s character’s high school boyfriend named James Cooper.1 I see what she did there, and I loved it.

It was very cool to meet Tate Donovan, who finally got to play a good dad after being a terrible dad on The O.C., and Conor Donnally, who is just as lovely as his character with the ‘brooding eyes’. The Roxy is a lovely theater, so cozy…like if you were in a ‘movie room’ at a rich person’s house. I’ve asked them how I can set up a screening of Spice World…let’s see what they say…

Went to a 25th anniversary screening of one of my favorite movies, Josie and the Pussycats, at Nitehawk Cinema. Josie and The Pussycats really IS The Best Movie Ever™. I’m genuinely confused as to why Tara Reid did not win a Best Comedic Actress Oscar for her role?! While the marquee in the Megarecords

The pre-screening Q&A was with Writer/Director Deborah Kaplan. (Her co-writer/director Harry Elfont couldn’t be there due to an apparent tornado warning.) I got a fabulous hat and sticker from Super Yaki and smelled an amazing Mise en Scènt candle. Physical media forever!!

Concerts

Saw Spoon in Central Park a couple weeks ago. There is something sooooo satisfying about seeing a show from a band that I first found out about through The O.C. or MySpace. Feels like I’m at The Bait Shop kinda.

Also FINALLY saw “Weird Al” Yankovic in concert!! He is was honestly a big influence on my developing brain, which I suppose says a lot. I find his lyrics clever and funny, plus, he is a stickler for grammar. I have very fond memories of listening to his greatest hits album with my best friend in sixth grade while we played The Sims on her computer after school. My favorite song was always “One More Minute” for some reason, which he played, but I also love “Ebay”, the parody of “I Want It That Way” about all the random shit he bought on eBay. Relatable! (Btw, does anyone have $999.99 to spare for these RARE MEGARECORDS Original 2001 MOVIE PROP Josie and The Pussycats EAR HEADPHONES?)

Creative Projects

Check out my dance company, Methodz of Madzness, in our Season 1 dance visual “For you”. I was so excited when our song, “Cellophane” by FKA Twigs, was recently featured as a Jeopardy! answer lol.

I transformed into renowned news anchor Linda Kensington for my dear, talented friend Janine’s Mrs. Meteorology music video! Playing a character in the Retro Avocado universe was sooooo much fun and I will actually be getting a lot of use out of that wig. I served as Talent, Movement Director, and Additional Camera Operator. (Turns out, it’s fun being in front of AND behind the camera!) Conveniently, the mv dropped just in time for The Weather Channel to bring back its RetroCast website.

Huge thank you to the paid subscribers who support my work: Janine, Liv, CY, Matthew, Emily, Gina, Taylor, Alejandra, Lindsay, Bea, Janani, Tia, and Taylor! À la Jessica Simpson, I’m gonna love you forever 💐💐💐

Upgrade to paid subscription

If you enjoy my interviews, essays, deep dives, and other musings, please consider supporting Nicstalgia! Your support helps me continue writing the most fun newsletter about offbeat, obscure, and niche pop culture. If you’d rather send a one-time gift of a custom amount versus a recurring subscription, you can also do that here!

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The below article was originally posted last year in Nicstalgia. A couple of notes on the current state of July 4th:

• It’s Old Navy’s time to shine! Here’s their 29th annual Fourth of July t-shirt. Gotta hand it to their creative team – they truly know how to reinvent the wheel time and time again. I’m interested to see what they do for the big 3-0 next year.

• This is not new: Gen Z’s adoption of American iconography continues to be performed in an ironic (e.g. y2k girlies) or post-ironic (e.g. Ralph Lauren preppy) way. Otherwise, they are afraid to be perceived as holding conservative ideals. I do think it’s unfortunate that having any semblance of patriotism holds that connotation, because sincere political mobilization is the only way to disrupt the status quo. Taking civic action to improve our communities, change laws, and progress society goes beyond making TikToks, but the younger generation knows nothing but surveillance culture and identity politics. (They never danced at the club without cell phones or fear of being recorded, and it shows.) Creative examples include:

  • i find second hand right leaning crewnecks and screen print, “dump your Republican bf” onto them

  • it’s almost july 4th so let’s embroider this vintage sweater to be less “oh say can you see” and more “i do it for my daddy and i do it for dale”

• Tired Thrift’s y2k fourth of july edit Instagram post beautifully exemplifies the ironic appreciation of post-9/11 American patriotism by an audience who wasn’t even born by, let alone remember, September 11th, 2001.

In related American flag news, paid subs bonus issue has arrived!!!! Upgrade here.

Fun crossover: If you unfolded the Summer 2001 A&F Quarterly, you’d see the full scope of the beefcake model standing in front of an American flag. Unironically!

An American flag is worth a thousand words. The immediately recognizable, emotionally-charged motif is imbued with layers of irony, as its symbolic meaning reflects America’s continuously evolving sociopolitical climate. There are always exceptions – and I am focusing on broader, historically liberal-leaning pop culture rather than the specific, conservative-leaning country music genre – but generally, the cycle of the recent past is broken down into four waves.

Sincerity

While brands had long used the American flag as a primary motif, the prosperity of the 1990s gave rise to a distinctly market-friendly patriotism. Americana labels celebrating blue-collar values (Carhartt), Western cowboy heritage (Wrangler), and open-road freedom (Harley-Davidson), as well as preppy brands geared toward an upper-class white consumer (Ralph Lauren), all embraced the flag as a symbol of traditional American aspiration. Tommy Hilfiger built an aspirational lifestyle empire on patriotic iconography, and no one else capitalized off Black kids’ desire to be ‘rich’ and white kids’ desire to be ‘cool’ better. New pop star Britney Spears also embodied a sincere American ideal. Her Christian, Southern upbringing fit perfectly with the era’s family-values narrative, making the “good girl” archetype a highly bankable symbol of American patriarchy and purity culture.

This was a period of rabid consumerism and rising materialism, paired with anxieties over the rapid shift to foreign production in search of cheaper labor. The flag offered a comforting sense of national pride and belonging during this time of change toward globalization and corporate expansion. “Made in the USA” labels boosted consumer confidence, though, in practice, Americans ultimately prioritized unbridled consumption over ethical production. Patriotic mass production is epitomized by Old Navy, who has now created annual Fourth of July t-shirts – for the whole family! – for over a quarter of a century.

After September 2001, the American flag flew proudly, even at half-mast. It remained an emotionally resonant symbol of strength and unity, signaling to the world that the United States was still the only global superpower. Despite being a country with deep-seated systemic inequalities, Americans were united against a common foreign enemy. Sales of flags and flag-themed merchandise post 9/11 surged, commodifying national pride and hopeful optimism for a united future. Fear over national security was tempered by the urge to do what Americans do best – spend money.

Patriotism became chic! The November 2001 issue of Vogue, the first released since 9/11, almost predictably had Britney Spears on the cover. The article “True Colors” signaled patriotism as a trend, with Catherine Malandrino and Viktor & Rolf already incorporating the flag design into their collections. The article “Up In Arms”, about a writer getting trained by a professional dancer to have skinnier arms, is supplemented with a photo of a SS02 Donna Karan dress with a small American flag placed on the hip. “Amazing Grace” recalls how 9/11 affected New York Fashion Week and how the industry is moving forward “[deciding] what to wear when you have weightier things on your mind than fashion.” But by the time this issue was released, the war in Afghanistan had already begun. By the time US forces invaded Iraq in 2003, the era of sincerity was over.

Irony

Because the flag is a generally revered symbol, any subversion of its meaning is viewed as blasphemous – until it isn’t. Madonna’s 2001 Drowned World Tour, having been recorded less than two weeks prior to 9/11, featured the singer performing her 1994 song “Human Nature” wearing an American flag shirt and riding a mechanical bull amidst a sea of sweaty, sexy, shirtless men. By the mid-2000s, the American-flag-as-ironic era served as a reflection of the nihilistic, exploitative, supersized, celebrity-obsessed, gossip-driven tabloid culture. Jessica Simpson and Courtney Love adorning American flag-marked bikinis and corsets on magazine covers depicted transgression and tension between secular and fundamentalist ideals of the time. The plummeting presidential approval rate and pop cultural milestones like Green Day’s American Idiot (2004) represented a flippant cynicism toward America and its leadership. Saluting the American flag meant complying with the government, and Gen X would never sell out the way that Boomers did.

Paris Hilton is the most-photographed celebrity in any context, and her appearing with an American flag – to this day – is no exception. Despite being derided as a superficial socialite (before we knew about the creation of her baby-voiced airhead character as a trauma response), Paris was still massively influential. She’s emblematic of the undeterred, steadfast devotion to American neoliberalism. Paris’s provocative, scantily-clad photos in front of the stars & stripes serve as a cheeky reminder that despite her financially privileged status as an heiress, meritocracy must be real. Her sex appeal made her initial associations ironic, but since her recent redemption arc, her patriotism shifts into post-ironic territory. Blondes have more fun because of free-market capitalism, the drive to maximize productivity and profit, and the ability to girlboss their way to the top. America exploited Paris, but she laughs all the way to the bank.

By the end of the decade, the focal generation of youth culture shifted from Gen X to Millennials. We had a new president and also a massive economic recession. Miley Cyrus’s “Party in the U.S.A.” (2009) might seem like a cheesy, sincere pop song, but it’s actually the perfect example of the 21st century American Dream. Ironically. Shit is still falling apart, so we might as well have a good time! This disenchantment with realities of American adulthood, coupled with the interconnectedness granted by the mass adoption of social media, ushered in a new era.

Post-Irony

The post-ironic representation of the American flag in the early-to-mid 2010s is rooted in performance and an aestheticized naiveté. Interestingly, this is the first era where images of the flag are distributed and consumed digitally rather than through a tangible way, like a magazine or an actual physical flag. The flag becomes a sort of simulacrum, where the flag’s aesthetic has a greater cultural impact than a genuine representation of its true meaning. Online, social media platforms like Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram drove an Americana aesthetic. Offline, Americana was often intertwined with hipster culture (mustaches, breweries, beards, bicycles), festival culture (Coachella, etc.), and prep culture (frat boys and sorority girls). The prevalence of blogs introduced a palatable, mass-accessible feminine style, where norms and conventions were peer-defined (as opposed to top-down advice from magazines of yesteryear). This universally-acceptable style is what is considered ‘basic’ or even ‘cheugy’ in present-day. Navigating the nuance of identity politics and personal style is what led to the meta-ironic era that would come next.

In the original iteration of this essay, I positioned Katy Perry as meta-ironic, basically to demonstrate that no one can ever interpret what the hell she is doing. While that became even more true [over the last couple years, peaking when she went to outer space], her existence across the broad spectrum from kitsch to cringe has shifted into post-ironic territory. Katy Perry has adorned this motif so frequently it makes my head spin, from her Uncle Sam cosplay to the stars-and-stripes-adorned branded Katy Perry flip flops. Both sides of the aisle could agree on one thing: her political loyalty and activism seemed contrived. When Katy got political, her career immediately flopped. To be fair, this was also in part because her music was awful. But pushing a political agenda to regain cultural relevance and prioritize financial gain is as American as it gets in the 2010s. (Perry’s marriage to now-conservative evangelist Russell Brand is Horseshoe Theory in full effect.)

This blind cultural faith in performative, aestheticized politics – later called “woke” politics, rebelled against in the 2020s – is what left so many Clinton supporters blindsided by the results of the 2016 election. Unfortunately, the Broad City cameo didn’t move the needle as genuine political change. The digital-era flag-waving turned out to be as hollow and ineffective as Perry’s own superficial displays of Americana.

There is a kind of self-awareness to this brand of patriotism, with exhaustion toward late-stage capitalism accompanied by a coy little wink. “Money is the reason we exist. Everybody knows it, it’s a fact, kiss, kiss!!” Because this is my generation, I have such a soft spot for Lana Del Rey’s Born To Die era. Its retro, kitschy, nostalgic Americana aesthetic harkens back to JFK and the 1960s with declinism bias, romanticizing the past and looking back as though everything was better back in the good old days, whenever that was. “Be young, be dope, be proud” sounds so ridiculous now, but in the 2010s, it was a post-ironic quote made in Pinterest heaven. LDR famously abandoned the flag motif for her tour visuals post-2016, as she recognized a major shift in culture and the new meaning and politics behind the American flag motif.

Meta-Irony

In the meta-ironic era of the late 2010s and early 2020s, the meaning of the American flag is skewed, misunderstood, and disagreed upon. Online misinformation is rampant, and our society determines value based on who can get the greatest amount of money and eyeballs the fastest. Social media algorithms reinforce confirmation bias and only show people what they want to see. There is fragmentation down racial, class, and political lines in regards to what the American flag actually means, although most employ the flag as a means of strategic protest. Black artists have explored the flag’s complex symbolism, including Joey Bada$$ in the “Land of the Free” music video (2017) and Kendrick Lamar’s 2025 Super Bowl performance (2025). In this context, the flag is used to address and establish accountability to eradicate systemic inequalities like racism. Country artists often use the American flag to mark their territory, figuratively and literally, using the flag as a resistance toward progressive social values or a return to American traditionalism. Beyoncé’s Cowboy Carter album cover, considered controversial to some, is the middle of the Venn Diagram here, reclaiming space in a historically white-dominated genre and defining what intersectional patriotism means.

The meta-ironic era also saw the mainstream rise of stan culture and toxic fandom. American flags often mock militancy, equating “serving” and “service” with undying devotion to a celebrity. A viral video of a fan waving a Nicki Minaj flag has been heavily circulated. Online, it seems like everything is a joke, even a once-revered symbol of national pride like the American flag.

American flag sweatshirts from Brandy Melville went viral, as girls commented they were wearing the flag in a Lana Del Rey way, not a conservative-coded way. Obviously this was a trending joke, but it’s meta-ironic in that some people genuinely can’t make the distinction. Social media is fueled by context collapse, which has desecrated media literacy. Critical thinking skills required to pick up on nuance are thrown to the wayside in favor of rage bait. Vogue’s “Can You Wear the American Flag Without Irony?” (2024) explained the landscape of more recent years, where identity politics are fully baked into how American flags signify partisanship in a way they didn’t ten years ago. From the Chappell Roan camouflage Midwest Princess merch used by the Harris presidential campaign, to the Trailer Park Princess aesthetic, to Lana Del Rey working at Waffle House and marrying a Louisianan alligator tour boat driver, both sides of the political aisle were playing a tug-of-war over camo print hats, white tank tops, and cowboy boots. But what are we really fighting for? Whomever can reclaim the American flag as a symbol of unity – for the people instead of against them – will win. [And what’s more American than winning?]

Huge thank you to the paid subscribers who support my work: Janine, Liv, CY, Matthew, Emily, Gina, Taylor, Alejandra, Lindsay, Bea, Janani, Tia, and Taylor! À la Jessica Simpson, I’m gonna love you forever 💐💐💐

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If you enjoy my interviews, essays, deep dives, and other musings, please consider supporting Nicstalgia! Your support helps me continue writing the most fun newsletter about offbeat, obscure, and niche pop culture. If you’d rather send a one-time gift of a custom amount versus a recurring subscription, you can also do that here!

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• A&F NSFW catalogue issue for paid subscribers ONLY is coming before EOM 💖 Upgrade your subscription here.

• You can always see past Nicstalgia issues at the bottom of these emails. ICYMI:

  • The only 6 people I want to see at my HS reunion

  • It’s Mary-Kate and Ashley, not “The Olsen Twins”

  • I Love Boosters >>> The Devil Wears Prada 2

• Obsessed with my new hat. I made it myself. (I made the necklace too.) Shoutout to Darrin!!!

Dooney & Bourke Hearts and Charms Collections

Celebrities are longtime brand spokespeople. But back in Hollywood’s heyday, endorsing products was actually a secondary source of exposure and income for actors. The entertainment industry used to offer big paydays!1 Now, attention, wealth, and power have been funneled into big tech companies, drying up creative industries like media and entertainment. It’s why nowadays, movie stars do more commercials, advertisements, and social media #sponcon than they actually do movies. It explains why every celebrity has a fragrance, hair care line, skincare line, or cosmetics line. Financially successful people follow the money, wherever it happens to go.

In the early 2000s, God-Tier Millennials Mischa Barton and Lindsay Lohan were celebrity endorsers of Dooney & Bourke, the Norwalk Connecticut-based leather goods company. (Shoutout to Norwalk.) Their association with D&B, plus the brand’s prominent placements in Teen Vogue magazine, appealed to a younger demographic with newly minted buying power. Dooney & Bourke is popular among the well-to-do, but not *rich* rich, somewhat preppy, professional market segment. Their target demo is New England/Tri-State Area Boomer moms who refer to handbags or purses as “pocka-books”. While I would not go so far as to say that D&B has ever been “cool”, the brand’s new era appealed to teenagers in a way that it didn’t before.

In 2004, Mean Girls changed pop culture forever and Lindsay Lohan was appointed spokesperson for Dooney & Bourke’s Hearts and Charms collections. Let’s get something straight though: people on the internet often say Hearts and Charms were a “collab” with Lindsay Lohan, but calling everything a “collab” is Instagram slop speak. It’s categorically false. Stop calling everything a “collab” when there is any kind of vague association between two branded entities. (By the way, Google’s AI summary often regurgitates false information, so don’t rely on that as a source of truth.) D&B did a great job picking the right face of the brand, but Lindsay did not take any part in the design or development of the bag. You know who did? A bunch of teenage girls.

D&B had partnered with Teen Vogue in 2002 to send a group of American teens to Italy to develop a new line for D&B. This group, called the “It Team,” was photographed looking at Vuitton’s Multicolore handbags at a Vuitton store. D&B’s well-known “It Bag”, with interlocking rainbow letters, was already an aspirational yet accessible ripoff of Louis Vuitton’s Monograme Multicolore. LV was not happy about this! So in 2004, they sued D&B for trademark infringement and lost after four years of litigation. Maybe it was design piracy, but you can’t trademark a rainbow. As far as fashion brands go, D&B (in contrast to D&G) is minimally controversial, but that doesn’t mean they haven’t been embroiled in scandal for the sake of an “It Bag”.

The Charm collection “It Bags” have surged in popularity over the last few years. This is largely to my dismay because 1. The demand makes it more expensive for me to rebuy and 2. Seemingly few people complete due diligence around the history, provenance, and authenticity of each bag. The most popular picture of the Charm collection that circulates online features several different colors (blue, orange, yellow, etc.), but according to the official catalog, these bags only came in white, black, and raspberry. What’s up with that? Another yellow one I saw on Poshmark had red interior lining when the interior lining on these bags was blue gingham. Sketchy. A collector on TikTok who had a half dozen of these bags owned a mysterious “light purple” one. From where, exactly? So if you go to buy one on eBay (for yourself or for me), don’t be fooled!!!! Maybe some people don’t care about anything deeper than a *~Y2K~* aesthetic, but as a former handbag super seller, I’m a bit of a stickler.

Today, we are going to focus on the Charms collection specifically because it holds a special place in my heart!! Here’s everything you need to know about the original eight silhouettes. For context on size, I include all the fun items you can carry in them! Leave a comment telling me which one is your favorite.

Number 1: Crescent Zip Top
[H 5.5” L 10” W 2.5”]
The crescent is a classic silhouette that never really goes out of style. The crescent zip top fits your pink Nikon digital camera, Juicy Tubes lip gloss, and cubic zirconia interlocking C “Chanel” necklace. It has an inside zip pocket, cell phone pocket, inside key hook, and detachable strap, with a 9.75” drop. Original 2004 retail price: $195, now equivalent to ~$345.

Number 2: Small Barrel
[H 5.25” L 9.5” W 5”]
The small barrel is similar to the crescent bag, but with much roomier interior. I LOVE a barrel shape, à la the Limited Too initial bags. Chef’s kiss! The small barrel fits your school ID, lanyard, and car keys. It has an inside zip pocket, cell phone pocket, inside key hook, and detachable strap, with a 9.25” drop. Original 2004 retail price: $195, now equivalent to ~$345.

Number 3: Mini Bowler
[H 6.75” L 7.75” W 5”]
The mini bowler is so cute!!!!! While all of the bowlers are ironically too small to carry a bowling ball, the mini one fits your pink Motorola RAZR V3 flip phone, Ashlee Simpson’s Autobiography CD, and pair of rhinestoned oversized tortoise sunglasses. It has an inside zip pocket, cell phone pocket, and inside key hook. Original 2004 retail price: $225, now equivalent to ~$398.

Number 4: Circle Backpack
[H 8.25” L 8.25” W 3.5'“]
While not as roomy or practical as an LL Bean backpack, D&B’s version is decidedly chicer. The circle backpack fits your Coach patchwork wallet (you know the one), tub of deliciously kissable butterscotch toffee sugar shimmer from Jessica Simpson’s Dessert™ line, and folded up sheet of printed Mapquest directions. It has an inside zip pocket, cell phone pocket, inside key hook, and adjustable straps. Original 2004 retail price: $235, now equivalent to ~$415.

Number 5: Mini Duffel
[H 5.5” L 11.25” W 4.75’“]
The mini duffel has a shorter drop length, so all your precious items stay close! I would bring this bag with me anywhere and everywhere. The mini duffel fits your Livestrong bracelet, rolled-up copy of CosmoGIRL! magazine, and one of your many pairs of Old Navy flip flops. It has an inside zip pocket, cell phone pocket, and inside key hook, with a 8.5” drop. Original 2004 retail price: $225, now equivalent to ~$398.

Number 6: Mini Drawstring
[H 8” L 6.5” W 5.5’“]
The mini drawstring is soooo cute but is definitely the most annoying to open and close. It’s the only one from this collection without a rainbow-colored top zipper. The mini drawstring fits your Dunkin’ Donuts gift card, Tiffany & Co. Heart tag bracelet, and bottle of Britney Spears Fantasy perfume. It has an inside zip pocket, cell phone pocket, and inside key hook, with a 9.5” strap drop. Original 2004 retail price: $195, now equivalent to ~$345.

Number 7: Square Bowler
[H 7” L 8.5” W 4.5’“]
I could have sworn I had the #7 bag, but upon further review, I did NOT! The square bowler silhouette is dimensionally Goldilocks as compared to the mini bowler and square backpack, but like the mini bowler, it only has top handles and no straps. Therefore, carrying this bag in the crook of my elbow with a Starbucks Java Chip Frappuccino would prove to be difficult!!! However, it can still fit your full-size bottle of Hempz tanning lotion, tanning goggles, and a wad of cash to give the nail tech who does your gel tips. It has an inside zip pocket, cell phone pocket, and inside key hook. Original 2004 retail price: $225, now equivalent to ~$398.

Number 8: Square Backpack
[H 8” L 8.5” W 4’“]
#8 was my baby!!!!! I want her back!!! </3 I say I didn’t peak in high school, yet my fashion choices were iconic and stood the test of time. The square backpack fits your 1st generation iPod Mini, paperback copy of Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging, and an entire bag of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish®. It has an inside zip pocket, cell phone pocket, inside key hook, adjustable straps, AND is the only one of the bunch with an outside pocket! Original 2004 retail price: $235, now equivalent to ~$415. Mark my words, I will find this bag out in the wild for <=$50 one day. I’ve already done it once…

In 2006, two years after the Charms collection’s release, I bought Charms bag #8. It was my very first designer piece, which I found at TJ Maxx. This was a time when off-price retailers still carried main line items from old seasons, as opposed to crap created from worse materials, specifically made for bargain shoppers, designed for mass consumption and timely discard. I bought it with my own money for $50, approximately equivalent to $82.59 today. That’s a lot of money! But I can see why I loved this backpack in particular – I was drawn to hearts and rainbows like a moth to a flame.2 As far as my taste goes, this kitschy, colorful handbag truly fit the bill.

#8 stayed with me, at least through college, but I don’t remember when I let it go. The consignment store probably gave me $10 for it, which I try not to think about. I deeply regret getting rid of #8, as its price on the resale market has roughly quadrupled, back to its original retail value. Plus, I think it’s still cute, even if perhaps in a post-ironic way. I do think I’m entitled to getting #8 back for $50 because I was an original “Y2K baddie”. (At least that is what the twenty-something vintage TikTokers are referring to themselves as.) Don’t you agree?! (Say yes.)

Huge thank you to the paid subscribers who support my work: Janine, Liv, CY, Matthew, Emily, Gina, Taylor, Alejandra, Lindsay, Bea, Janani, Tia, and Taylor! À la Jessica Simpson, I’m gonna love you forever 💐💐💐

Upgrade to paid subscription

If you enjoy my interviews, essays, deep dives, and other musings, please consider supporting Nicstalgia! Your support helps me continue writing the most fun newsletter about offbeat, obscure, and niche pop culture. If you’d rather send a one-time gift of a custom amount versus a recurring subscription, you can also do that here!

Send a one-time gift

Nicstalgia Newsletter ☆ My Instagram ⟡ My Cool Website ♡ Aerobics Schedule ☆ Podcast Episode Archive ⟡ Physical Media Renaissance™ Zine ♡ My Physical Media Shelf ☆ iPod Shuffle Player ♡ Workout Playlist Archive ☆

ICYMI, last week I made a very difficult Mary-Kate or Ashley? quiz in celebration of their 40th birthday! How well you can tell them apart?? 💖 This week, I pulled a Where Are They Now? on select classmates I actually would like to see at my high school reunion.

In Nicstalgia news: Paid subs will receive a special dedicated email before the end of the month filled with NSFW pictures from the Abercrombie & Fitch Summer quarterly catalog. You’re welcome!!!! If you would like to upgrade your subscription, you can do so here.

In personal news: It’s show week!!!! Yes, I still have dance performances!! By the time this letter goes out, I will have had three of four tech week rehearsals. I’m so excited!! I believe there are still tickets for Saturday’s showcase, email me if you wanna come.

“Never change”

It’s that time of year when I get so nostalgic it almost makes me sick. Realizing my high school graduation was half my life ago has really made me think about the passage of time. In addition to compliments on my cute outfits, the top thing people wrote in my high school yearbook was “never change”. I know it’s an expression not meant to be taken literally, but I am pleased to report back that I largely didn’t LOL.

While I have since grown, gotten much thicker skin, been challenged, deconstructed entire belief systems, built resilience, navigated setbacks, established myself as a fully-functioning adult despite the state of our world being in consistent decline, and definitely changed as a result of life experience, I have only gotten truer and truer to my character. Knowing I am the same person at heart is what keeps me in touch and on good terms with every past version of myself. I find the expression “If I could tell my younger self something…” funny, because you actually can tell your younger self something. Now. It’s still you. You never know how things will work out in the future. In the words of Celine Dion, Spice Girls, and Avril Lavigne, “That’s the way it is.”

The senior yearbook quote is probably the most accurate depiction of an individual high schooler’s perspective, from their particular point in the sociopolitical context of their school and the larger cultural/generational zeitgeist. Unlike many of my peers’ quotes from 2008, mine aged well. It was by Austrian writer Vicki Baum: “There are many shortcuts to happiness, and dancing is one of them.” I think I just Googled “dance quotes”, but it still tracks. The other day, I was having a group conversation about how our Younger Self dream was simply to dance and hang out with our friends. Done and done, baby!!!

With all of the summer commotion just beginning, my dreams at this time of year tend to get especially crazy. While many people have recurring dreams that they’re naked in school or their teeth are falling out, I often dream about celebratory milestones. To this day, probably a third of my dreams revolve around dance recitals, dance competitions, social gatherings, and graduations. Even in a state of altered consciousness, I eagerly anticipate the glamorous culmination of academic, social, and creative pursuits.

I absolutely live to be a part of something, and I feel best when I’m surrounded by amazing friends, peers, teachers, and a doting audience. I feel a great sense of pride looking back at the result of a collective effort. Soaking up the spotlight or getting your flowers (metaphorically, but often literally in these situations) is a fabulous byproduct! On the other hand, there’s something so profoundly sad about knowing that once this fleeting high is over, things will never be the same again. That hurt makes my heart swell with gratitude, making me present and appreciative for every moment. I don’t revisit actual or imagined milestones in dreams so I can relive the moment or tweak what I would’ve done differently. I just love accessing the feeling of climbing to the highest peaks of achievement and breaking out into a full-blown state of joy. In my dreamland, it’s always party time!!

In my waking life, I’m still close with a few people who knew me then. (I had lunch with one of them the other day!) Other than that, I am only concerned with these 6 people out of my graduating class of 523. Here’s who I would actually want to see at my hypothetical 18-year reunion and how I’d want to reunite with them. All names have been changed! :)

Where are they now?

Jade

Jade was one of the most popular alt kids. I imagine she had a rich online life – perhaps as a MySpace influencer, prolific fanfic writer, or legendary Xanga role player. She looked as though she swept Hot Topic clean, with Scene Queen, haunted ballerina, Kawaii, and professional clown aesthetics equally represented. Jade wore thick black eye makeup, striped tights, creepers, tutus, pigtails, mismatched accessories, and asymmetrically cut hair she’d dyed herself.

On Halloween one year, she dressed in a white tank top, blue jeans, sneakers, and no makeup. I was shocked to my CORE!!! Now that’s what you wear on Halloween when you already wear a costume on a daily basis. Though I didn’t interact with Jade much, I respected her and thought she was interesting.

Where is Jade now? She lives in an apartment in a major city, met someone, and I think has a baby. Last time I checked, she was registered at Target. Should I have gotten her something?! No idea what her current aesthetic sensibility is like. I would love to get a coffee with her at Perkatory.

Henry

Henry was the first boy I ever danced with at a middle school dance, to Celine Dion’s “I’m Your Angel” featuring R. K*lly. Sparks didn’t exactly fly, but I would come to find out why much later. (Because he is gay.) We seemed like a mutually beneficial safe choice for a slow dance partner, as we’d known each other for years. (Since elementary school.) In fourth grade, we wore the same black and white Hawaiian shirt to spring school picture day, and I got made fun of for wearing a “boy shirt”. Turns out, we were simply the best dressed ones in our class!!!

Where is Henry now? I am always rooting for this man. Merely days after I asked my friends in 2022 if they knew what he was up to, one saw him in the distant background of her friend’s large group wedding photo. Looks like he moved to the West Coast and became a massage therapist. I would go to the new karaoke place in our hometown with Henry; he just seems like a good time!

Toby

I had a crush on Toby in first grade. His sister went to my dance studio, so he would always come to our recitals. By third grade, my feelings were ultimately reciprocated. Toby gave me a copy of the first Harry Potter book – the only one I’ve ever read – from the Scholastic Book Fair. In fourth grade, he gifted me a glass dolphin on our field trip to Mystic Seaport. The class clown pushed me on the sidewalk and I dropped it, so the top of its fin is cracked. But I still have it and will keep it forever.

Where is Toby now? We are Facebook friends. Toby also moved to the West Coast, met someone, got engaged, got a dog, and became a business owner in the food and beverage space. Good for him!! It’d be great to run into him in the Fancy Bagel line and catch up for a couple of mins.

Preston

Speaking of people I had a crush on...it all started with Preston. My so-called “best friend” (who ended up leaving our school the next year anyway) said Preston had a crush on her rather than me, which was a bold-faced lie!! Most kids could barely hold a pencil, and he, on the other hand, had impressively, confoundedly perfect handwriting. I loved banana bread from the moment he brought it to snack time.

While the others on this list didn’t necessarily leave a lasting impact on my life, Preston was a mirror. He reflected many qualities of myself – having exacting standards, requiring intellectual stimulation, enjoying critical thinking, being hard on yourself – even if I couldn’t quite realize or articulate it at the time. He truly owned being smart and talented, even if people rolled their eyes at him, whereas I felt pressure to become a smaller, quieter, more palatable, docile, obedient, and gratuitously humble girl. When you shine a bright light, there will always be people trying to dim it. His never went out, at least to me.

Where is Preston now? We are connected on LinkedIn, and he is exactly as smart and successful as I knew he would be. I ran into him a couple times in New York, which felt kinda fated?! (I’m dramatizing. He was just trying to go to the Apple Store.) Seeing him for happy hour and philosophical sparring would be so much fun.

Bella

Bella and I didn’t really become friends until my senior year, but I was very charmed by her. She was so funny and entertaining and had great parties. Must be an Italian American thing hehe! (Actually, I also want to know how every person inducted into the Italian American Honor Society is doing, plus Gia, whose family was in the mob…allegedly!) Bella is one of those people where you’re not together much, but when you are, you have a great time.

Where is Bella now? Bella became a therapist, at which I’m sure she excels, and lives in a small New England town with her husband. I would love to get lunch with her; I don’t know why I’m visualizing it in a picturesque garden. We would laugh a lot.

Phillip

Phillip had shiny, long hair that always flowed in the wind. It billowed along with the black cape he’d regularly wear to school. He was distant and quiet, yet he had the focus, intention, and wardrobe of a main character in The Matrix.

Phillip was the kind of person I’d look at with endless curiosity and moderate confusion. Where is he going? Why is he wearing leather pants in June? What conditioner does he use? Would he be attractive if he wasn’t so weird? I’d peer over at him, ready to say hello and subvert the high school hierarchy, but he never made eye contact. He always had somewhere else to be.

Where is Phillip now? I couldn’t find this man if I tried. I don’t think he wants to be found.

Huge thank you to the paid subscribers who support my work: Janine, Liv, CY, Matthew, Emily, Gina, Taylor, Alejandra, Lindsay, Bea, Janani, Tia, and Taylor! À la Jessica Simpson, I’m gonna love you forever 💐💐💐

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In this house, we stan M-K&A

Growing up, Mary-Kate and Ashley were among my greatest influences. I completely idolized them, watched every one of their shows, saw all their movies, and was a card-carrying member of their Fan Club. (I still have “My Mary-Kate and Ashley Fan Club Kit” box that all the memorabilia came in.)

They already ran a billion dollar retail empire by the time they started their high-end fashion brand, The Row, in 2006. Although they don’t want to be associated with their childhood entertainment career, it afforded them massive advantages – in more ways than one – that cannot be understated. In addition to their Mary-Kate and Ashley brand apparel, accessories, and memorabilia, they even had a rug line in 2004 and a home furnishings collection in 2005.1 Post-The Row, they started several fashion brands, including Elizabeth and James (named after their other two siblings) in 2007. Don’t forget about their Olsenboye line for J.C. Penney, whose short-lived social media activity serves as a whole and complete time capsule of 2015 Instagram. And Stylemint!!!!2 What range!!!3

While I cannot afford to even breathe the same air as those who frequent The Row, and I refuse to wait in line for anything unless it is physically, unavoidably necessary, Mary-Kate and Ashley will forever hold a special place in my heart.

M-K&A’s cultural cachet has been sustained throughout their adult lives by protecting their privacy and maintaining a sense of mystique. They are forever cultural enigmas. ’s 2021 interview served as an oral history of The Row’s 15th anniversary, which was the closest thing to satiating the masses since the Influence book from 2008. Not saying that book is what compelled me to become a fashion major, but also not saying it wasn’t?! In the iD article, the then-71-year old British chef Ruth Rogers “didn’t even know [The Row] was [started by Mary-Kate and Ashley]”, but every American Millennial woman with a pulse and any semblance of sartorial sense did. If I were to write The Row’s 20-year anni retrospective, I’d really lean into that dichotomy – giving people what they want (information) while maintaining opaqueness and intrigue. I’m dying to know how they perceive “imperfection”.

Do you deserve a spot in The Row’s sample sale line, or are you just a basic West Village girl?

June 13, 2026 is Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s 40th Birthday. While they are two distinct people and want to be referred to as such, many people can’t even tell them apart. Can you? I made a Mary-Kate or Ashley? quiz so that you can find out. The number of questions you get correct determines whether or not you get a spot in line at The Row sample sale….

My name is Ashley

Although I agree with Mary-Kate in terms of life philosophy (I think the opposite of fire is no fire), I was more like girly girl Ashley as a kid. Please enjoy this dramatic reading of that time I changed my name to Ashley when I was four years old:

DAD: Hey Nicky!

NICOLE: Yes?

DAD: Smile! You’re happy, aren’t ya?

NICOLE: Yeah, it looks like the same smile as Ashley.

DAD: Happy birthday!

NICOLE: I am Ashley, because I’m Ashley.

MOM: Nic, go get your ––

NICOLE: I’m Ashley.

MOM: –– Minnie Mouse flashlight.

NICOLE: I’m Ashley.

MOM: Go get the batteries from the Minnie Mouse flashlight.

NICOLE: My name is Ashley.

MOM: Ashley, please go get the batteries.

DAD: Your name is what?

NICOLE: Ashley. I’ll go get the batteries.

Huge thank you to the paid subscribers who support my work: Janine, Liv, CY, Matthew, Emily, Gina, Taylor, Alejandra, Lindsay, Bea, Janani, Tia, and Taylor! À la Jessica Simpson, I’m gonna love you forever 💐💐💐

Upgrade to paid subscription

If you enjoy my interviews, essays, deep dives, and other musings, please consider supporting Nicstalgia! Your support helps me continue writing the most fun newsletter about offbeat, obscure, and niche pop culture. If you’d rather send a one-time gift of a custom amount versus a recurring subscription, you can also do that here!

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I often feel a deep connection to fashion films, even though my relationship with the fashion industry can be complicated. I anticipated writing about The Devil Wears Prada 2 (TDWP2), but turns out, it didn’t give me much to chew on. Andy’s a sucker, Lucy Liu’s character is the least evil billionaire, that love interest was weird, and I will not fall for this “luxury” property development propaganda.1 Huge missed opportunity for Lady Gaga to have performed my favorite unreleased song of hers, The Fame era’s “Fashion”, during the runway show.2 I felt deflated leaving the theater, annoyed for being naive enough to think this movie held any greater meaning beyond Millennial nostalgia bait – for the original TDWP *and* for a career path in magazines that no longer exists.

What’s represented as “fashion” in movies like TDWP2 is the media industry, not the fashion industry. (Like magazines, movies are also media lol.) I really loved Marc by Sofia, but films like this that show the creative or business side of retail generally serve as documentary rather than entertainment.3 Like in I Love Boosters, the media props up particular figures to advance its narrative. As a result, public-facing people like Miranda Priestly (and her real-life counterpart) are granted outsized importance, consolidated power, and higher social standing in the fashion space than the people who actually design, produce, or sell a design house’s goods.4

Aside from keeping up appearances (literally and figuratively), success in fashion is based on meeting specific sectorial requirements: In media, clout reigns supreme. In retail, sales are your lifeblood. In corporate, “playing the game” of office politics to gain power and resources is critical. Fashion writers have bylines, public-facing proof of expertise and knowledge, which tends to inflate their self-importance. Retail workers are treated as second-class citizens, often used and abused by both their company and customers. Corporate workers are unseen, unheard, replaceable cogs in usually dysfunctional machines. (I was shocked and upset to realize that no one really thinks about corporate people at all – insert Mad Men meme here.)

After TDWP2, I longed for a better fashion movie!!!! I wish there was critical yet absurdist art that represented the modern-day stranglehold between late-stage capitalism and labor exploitation, guised as creative vision, expression, or presentation. Perhaps without drab lighting! Well, I got what I wished for with I Love Boosters. While there are definitely Boosters characters and plot lines that could have been more developed, my mind was absolutely buzzing afterward. This is not a movie review though – I’m going to relate Boosters’ general themes to my own fashion industry experience.5 (And I’m not even getting into half of them!)

The plot

I Love Boosters is a wildly colorful, outlandish, surrealist heist movie set in the Bay Area about Corvette, an aspiring fashion designer (Keke Palmer), and friends Sade (Naomi Ackie) and Mariah (Taylour Paige). Together, they are the Velvet Gang, “boosters” who resell the shoplifted clothing at a discount, for profit.6

The Gang’s motivations for boosting are different: Sade provides for her family, Mariah gives back to the community by providing access to items her buyers would otherwise be unable to afford, aka. “Fashion Forward Filanthropy” (she knows how to spell philanthropy…branding though!), and Corvette needs both recognition and retribution from her idol, Metro Designer CEO Christie Smith (Demi Moore). Christie Smith acknowledged the Velvet Gang on TV and social media, fueling Corvette’s desire to be seen. The Gang ends up working at a Metro Designer store and meeting unexpected allies in their elaborate, zany quest to take Christie down.

I personally thought this biting satire of fashion industry excess with a strong anti-capitalist overtone made for a highly interesting movie premise. I very much relate to Corvette’s disappointment in the system after accepting the false promise of meritocracy. She was talented enough to create a jumpsuit worthy of Christie Smith’s envy. But instead, Corvette’s design was stolen by this powerful icon who positions herself as a godlike creature of unparalleled creative vision. Corvette is still desperate to feel accepted by the woman who wronged her, even if she simultaneously harbors resentment and seeks revenge upon her.

The HBIC

Christie Smith is an erratic boss to a meek assistant in a comically lopsided office that leans to the side at a dangerous angle.7 She’s a self-proclaimed “innovator making fucking art” who bends reality to her will and has the financial leverage to silence or extinguish anyone who obstructs her path to domination. I will say, Demi Moore looks great in that blonde wig.

To me, the slanted floor represented the uphill battle that is working for a corporation. I felt consistent friction in my mission to challenge the status quo and incredibly bored doing more busywork than purpose-driven problem-solving. I thought my job in Operations was to buck norms and conventions, but it was actually to reinforce them. Because I am an eternal optimist, there is still a light in me that believes it’s possible. I can forge a path, make an impact, make a difference, move the needle, drive results, and create amazing things – even if capitalism is the larger structure we’re ultimately serving.

Speaking only as someone who worked at a company where the CEO was described on GlassDoor as “a tyrannical toddler” (sorry, this will never not be funny), the character of Christie was true-to-form. What would’ve been more realistic is if she asked the assistant to go far beyond the scope of her job, verbally attacked her, and then cycled through three or four more assistants throughout the movie. Some people kind of scoff at the Harry Potter manuscript scene in the original The Devil Wears Prada movie, but I don’t think it’s quite as uncanny as people think.

The retail store

One Metro Designer Store Manager (Will Poulter) maintains a toxic in-store working environment, where employee breaks are 30 seconds long. I sympathize with this character because I see a lot of my younger self in him – eager to please, inexplicably devoted to the cause no matter how underpaid or unappreciated he is, and willing to comply with any company-mandated rules, no matter how unfair, unnecessary, or arbitrary. Like if this was 2013 and you asked me to get a tattoo – no, a cattle brand – of the store I worked at, I would’ve done it in a heartbeat.

Metro Designer Sales Associate Violeta (Eiza González) organizes employees to champion fair labor practices after costs of mandated clothing were deducted from their paychecks. I deeply relate to this, as I distinctly remember when policy shifted to require us (in-store retail workers) to pay taxes on the “free” wardrobe that we were required to wear during shifts. A uniform was considered “taxable fringe”, aka. non-cash compensation. It’s ironic when your job is to wear clothes – to convince customers to buy them – but you can’t actually afford them either.

Violeta is my favorite character – someone who seemed vapid on the surface but was smart, educated, and brave enough to create solidarity, take action, and stand up for what’s right. I tried to be somewhat civically engaged during my last corporate job as a part of the Sustainability Committee. A former colleague of mine went on to have a career in sustainable, circular fashion, and I always admired her genuine goal to materially improve the design, manufacturing, and supply chain process. I didn’t feel like there was much I could do personally, when the committee was largely perfunctory, but she always inspired me.

Before the Velvet Gang can make a clean sweep of the store, they are beat at their own game. Jianhu (Poppy Liu), an exploited worker from Metro Designer’s Chinese factory, uses a teleportation device to extract clothes from the racks at lightning speed. The clothes arrive on the other side, held hostage by the workers until Christie addresses the factory’s fatally unsafe conditions. The device, which has “teleportation”, “situational accelerator”, and “deconstruction” modes, is the main character of the second and third acts of the movie.

Labor exploitation, particularly of the Global South, continues to be an issue. Although it is so much more nuanced than the movie could get into, I appreciated the political angle here. (So did activist/actress Poppy Liu.) The fashion industry produces billions of tons of waste every year, consumers throw away massive amounts of clothing, and less than 1% of clothing is recycled. Supply is based on demand! It’s time people wake up about fast fashion and do their best to taper the out-of-control consumption and waste cycle. Supply chain transparency is one of my niche interests, and I highly recommend the book No Logo by Naomi Klein and Buy Now: The Shopping Conspiracy on Netflix.

The retail customer

In Metro Designer stores, the Velvet Gang employed the “distraction method”. I remember watching one Loss Prevention training video ten years ago that showed ELEVEN organized crime members distract employees around the store. This type of theft isn’t as popular nowadays with the advancement of surveillance technology, but it used to be very effective. While this shoplifting technique may seem far-fetched now, the judgment historically marginalized groups face in retail settings is very real.

In one Boosters scenario, the Velvet Gang brought along a white girl – a “worthy” victim – who would feign distress to take attention away from the shoplifters. In another, Mariah holds her breath for such an extended period of time that she becomes “White Mariah”. Her caucasian appearance attracts the sales associates, as she now looks more sophisticated and likely to buy than Mariah with Black skin.

I worked in a particularly discriminatory time in retail, where only certain kind of girls (read: skinny, pretty, white) could represent brands, from high-end contemporary luxury brands to teen retailers like Abercrombie. Then, demographic profiling of customers was the norm. It might still be, to be honest. The best sales associates could reduce any random person who walked through the door into a demographic, which could be mentally converted into a statistic – based on pre-existing notions and stereotypes – predicting how likely they were to buy something, or how much attention they would demand. Principles of luxury, as defined by the largest and most powerful luxury conglomerate in the world, include (but are not limited to): quality, scarcity, controlled distribution, and price. That means only certain people with money and status are granted access.8

The fashion show

At the Metro Designer fashion show, where the climax of the movie takes place, there is a rainbow-colored runway radiating out of a gigantic eyeball. The eye to me represents surveillance capitalism and the longtime use of CCTV recording, AI-powered retail analytics platforms, and retail demographics tracking technology. Yes, you are being recorded when you’re shopping, your movements around the store can be digitally monitored, and depending on the technology, your demographic data can be tracked without you even buying anything.

I’ve worked many colorful New York Fashion Week shows as a model babysitter, giving very skinny girls rations of almonds, sips of water from a straw, and an occasional bite-sized chocolate as a treat. I never knew why this was necessary, seeing as the models were fully capable of doing their one job. After four hours, *I* was the one who needed the snack!!!! The operations department was required to always be on-call and available for 30 retail stores across the country, so being tied up all day meant you would get no work done. I always just went along with the fashion show hullabaloo because I was told to (and because the Visual Merchandising department always made fantastic sets), until my colleague said at her first show, “I’m not doing this, I have actual work to finish.” Wow okay mic drop. I rode her coattails all the way back to the office.

The illegal economy

Organized Retail Crime (ORC) is a large-scale, coordinated theft and resale operation versus than petty shoplifting by sole individuals. It is a $69 BILLION dollar black market industry. While stealing is obviously illegal, and I’m not promoting shoplifting or violence of any kind, the “illegal economy” is expected and accounted for in profit and loss statements. While Christie Smith complains about the boosters affecting her bottom line, she is more concerned about protecting her standing as an artist “using humanity as a canvas”. If she cannot control her inventory – the physical manifestation of her creative vision – she cannot control her narrative.

There are three kinds of retail loss:

1. External theft: Customers stealing product or robbing the store

2. Internal theft: Employees stealing product or embezzling money

3. Operational error: Incorrectly filed paperwork, inaccurate inventory counts, erroneous accounting, petty cash, or other discrepancies unaccounted for

While it degrades the luxury tenets mentioned above, illegal resales and counterfeit products keep brand signatures (e.g. a Gucci or Louis Vuitton logo) relevant. It’s like a mass-appeal litmus test: If a high-end brand’s fake pocketbooks are on Canal Street, their brand is considered covetable, even if primarily to aspirational customers. The brand’s challenge, in addition to their margins and their brand reputation, becomes satiating their customer who does have the buying power and would rather be caught dead than wearing the same handbag as some low class plebian. Or as Christie Smith refers to them, “low class urban bitches, with all due respect to urban bitches.”

In that same Loss Prevention presentation, I remember hearing a jarring statistic:

• 15% of people will always steal (e.g. The Velvet Gang)

• 15% of people will never steal

• 70% of people will steal conditionally, if given the opportunity and expectation they will successfully steal with impunity

The public response

I watched as few reaction TikToks about this as possible, because I value my mental health, but apparently many people were scandalized by Boosters. They even walked out of theaters. This is such immature, lazy behavior that happens when people don’t think critically about art (or anything, for that matter), can’t sit with uncomfortable feelings, and are used to instantly scrolling past anything they don’t immediately like.

While everyone is entitled to their opinion of a movie, it seemed like too many “didn’t get it”. Maybe the film will become a cult classic in time. I’m also going to say the quiet part out loud: those who only see or engage with white people on a daily basis are probably also not going to “get it”. Systemic inequality, racial, and class politics make a lot of people uncomfortable, even unconsciously. Part of processing and moving on from my work trauma was acknowledging my role in perpetuating a broken system, which the average moviegoer likely doesn’t think about at all.

Okay sure, I understand being appalled by the gratuitous, highly graphic, perhaps unnecessary sex scene. But calling the movie “preachy”, when an activist created it…IN THIS ECONOMY??? People should give a shit about how unbridled capitalism, corporate greed, egregious labor exploitation, big tech overlords, and consolidated political power continues to decrease our quality of life. I’m not a political activist by any means, but there’s always something we can do to be better neighbors, friends, community members, and even shoppers. Pop culture is political, not just for entertainment, and often acts as society’s mirror. The problem is, most people don’t like what they see reflected back.

Huge thank you to the paid subscribers who support my work: Janine, Liv, CY, Matthew, Emily, Gina, Taylor, Alejandra, Lindsay, Bea, Janani, Tia, and Taylor! À la Jessica Simpson, I’m gonna love you forever 💐💐💐

Upgrade to paid subscription

If you enjoy my interviews, essays, deep dives, and other musings, please consider supporting Nicstalgia! Your support helps me continue writing the most fun newsletter about offbeat, obscure, and niche pop culture. If you’d rather send a one-time gift of a custom amount versus a recurring subscription, you can also do that here!

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Nicstalgia Newsletter ☆ My Instagram ⟡ My Cool Website ♡ Aerobics Schedule ☆ Podcast Episode Archive ⟡ Physical Media Renaissance™ Zine ♡ My Physical Media Shelf ☆ iPod Shuffle Player ♡ Workout Playlist Archive ☆

Do you need Self Esteem?

Self Esteem is a California-based retail brand founded in 1997 by textile industry executives Richard Clareman and Andrea Rankin-Waters. The idea was to bring trendy, hip styles to tween and teenage girls and also “promote their sense of inner self-confidence”. The irony of a clothing line to boost confidence is not lost on me, as much of tween girls’ socialization is ‘othering’ girls based on their appearance. (It always starts with one middle school bully...) You know I’m an optimist, but it’s hard to effectively convey a mission of “creating the inspiration for individual style that expresses the inner you” when feeling good about yourself is often antithetical to the explicit purpose of every business: profit. I appreciate the sentiment though, and so did the market.

Self Esteem was wildly popular! Its juniors category was so successful, they expanded into girls and plus sizing. (Yes, there are 3+ sizing conventions for the same market segment…) Their cheeky, playful novelty graphic tees were available at 3000+ retail stores across the country, including speciality boutiques integral to tweendom of the late 90s and early 00s: Charlotte Russe, Deb, dELiA*s, Limited Too, Mandee, Pac Sun, Wet Seal, Windsor, and many more. Even if you can only vaguely recall the name, you may recognize the Curly Girly brand logo when you see it.

Self Esteem on the world wide web

Self Esteem’s ethos of “style and substance”, as well as openly inviting customer feedback on design silhouettes and screen-print ideas, made for a very effective grassroots marketing strategy. Their website had over 100,000 unique visitors each month (!!!), with customers finding a forum “to express their ideas and innermost feelings.” I LOVE pre-e-commerce websites, and Self Esteem’s is no exception.

The early internet is my favorite kind of digital experience, when consumers would temporarily “go” instead of permanently “be” online, and the purpose of the internet was to connect, explore, and learn, not buy. Self Esteem’s site featured an extremely limited selection of clothes, because shopping was still a sacred, in-person, mall-bound spiritual practice. Therefore, to support the brand’s nascent world-building efforts in the digital realm, there were a variety of fun activities on the site, including cookie fortunes, poetry, embarrassing moments, entertainment, and “homework help”.

Who’s on aux?

Not sure who was in charge of the music on Self Esteem’s website, but they contain multitudes. Seems like a Cool Gen X person was in charge, with the final stamp of approval given by a Boomer dad with Millennial tween daughters. How else can you possibly explain this mix from 2002?!

• P!nk, “Get the Party Started”

• American Hi-Fi (Interview)

• Atari Teenage Riot, “Too Dead For Me”

• Buzzcocks, “Breakdown”

• Mariah Carey, “Loverboy”

• Mandy Moore (Interview)

• Fatboy Slim, “Weapon Of Choice”

• Handsome Boy Modeling School, “Sunshine”

• Alicia Keys (Interview)

• Craig David (Interview)

• Jamie-Lynn Sigler, “Cry Baby”

• Aaliyah ft. DMX, “Back In One Piece”

• Pavement, “Spit On A Stranger”

The site menu also included a “Streaming Radio”, so as far as I’m concerned, Self Esteem invented streaming. In 2004, their music video list included 300+ songs across all genres of popular music, with the most frequently featured artists being 2 Pac, Shania Twain, M*rilyn M*nson, R. K*lly, Toby Keith, and Usher. Cursed. But don’t worry, “Toxic”, “Dirrty”, “Stacy’s Mom”, “Leave (Get Out)”, and hits from Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard of American Idol cleanse the palette.

Which Self Esteem character are you?

Time for a quiz! Add up your points to find out which Self Esteem brand mascot you are. Answer as your 8- to 12-year-old self, it’s more fun that way. :)

Question 1: You’re going to the mall with your friends. What do you bring in your purse?
A. Lip gloss. Need to look cute for when I “accidentally” run into Joey at the food court.
B. A digital camera and a marker, for an autograph and photographic evidence in case I meet Justin Timberlake!
C. A $20 bill – or two – so I can get a new outfit for the dance next weekend!
D. I forgot to bring my purse, but I just found a $5 bill in my pocket. It’s enough for a pretzel and a soda!

Question 2: You’re painting your nails. What color(s) do you pick?
A. A French manicure, obviously. It’s classy!
B. I’m too busy to paint my nails, but if I had the time, probably red or pink.
C. Rainbow colors! Each finger is a different color. You get a little of everything.
D. Purple with sparkles. Lots of sparkles, please.

Question 3: You’re at the department store with your mom and it’s taking forever. She lets you pick out one item at Limited Too as a reward for your patience. What is it?
A. A silver jewelry set with a necklace, ring, and earrings
B. A journal with a lock and matching fluffy pen
C. Blue temporary hair mascara
D. A plushy soccer ball picture frame

Question 4: You’re making a music video with your sister and cousin so your moms let you have a sleepover. What’s your primary role in the production?
A. I’m the glamorous leading lady and love interest of the band’s frontman….duh.
B. I’m the director behind the camcorder, choosing our shooting location, getting all the best angles, and intermittently yelling ‘CUT’!!!
C. I’m the principal dancer and choreographer, and you better get the moves right or we’ll have to start all over again!!!
D. I’m in drag as the band’s frontman, wearing a baseball hat and my dad’s baggy t-shirt to look like a boy.

Now, give yourself 1 point for every A, 2 points for every B, 3 points for every C, and 4 points for every D. Add your points together to get your result!

4-6 points: Flirty Frog

You are classy, refined, and beautiful, with high standards and a no-nonsense attitude. The Flirty Frog keeps it simple and straightforward, making her a great listener, friend, and confidant.

7-9 points: Adventurous Turtle

You are loyal, down-to-earth, and always ready for a good time. The Adventurous Turtle works hard and plays hard, loves being surrounded by true friends, and can make any situation entertaining.

10-12 points: Cool Cat

You are creative, artistic, and dynamic, with a unique sense of style. The Cool Cat has unmistakable personality, confidence, and sincerity that adds flair and joy to every friend group.

13-16 points: Funky Monkey

You are playful, happy, and spunky, with fun-loving spirit that people like being around. The Funky Monkey is effortlessly popular, a great sport, and adaptable in any social situation.

Also, asked the question I’ve always wondered: where have all the monkeys gone? I have a Paul Frank sweatshirt (made for adults), so I’m doing my part to protect their legacy.

What is your fortune?

The website had a very cute animated “Fortune Cookie” section, where you click on the cookie to crack it open and reveal a Self Esteem-related fortune. I’ve categorized them by astrological sign. Read for your sun and/or rising, and take it with you for the rest of the day!!

• Aries + Gemini: Happiness begins with Self Esteem.

• Taurus + Libra: Rewards come with great Self Esteem.

• Cancer + Pisces: No dream is too big when you have Self Esteem.

• Leo + Scorpio: You are a person with tremendous Self Esteem.

• Virgo + Capricorn: You have the Self Esteem it takes to achieve great things.

• Sagittarius + Aquarius: The world is a better place because of you and your Self Esteem.

Huge thank you to the paid subscribers who support my work: Janine, Liv, CY, Matthew, Emily, Gina, Taylor, Alejandra, Lindsay, Bea, Janani, Tia, and Taylor! À la Jessica Simpson, I’m gonna love you forever 💐💐💐

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• Effective immediately, extra content/fun stuff for paid subscribers will now be its own full, designated email, as opposed to a section below the paywall in each issue. Cadence TBD. You can upgrade your subscription here. TY LY! 💖

• Disclaimer: There are The O.C. spoilers in this post. If you have not seen the show since it premiered 23 years ago, that’s on you.

This week in 2006, television – and the course of our society & culture, as far as I’m concerned – changed forever. The death of beloved antihero Marissa Cooper (played by Mischa Barton) was among the most devastating losses in TV history. But:

1. This was the way Mischa wanted to go – out with a bang!!!

2. Do not believe the Season 4 slander!! I didn’t watch S4 during its original run, because everyone said it wasn’t the same. I first saw it probably about five years ago and wholeheartedly believe Season 4 is actually better than Season 3. (Do not get me started about the wet blanket that is Johnny! His arc should not have been as long as it was! RIP to Johnny though…)

3. Even if the show’s creators & writers regret the way it went down with Mischa and her team when severing their professional ties, I appreciate the show’s subsequent reframe of her tragic ending. In Season 4’s “The Chrismukk-huh?”, aka. the parallel universe episode, it’s revealed that Marissa would have fatally overdosed in Tijuana (Season 1) had Ryan not been there to save her. Okay now I’m crying hysterically…

The O.C. has always been one of my favorite shows, and I’d been wanting to write about it for quite some time. I’m super excited to have contributed a piece called “Your Pool House or Mine?” for Are.na Annual!!! Are.na Annual is a yearly anthology of writing from the people of Are.na – an online social networking community and creative research platform for creative curation and organizing ideas. (I generally think of it as “Intellectual Pinterest”.)

This year’s theme is “pool,” and I decided to interpret that theme quite literally. To me, The O.C. is the most important cultural product with swimming pools as a central element! I really enjoyed collaborating with editors Meg Miller and Amirio Freeman and was so excited to see my work in print!!! The book is sold out, but please enjoy an excerpt from my piece. You can also check out the full set of 100+ The O.C.-related pool images on my Are.na board, Pools of The OC.

Your Pool House or Mine?

In The O.C. (2003–2007), swimming pools are shimmering facades of delusion and denial that set the stage for the show’s strong emotional current. Affluence cannot protect these dramatic suburbanites from being pulled into the undertow when they least expect it. The Cohen family’s pool in particular is like a nonverbal character, silently witnessing spilled secrets and ready to pop insulated bubbles of privilege at any moment. It’s the primary site where secrets are divulged, cosmic paths cross, and fates turn. It’s where our beloved characters dive in, make waves, float, sink, and sometimes even drown. The spatial symbolism depicted on The O.C. is intentional. Swimming pools are imbued with symbolic significance that shape the characters’ experiences, behaviors, and perceptions of themselves and others.

Ryan’s pool house has become an instantly recognizable cultural landmark. Even those who haven’t seen the show can sense the Californian grandeur that ruled supreme in 2000s American culture. Throughout the four seasons of the show, the intro theme is bookended by two architecturally significant depictions. The first shows Ryan’s face through the car window, flipping the perspective and fading into a view of dozens of cookie-cutter mansions. The last scene shows Ryan emerging from the pool house, looking past the infinity pool, hot tub, and manicured shrubbery out toward the sprawling coastal landscape. These scenes immediately establish The O.C.’s emotional structure, with Ryan as an underdog. The pool serves as a looking glass to Ryan’s hero journey: navigating the complexities and entitlements of upper-class privilege while avoiding repeating the same dysfunctional patterns he knows all too well.

Season Two’s first episode, “The Distance”, depicts two sets of characters: the ones who traveled vast distances and the ones they left behind. The built-up resentment between them formed an emotional rift, like a hard water stain on a pool lounger cushion that’s had an entire off-season to set in. The first shot in “The Distance” after the intro theme shows the Cooper-Nichol’s outrageously large mansion and impressive swimming pool. Marissa and Summer lay poolside, suntanning, dissociating, and drinking cocktails so strong Summer jokingly asks if Marissa mixed lighter fluid in them.

Julie, frustrated by her sullen daughter’s emotional distance, approaches Marissa. She’s listening to music on her iPod, as far away from her mother as she could possibly be without leaving home. When Julie’s concern seems contrived, Marissa retorts, “Do you really wanna know what’s on my mind?” before releasing a guttural scream, flipping her chair and towel into the pool, picking up and chucking the side table into the water, turning her back, and walking away. The pools of The O.C. maintain their composure through emotional intensity, witnessing crossed boundaries, complex negotiations, overdue confrontation, and erupting conflict.

The pool is like an all-knowing force, with its premonitions driving interpersonal relationship narratives and character arcs. Characters’ inextricable ties or ultimate fates are often first seen by the pool. The pool sets the stage for the initial appearance of Summer Roberts, Kirsten drinking alone, the reunion between Ryan and his mother, Seth and Summer’s first kiss, the reacquaintance of Jimmy and Hailey, Seth and Anna’s breakup, and even the pilot episode appearance of the catering waiter who ends up planning Julie’s wedding in Kirsten’s backyard after his husband delivered her baby.

Each poolside encounter holds some kind of significance, reinforces the ties that bind, and proves that nothing is quite what it seems at surface-level. The pool’s warm, sunlit, sparkling appearance reflects back the superficiality of those who gather around it, exposing what lies underneath. Scenes of rest and relaxation can devolve into riots; calm can escalate to chaos. Whether as a result of a power struggle, blackmail, or act of sheer desperation, the pool in any particular scene guarantees that whatever is hidden will always rise to the surface. Try as they might, the characters largely cannot replicate the stillness or silence provided by the idyllic poolscape for very long.

Secrets are shared in the presence of the pool:

• Kirsten calls her financial advisor to transfer $100,000 to her disgraced high school beau, Jimmy, without telling Sandy

• Ryan tells Marissa that Luke’s dad is gay

• Seth tells Ryan he lost his virginity to Summer

• Ryan tells Seth that he stole Oliver’s note to Marissa out of her locker

• Theresa tells Ryan she’s not keeping her baby, though he later discovers that she does

Secrets are spilled in the presence of the pool:

• Lance humiliates Julie by going undercover as a waiter and publicly screening their vintage 80s sex tape at a party

• Luke blows his cover that he slept with Julie Cooper in front of her daughter, his ex Marissa

• Seth finds out The Nana is being nice to people because she has cancer

Negotiations are made in the presence of the pool:

• Sandy and Kirsten arrange opposite sides of a lawsuit on their respective flip phones

• The boys ask permission to go to Oliver’s penthouse so he doesn’t steal Marissa away

• The boys convince the parents to let them go to L.A. so Grady Bridges of The Valley fame doesn’t steal Summer away

• Ryan asks Sandy if Lindsay can come to Thanksgiving, before it’s revealed in front of the entire extended family that she’s Caleb’s “illegitimate love child”

Conflicts arise in front of – and sometimes end in – the pool:

• Hailey arranges male strippers for Julie’s backyard bachelorette as a setup

• Eddie angrily confronts Ryan about breaking up his relationship with Theresa

• Kirsten questions Sandy about his old flame, whom she saw after he claimed Rebecca was dead

• Trey’s troublemaking love interest Jess ends up face-down in the pool before being rescued

• Julie lightly poisons Cal, triggering a heart attack that causes him to fall in the pool, and – despite her best effort to save him – die

The pools of The O.C. served their architectural and psychological purpose to drive multi-faceted interpersonal relations through nearly the entirety of the series. An earthquake in the third to last episode of Season Four destroys the pool house and causes full structural collapse in the main house. The last swimming pool ever seen on the show is not the Cohen’s, it’s a new property they’re touring with a realtor. The Cohens ultimately settle back where they belong in Berkeley, no swimming pool in sight.

The pools of The O.C. were memorable as a character in their own right, holding an almost unbearable amount of tension between what was said and unsaid, what was submerged below, and what rose to the surface. Looking out at the Cooper-Nichol mega-pool, Jimmy exclaims, “It’s everything you’ve always wanted.” Julie responds, quite aware of the compromises and sacrifices required to maintain such a luminous surface, “Be careful what you wish for.”

Huge thank you to the paid subscribers who support my work: Janine, Liv, CY, Matthew, Emily, Gina, Taylor, Alejandra, Lindsay, Bea, Janani, Tia, and Taylor! À la Jessica Simpson, I’m gonna love you forever 💐💐💐

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If you enjoy my interviews, essays, deep dives, and other musings, please consider supporting Nicstalgia! Your support helps me continue writing the most fun newsletter about offbeat, obscure, and niche pop culture. If you’d rather send a one-time gift of a custom amount versus a recurring subscription, you can also do that here!

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Nicstalgia Newsletter ☆ My Instagram ⟡ My Cool Website ♡ Aerobics Schedule ☆ Podcast Episode Archive ⟡ Physical Media Renaissance™ Zine ♡ My Physical Media Shelf ☆ iPod Shuffle Player ♡ Workout Playlist Archive ☆

Hello beautiful readers! In addition to my iPod Shuffle listening experience and fitness class schedule/retro aerobics videos, I’ve finally updated my elliptical class playlist archive!!! Now ALL 136 of my themed playlists are available for your listening pleasure! Yay!!! If you want to check out my favorites, I shared my top 10 here.

If there’s one thing about me, it’s that I love a list. It doesn’t even need to be orderly, logical, or in any particular order. The New York Times agrees – they recently published an unranked list of The 30 Greatest American Songwriters Alive. Two of my Mount Rushmore performing artists were included (Missy Elliott and Mariah Carey), plus Fiona Apple, Lana Del Rey, Diane Warren, and more. While the writers listed are among the best, most renowned, and respected in the biz, I couldn’t help but think of Kara DioGuardi.

She’s one of the most commercially successful contemporary songwriters, with over 320 songs released by major labels, 150 songs on platinum selling albums, and over 50 charting singles. She was also the fourth American Idol judge and has written for many All-American Idol Rejects. (Seeing as her autobiography’s title is A Helluva High Note; Surviving Life, Love and American Idol, it doesn’t sound like that was a fabulous experience – but I’ll find out. Reading her memoir is on my to do list next week.) I find DioGuardi’s songwriting experience prolific, even if her pop rock, teen punk, Literal Trash, Disneycore repertoire is perhaps considered lowbrow by music industry standards.

Below you will find hyper-specific, highly distinguished lists – in either alphabetical or chronological order – of songs by DioGuardi and my favorites from NYT’s list. Enjoy!

Favorite Kara DioGuardi-penned songs for American Idol alum:

1. “You Found Me” / “I Do Not Hook Up” by Kelly Clarkson (Co-written with Katy Perry, who originally recorded the song for One of The Boys) by Kelly Clarkson

2. “The Real Thing” by Bo Bice

3. “Open Toes” by Katherine McPhee (Another All-American Idol Reject…you already know I love this one)

Favorite Kara DioGuardi-penned songs by non-American Idol alum:

1. “Spinning Around” by Kylie Minogue

2. “Escape” by Enrique Iglesias

3. "Right in Front of You" / “Taking Chances” by Celine Dion

4. “Come Clean” / “Stranger” / “With Love” by Hilary Duff

5. “Brave New Girl” / “Ooh Ooh Baby” by Britney Spears

6. “Autobiography” / “Pieces of Me” / “Better Off” / “Boyfriend”by Ashlee Simpson

7. “First” / “Over” by Lindsay Lohan

8. “Screwed” by Paris Hilton (this song allegedly caused the beef between Paris and Hilarie Duff, who was allegedly supposed to record this song as the debut single for her scrapped solo record)

9. “He Could Be the One” by Hannah Montana

10. “Good Girls Go Bad” / “Hot Mess” by Cobra Starship

DioGuardi has also written for artists including but not limited to: Jessica Simpson, Eden’s Crush, Play, Soluna, Rachel Stevens, Nikki Cleary, Gwen Stefani, Natasha Bedingfield, Raven-Symoné, The Veronicas, Jewel, Jesse McCartney, Ryan Cabrera, Christina Aguilera, Vanessa Hudgens, Nick Lachey, Ashley Tisdale, Avril Lavigne, Backstreet Boys, The Cheetah Girls, Camp Rock, Demi Lovato, P!nk, David Archuleta, Adam Lambert, Agnes, and Melanie Martinez.

It’s also worth nothing she has soundtracked all of Nicole Scherzinger’s endeavors, from Eden’s Crush to Pussycat Dolls to her solo material.

Favorite Mariah Carey ballads with belts, riffs, and ad-libs I have been practicing my entire life:

1. ”Vision of Love”

2. “Emotions”

3. ”Can’t Let Go”

4. ”All I’ve Ever Wanted”

5. “One Sweet Day”

6. “Butterfly”

7. ”Lead The Way”

8. ”Never Too Far”

9. ”Through The Rain”

10. ”We Belong Together”

Favorite Missy Elliott music videos that permanently altered my brain chemistry, and I refuse to pick only 10:

1. “The Rain” (Supa Dupa Fly)

2. “Sock It 2 Me”

3. “Beep Me 911”

4. “Hit Em Wit Da Hee”

5. “She’s a Bitch”

6. “Get Ur Freak On”

7. “4 My People”

8. “Work It”

9. “Gossip Folks”

10. “Pass That Dutch”

11. “Lose Control”

12. “We Run This”

13. “Cool Off”

Plus songs without videos: “Lick Shots”, “I’m Really Hot”, “Wake Up”, “Let It Bump”, and “On and On”

Favorite Fiona Apple songs that desperately make me want to learn to play piano, ranked in order of rage:

1. “Extraordinary Machine”

2. “Criminal”

3. “Paper Bag”

4. “Shadowboxer”

5. “Never Is a Promise”

6. “Get Him Back”

7. “Carrion”

8. “Sleep to Dream”

9. “Limp”

10. “Get Gone”

    ---

Favorite Taylor Swift songs that I enjoy singing on the top of my lungs while driving through the Connecticut countryside:

1. “Blank Space”

2. “Red”

3. “All Too Well”

4. “King Of My Heart”

5. “Cruel Summer”

6. “The Very First Night” (TV)

7. “New Romantics” (TV)

8. “Electric Touch” (feat. Fall Out Boy) (TV)

9. “New Romantics” (TV)

10. “Clean” (TV)

    ---

Favorite, mostly early Lana Del Rey songs I will sunbathe, read a book, and eventually fall asleep on a beach blanket to this summer:

1. “Born To Die”

2. “National Anthem”

3. “Without You”

4. “Lucky Ones”

5. “Ride”

6. “Cola”

7. “Gods & Monsters”

8. “Love”

9. “Cinnamon Girl”

10. “A&W”

Favorite Diane Warren-penned songs that start with the word “I”:

1. “I Am” by Hilary Duff

2. “I Could Not Ask for More” by Edwin McCain

3. “I Decide” by Lindsay Lohan

4. “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith

5. “I Turn to You” by Christina Aguilera

6. “I Want You to Need Me” by Celine Dion

7. “I Was Here” by Beyoncé

8. “I Will Learn to Love Again” by Kaci Battaglia

9. “If I Could Turn Back Time” by Cher

10. “If You Asked Me To” by Patti LaBelle (I’m partial to the Celine Dion cover)

…which implies the existence of my favorite songs written by Diane Warren that don’t start with the word “I”:

1. “Because You Loved Me” by Celine Dion

2. “Can’t Take That Away (Mariah’s Theme)” by Mariah Carey

3. “Don’t Need You To (Tell Me I’m Pretty)” by Samantha Mumba

4. “How Do I Live” by LeAnn Rimes

5. “Music of My Heart” by Gloria Estefan and NSYNC

6. “Save Up All Your Tears” by Cher (her cover is the best version IMHO)

7. “Sweetest Sin” by Jessica Simpson

8. “There You’ll Be” by Faith Hill (from the Pearl Harbor soundtrack, at the height of my crush on Josh Hartnett)

9. “We Can” by LeAnn Rimes (from the Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde soundtrack)

10. “Who Will You Run To” by Heart

“Shake Ya Body” by Tyra Banks did not make the list, but I just wanted to remind you that it exists. Warren also wrote “Don’t Fight The Moonlight” and “Please Remember” for the Coyote Ugly soundtrack. More on that below the paywall…

Huge thank you to the paid subscribers who support my work: Janine, Liv, CY, Matthew, Emily, Gina, Taylor, Alejandra, Lindsay, Bea, Janani, Tia, and Taylor! À la Jessica Simpson, I’m gonna love you forever 💐💐💐

Upgrade to paid subscription

If you enjoy my interviews, essays, deep dives, and other musings, please consider supporting Nicstalgia! Your support helps me continue writing the most fun newsletter about offbeat, obscure, and niche pop culture. If you’d rather send a one-time gift of a custom amount versus a recurring subscription, you can also do that here!

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Nicstalgia Newsletter ☆ My Instagram ⟡ My Cool Website ♡ Aerobics Schedule ☆ Podcast Episode Archive ⟡ Physical Media Renaissance™ Zine ♡ My Physical Media Shelf ☆ iPod Shuffle Player ♡ Workout Playlist Archive ☆

I recently crossed an item off my longtime bucket list: Visiting the famed Coyote Ugly bar.

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PS. If you don’t wanna miss a thing: Click “View entire message” in case this email is clipped off at the bottom, or read it directly in the Substack app.

In case you missed it, I got an iPod shuffle! :) To celebrate this simple relic from a bygone era, I made a cool website where you can listen to songs from my actual 2000s iPod! Choose a nostalgic hometown background setting, and be surprised and delighted by ~200 songs – a few which are not on streaming!! It is SO much more fun than Spotify, in my humble opinion.

Today’s letter: Story Time!!! Grab some popcorn, I’m sharing allllll of my fitness journey lore. My current teaching schedule is posted on my website. Check it out! When you click on the VHS spines, you can watch retro aerobics tapes on the retro TV! I’m obsessed with how it came out and really get a kick out of watching these videos.

Behind the paywall: I recently bought a risqué CD and had to explain to the record store owner what it was so he didn’t think I was a sexual deviant. Reminder that you can upgrade your subscription here. :)

The Early Years

There is a home video of me attempting to ride a stationery bike at 2.5 years old, but my legs were about 8 inches too short to reach the pedals. This natural curiosity around fitness led to my enthrallment with Richard Simmons VHS tapes and The Jack LaLanne Show reruns. Had I known then that Cher made a workout tape, I would’ve unceasingly begged for it. I’ve always found exercising very glamorous!

I can’t overstate how fundamentally important my movement practice is for my well-being. I could lose executive functioning skills for an entire day or week, and yet in the studio, I am completely locked in. I’m simply wired this way. Regardless of what my “workout” schedule looks like, I crave physical activity on a cellular level. I say “workout” in quotations because I’ve had a complicated journey with my body image and major gripes with the fitness and wellness industries at large. I exercise for fun, leisure, and enjoyment. It’s essential to the fabric of my being. But this is often antithetical to our society’s expectations: Hate yourself and spend lots of money to fix it.

Getting Started

I first became a fitness instructor my freshman year of college, assisting Step class (yes, the killer workout craze of the 80s) and a then-novel Latin rhythms-inspired cardio dance format called Zumba. I also was the executive assistant to the Fitness Director and worked the gym’s front desk, where I would see two of my several crushes daily. This was an objectively bad time in my life, but I enjoyed work.

I transferred schools junior year and asked my new Athletic Director if I could spice up the barren group fitness schedule. She appointed me Group Fitness Director and put me in charge of Zumba and “Abs”. (Now we call it Core, but those were the times.) I was paid double the minimum wage rate I made at the gym front desk – more than what I made at my off-campus job at Michael Kors. After my very first class, a tall blonde acquaintance with the snark of Busy Phillips mixed with the vacancy of Jennifer Coolidge said, “I heard the class was awesome, even if you didn’t know what you were doing.” I played dumb and blindly accepted the backhanded compliment as unambiguous praise. I got into the groove, taught I think 4 classes a week, designed and plastered flyers around campus, started a Facebook page for updates (groundbreaking in 2010), and whipped out dance moves at a party or in the dining hall if someone asked me to. The baseball team found out about my Abs class, and I enjoyed torturing them (making them hold a plank for more than 30 seconds).

Staying In It

Flash forward, I became entrenched in the NYC boutique fitness bubble. I took 500+ ClassPass classes at 100+ studios in 2015 and 2016 (insane) and started FitNic NYC, a dance/fitness Instagram account and community platform for speaking panels, workshops, and dance classes. I found it really hard to navigate because:

1. No one was doing community efforts like this, only branded pop-ups and culty influencer events. The whole point was to bring people together and make them feel like a part of something, but I often felt alone.

2. I didn’t piggyback off of popular movements like Kayla Itsines’ Bikini Body Guide or SoulCycle and therefore didn’t amass a social media audience (when the algo was good!) or become known outside of the local scene.

3. I didn’t have the confidence to become a bonafide “influencer” (still a new concept then) because I was lowkey bullied at my corporate job and didn’t realize it would become a viable career path.

In 2024, the owner of a studio I often frequented for dance cardio asked me to teach the elliptical format. Random, but sure!!!! I had so much fun programming and teaching my classes, and I’m very proud of my playlists. I led 181 classes in 365 days (insane) and didn’t realize my One Year Anniversary class would be my last. It was a blessing in disguise, finally ending a relentless, year-long cycle of chronic burnout. Right when the studio unceremoniously closed, I heard about an audition for a new gym. I tried my best, got hired on the spot, and teach CORE and CARDIO DANCE now.

Looking Ahead

The gym has been open for a couple of months, and I continue to build my teaching confidence, try creative new routines, and give myself grace if I’m not “perfect” every second of my life. It has been a great joy figuring out my signature style. In unsurprising news, my classes are camp!!!!!!! Although “camp” is definitely a culture mismatch and somewhat unexpected for gym-goers, everyone can agree the music is great. My goal for this year is to find more people who share my philosophy so we can have fun, be cute, and enjoy dancing together. (If you’re one of those people, respond to this email please.)

I feel that many (most?) people still exercise to punish themselves. In self-guided workouts, I recognize people’s frustration, anger, and desire for control, as their face flushes but the light drains from their eyes. In instructor-led classes, I recognize the peer pressure to keep up appearances. People (particularly white women with money) succumb to diet and self-improvement culture, moving like pre-programmed robots in an aesthetically uniform cult. If anyone’s “having fun”, it’s because they think they’re getting skinnier or “toned”, which btw is a marketing buzzword, not an actual physiological muscle capability. I’ve had these unhealthy tendencies in the past, and to that I say – in the words of Avril Lavigne – What the hell?! It’s exhausting. But now, I’m proud to say, I can be the change I want to see in the world. See you on the dance floor!

Huge thank you to the paid subscribers who support my work: Janine, Liv, CY, Matthew, Emily, Gina, Taylor, Alejandra, Lindsay, Bea, Janani, Tia, and Taylor! À la Jessica Simpson, I’m gonna love you forever 💐💐💐

Upgrade to paid subscription

If you enjoy my interviews, essays, deep dives, and other musings, please consider supporting Nicstalgia! Your support helps me continue writing the most fun newsletter about offbeat, obscure, and niche pop culture. If you’d rather send a one-time gift of a custom amount versus a recurring subscription, you can also do that here!

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Newsletter ☆ Instagram ⟡ Website ♡ My Fitness Class Schedule ☆ Podcast Archive ⟡ Physical Media Renaissance™ Zine ♡ Explore my Physical Media Shelf! ☆ Listen to my iPod Shuffle!

At this point, there aren’t too many CDs left on my “Must Have” list. But occasionally, one comes your way that’s too good to pass up.

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I’m throwing a tantrum over here at Nicstalgia HQ because I pressed the wrong button last week and ONLY my paid subscribers received last week’s email. They are my favorite readers, but still…oops!!!!!!!!!! So paid subs, there’s still new stuff below the paywall today. Feel free to like/comment/share again lol. Everyone else……I cannot believe I DEPRIVED you from Nicstalgia for an entire seven days. I say this every single week, but it’s a fun one!!!!! Enjoy :)

got me a sea foam green iPod Shuffle with pink headphones for my birthday, complete with ~300 of my favorite songs. (Yes, I am allowed to have 300 favorite songs!!!!!) Perhaps unsurprisingly, it has become my whole personality.

I owned a 4th gen iPod classic through high school and college, but never a shuffle. I always figured I’d want to choose the order of my songs, but carrying this little baby everywhere with me for the last week has given me an unexpected sense of freedom and relinquished my need for constant control over my listening experience.

Enough fiddling with my phone. Enough searching for the right song. Enough HAVING to listen to the EXACT song that pops into my head at any given moment. Don’t like the song? Skip it. Like the song? Enjoy it. It really isn’t more complicated than that! Amidst the chaotic day-to-day pace of New York City life, knowing a perfect song is gonna start playing – from a finite list of top-tier contenders – gives me peace, calm, and even serenity. Listening to my iPod Shuffle is a full mind/body/spirit experience.

I was inspired by the feeling of friction, the nostalgia of coming of age without a complete reliance and dependence on technology, and plugging your iPod into your car with an adapter through the CASSETTE PLAYER. So I made a website where you can go back in time and listen to songs I had on my iPod at the time! Choose your iPod Shuffle color, pick the background setting to a classic (and perhaps defunct) spot from my hometown for an extra tug at your heartstrings, and press play!!!!!

Sporty & Rich launched a California Prep clothing line inspired by The O.C. As someone who is both a fitness instructor and an O.C. scholar, this is exciting news! I’ll have to go to the Soho store and check it out.

Physical Media high fashion alert! “Schiaparelli fall 2026: a top made out of old cassette tapes designed to mirror fur and a skirt made of old cut up CDs, to look like sequins.” Berlin-based indie fashion studio Cruba isn’t happy about it, claiming Schiaparelli copied their design. The people in the comment section did not come through for them – most said that the idea wasn’t actually original and that many others have done this technique before. Tale as old as time.

Obsessed with Jeong Yoon’s CD burning website and Tanner Villarete’s iPod website (that inspired by iPod Shuffle one!) I will be creating more fun stuff as I continue my website revamp. More on that next week. Woooo!!!

Huge thank you to the paid subscribers who support my work: Janine, Liv, CY, Matthew, Emily, Gina, Taylor, Alejandra, Lindsay, Bea, Janani, Tia, and Taylor! À la Jessica Simpson, I’m gonna love you forever 💐💐💐

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If you enjoy my interviews, essays, deep dives, and other musings, please consider supporting Nicstalgia! Your support helps me continue writing the most fun newsletter about offbeat, obscure, and niche pop culture. If you’d rather send a one-time gift of a custom amount versus a recurring subscription, you can also do that here!

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Newsletter ☆ Instagram ⟡ Website ♡ Podcast Archive ☆ Physical Media Renaissance™ Zine

What I’ve been up to: an Aries astrology comedy show, a slasher dating show featuring my favorite childhood board game, and naturally, a Celine Dion drag show.

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Today is my birthday!!!!!!! This past year has been fun, eventful, challenging, bittersweet, and insanely stressful, yet here we are. I am really happy, love my life and the people in it, and feel more aligned in my purpose and direction than ever before! 😊 THANK YOU for being here and a part of the journey 💖🤸🏻‍♀️

When I think about this upcoming year in my life, naturally I think about where Nicstalgia will go next. I’ve been consistently writing this newsletter for longer than any job I’ve ever had. It’s by far the most fulfilling project I’ve ever worked on, and there’s still so much room to grow. I feel like a 20th century grandparent whose accordion wallet dramatically waterfalls open with JCPenney pictures of their six grandkids, except mine are: The Chasm, Physical Media Renaissance, The Nostalgia Industrial Complex, Pop Culture Advent Calendar, 2000s Comedies Prominently Featuring iMac G3s, and Flip Phone Summer. I have a couple things in the works and am inspired to a freakish degree!!!!!!!!!!! So I’m making it a goal for myself to grow my Substack from a hidden gem to a cult classic. And you can help!

If you would like to support Nicstalgia with a paid subscription, I’m running a Forever 21 Birthday Special!!!!!! Until Sunday, April 12th at 11:59pm, get 21% off of an annual subscription for $46 (regularly $59). That is only $3.83 per month, which is comparable to a Forever 21 liquidation sale. If you love the rush of a good deal, now is the time.

FOREVER 21 BIRTHDAY SPECIAL

If you wanna be in my figurative MySpace Top 8 among highly esteemed Nicstalgia readers, it’s $143 – or more, I’m not gonna stop you. (143 comes from the popular AOL Instant Messenger shorthand for “I love you”. Popular girls would put “143” plus their boyfriend’s name in their AIM bio to show people who they were dating. I actively avoided my 8th grade bf, so I never did this, but believe me, it was a thing.)

JOIN THE TOP 8

If you would like to give a one-time gift ($5+) instead of a recurring one, I will comp you a free subscription for a month. If you are already a paid reader, I’ll extend your subscription for a month. I will continue doing this even after the Forever 21 Birthday Special is over. Yay!!!

SUPPORT THE CAUSE

It’s also the optimal time for my dream dinner party, in case you missed my Very Aries answer in :

Back by popular demand – it’s the seasonal bucket list (SBL)! I don’t think I’ve made a proper one since last summer?! So for the uninitiated, the seasonal bucket list is about having fun, trying new things, being present, and exercising your free will. I try not to have anything work- or project- related on the list, because SBLs are not meant to have striver energy. It’s not a checklist, spreadsheet, or concrete plan – you just gotta go with it.

My Spring Bucket List

💃 Perform in dance video. This one’s complete already!
🚉 Book a weekend getaway. This one’s also complete already!
🚆 Take a day trip to a town I’ve never been before. I’m excited for this one.
☕️ Host monthly coffee hangs with friends. Not “events”, not “meetups”, not “community”, but informal Central Perk kinda vibes.
🎥 Make a mini life doc on my camcorder. I’m told fairly often that my life is like a reality show, so let’s go with it.
🪡 Practice sewing. Classes are expensive, so idk about that, but I have a lot to make! Not sure why half of my self-directed DIY projects involve sewing when it’s not my strong suit, but when I have a vision, I have a vision!
🎬 Enjoy a variety of entertainment. There’s so much to do in New York! I’m going to plays, live shows, a gallery opening, and a drag show!
👚 Reorganize everything. Self-explanatory.
🎯 Try archery. I mean, why not.
🍓 Go to a new local farmer’s market. I always stop at the same fruit stands because of their convenient location on my existing routes. But I would like to make going to the farmer’s market the main event.
🧢 Make more pop culture merch. Graphic design is my passion!!!

Huge thank you to the paid subscribers who support my work: Janine, Marie, Liv, CY, Matthew, Emily, Gina, Taylor, Alejandra, Jess, Lindsay, and Bea! À la Jessica Simpson, I’m gonna love you forever 💐💐💐

Upgrade to paid subscription

If you enjoy my interviews, essays, deep dives, and other musings, please consider supporting Nicstalgia! Your support helps me continue writing the most fun newsletter about offbeat, obscure, and niche pop culture. If you’d rather send a one-time gift of a custom amount versus a recurring subscription, you can also do that here!

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Newsletter ☆ Instagram ⟡ Website ♡ Podcast Archive ☆ Physical Media Renaissance™ Zine

This week’s episode: Performance rehearsals have commenced, the song I never want to hear again, my new favorite probably healthy drink, and how I’m making it through the rain. Next week I’ll give you my MARC BY SOFIA mini review, among other things.

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PS. Huge thank you to Bea for supporting my work and becoming Nicstalgia’s newest Founding Subscriber!!! It’s the highest distinction of readers, like the modern day equivalent of being in my MySpace Top 8. 🎉 Be like Bea! You can upgrade your subscription here, and if you’re on the fence, I’ll be running a birthday sale on annual subscriptions next week.

PSS. This issue is LONG!!!! Too much good stuff to include. Make sure to click the link at the bottom of the email to catch what gets cut off. If you’re on Substack, you can read this directly in the app. Enjoy!

Even if you are from Connecticut, Massachusetts, or New York, there’s still a chance you may not remember Weathervane. Here’s a quick introduction for the uninitiated:

“Every girl asks herself: “What am I going to wear?”

Whether it’s for school, gym class, a big date, babysitting or just hanging out, do you find you are constantly asking yourself, “What am I going to wear?” Don’t worry, you will always have something great and cool to wear when you shop at Weathervane.

Weathervane is an apparel retailer based in New Britain, Connecticut. Weathervane Retail Corp. has operated 53 stores from New England to Ohio since 1969. We have the quality fashions you want at the prices you like. Shop Weathervane for all the Best Stuff...at the Best Prices.”

- Weathervane’s website, 1999

While many Millennial and Xillennial clothing stores have achieved legendary or cult status on nostalgic meme pages, Weathervane is not one of them – to anyone except me, Nicole Tremaglio. I’m taking it upon myself to keep the memory of this mall gem alive. Their stores shuttered completely in 2004, making their self-proclaimed announcement as “your store for the next millennium” painfully short-lived.

Weathervane was the critical connective tissue between my formative experiences at Limited Too and dELiA*s, where I shopped as a curious tween without having to grow up too fast. Weathervane was relatively wholesome in comparison to hoe (complimentary) stores like DEB, Wet Seal, Rave, Rave Girl, and Windsor. I specifically remember Weathervane as the first place I ever bought my own thong. It was pink and had a d-ring buckle. I got it in blue too. This was before the $5 for $25 (RIP) deal that had us hooked on Victoria’s Secret and PINK only a couple of years later. But one of the most interesting aspects of mall culture at the turn of the century wasn’t even the brick-and-mortar clothing store or mall itself. It was the internet.

Weathervane’s Digital Zine

Zines have exploded in popularity in the past couple years, as every single thing Gen Xers did in the 90s does. I’m not talking about zines for political mobilization, community activation, or artistic purposes, but rather zines as a magazine derivative, distinctly created to support commercial activities. E-commerce functionality had not yet been normalized, and the web 1.0 internet was a fabulous way for clothing stores to broadcast product knowledge, build their brand world beyond their four walls, and hang out with their young consumers in the digital realm. Although there is no cohesive brand identity for their internet presence judging by today’s standards, it didn’t matter back then.

Let’s explore the eight categories of Weathervane’s WZine: Tunes, Polls, Be A Star!, Horror Stories, Goodies, Teen Poetry, Entertainment, and Horoscopes!

Tunes

Move over Windows Media Player, there’s a new custom web-based radio in town! You could get the news, weather, traffic, AND music in one place – ummm that’s literally a glimpse into our future! Steve Jobs was probably inspired by the Weathervane Custom Radio to create the first iPhone. Plus, there is literally nothing else I’d rather be doing in 2001 than listening to Britney Spears’s eponymous album. *Britney voice* LIKE THAT!

Polls

Girls could make their voices heard!!! By answering polls about boys lol. Most of these choices were a lot longer, and Substack is making me abbreviate them, but I tried to keep them as true to form as possible. They are hilarious. The “submit” button said “My 2¢”, which I find amazing. Now you can take the polls yourself!

Be A Star!

There was always some kind of sweepstakes or casting call you could enter in order to become a model. As we know now (and perhaps still knew back then), a lot of modeling agencies were really feeders for nefarious activities – cough, Abercrombie & Fitch, cough – but this didn’t stop companies from soliciting underage girls for their contact info and pictures. “I’m gonna be famous!” is the label on the “Submit” button, which is giving Kim Kardashian circa 2007. Again, a glimpse into our future.

Maybe I’m amazed by Weathervane’s sweepstakes was from 2004 – I guess they really decided to go out with a bang. “Win a chance to shop & dine with Jem. Enter to win a $500 Weathervane shopping spree with Jem, artist featured The O.C. Then be whisked to dinner with Jem and 2 of your friends!!” Can I still sign up by any chance??

Horror Stories

From J-14’s Embarrassing Moments column to this, teen magazines always had a humiliation kink. Puberty and adolescent awkwardness were constantly rooted in shame, versus being framed in a “you’re not alone, this is embarrassing but normal” kind of way. (See: Sarah Ditum’s Toxic, Alice Bolin’s Culture Creep, and Sophie Gilbert’s Girl on Girl: How Pop Culture Turned a Generation of Women Against Themselves for more context on how being a teenage girl in the sociopolitical climate of the 2000s was TOUGH.) So *SVU voice* Here are their stories. (I’m not editing them, so any misspellings are theirs 😇 – also, WHO IS JESSE?? She’s from my hometown!)

One day at camp when I was little. I had to rush off that morning and I thought I had my bathing suit top on underneath my tee shirt. I usually put it on before I went to camp. So when I went to take off my shirt all I had on was my bra. I totally forgot that that morning I was rushing. I felt so dumb. I didn’t act myself all day.
-Sarah -- Burlington, Massachusettes

In class I was fooling around because I was bored and playing in my seat we have swivel chairs because it was computer class, and I started to lean back and all of the sudden I fell backwards along with the chair. The whole class saw me and my face was bright red. Afterwards I got a detention for disrupting class. Pathetic huh!?!?!?
-Jesse -- Southington, Connecticut

At the beach I was using a porto potty. (standing up because its so nasty in there) All of a sudden I got dressed, didn’t pull my pants all the way up because my hair was in my face, so I was brushing it with my fingers to the side and then the door to the porto potty opened and standing there was an extremely emabarrased, hot, guy! He quickly slammed the door closed and from the otherside of the door all I heard was a the yelling of “I’m sorry, i’m sorry...” I came out obviously humiliated and he was long gone!
-Jill -- Newport, Rhode Island

I was walking around the mall the other day and I went into a mens clothing store looking for something for my brother to wear. Plus I was looking for a hot guy to talk to. This guy asked me if I needed help and we got onto other subjects when we were talking. He was so hot so I thought I would give him my number. As I went to get a pen out of my purse he told me that my fly was down. After my face turned bright red and I was ready to cry I played it off as if I didn’t have a pen and walked shamefully towards the exit! I’ve never returned since!
-Megan -- Greenwood, Indiana

It was the night I had my first date with Romero. I had waited soooo long for him to ask me out and when he did I almost fainted. He was SO cool the way he asked me if I wanted to go on the Haunted Hayride with him. Well anyway as I was getting ready I found that my stupid little brother had used ALL my chamomile shampoo making a skating rink in the bath tub for his dorky action figures so I had to use my mom’s stinky cheap shampoo. Things just got worse from there. My curling Iron fell into the toilet while I was brushing my teeth and my dad FORGOT to buy me my deodorant when he went out to get the pizza. While I was putting on my makeup I noticed I was getting this totally monster zit right on the end of my nose, and I couldn’t find any coverup. When Romero finally arrived he pulled into the driveway with his sound system so loud it shook the house and he honked the horn for me. My dad is so 1960s and wouldn’t let me out of the house unless my date came to the door so I had to wait. As soon as Romero stepped into the house my dad started asking him all sorts of questions about what time I would be home, where we were going, did he have a hearing impairment and stuff like that I thought I would die. Just then my little brother came running through the living room in his underwear with a towel around his neck like a cape screaming, “I’m superman and you better not hurt my sister.” I was so embarrassed. My mom saved me by sending my brother to his room and saying to my dad that we had to go or we’d be late. With a family like that is it any wonder Romero didn’t ask me out again?
-Nichole -- Colonie, NY

I had just bought the cutest pair of white pants and couldn’t wait to wear them! So Monday morning I had my outfit all picked out and couldn’t wait to get to school. I arrived at school, and things were going fine, until 2nd period. I walked into class, expecting it to be a fun class as usual, but when I walked in a few of my friends called me over to talk. One of them tugged on my pants as I came over and said “Nice pants, and before I could thank her for the compliment she points out to me that you can see my dark purple thong right through the white pants. I was so embarrassed I ran straight to my locker and grabbed my sweatshirt. I didn’t let it leave my waist for the rest of the day.
-Sarah H. W.Hartford, Connecticut

Goodies

This pic of a couple canoodling is from the “goodie” page, where your apparent benefit is signing up for Weathervane’s mailing list. My jaw is on the floor. Honestly, this vibe is kinda what being subscribed to Nicstalgia is like. Right?

Later, goodies included computer wallpapers and were separated from signups, which could be received via email or the new and novel “wireless messaging”. What is this FREE TEXT MESSAGING all about?!?!? HOW does all this work?!?!?

Teen Poetry

Grown men will write poetry and realize the same things a girl does when she’s 11 years old. This is better than most of the poetry I’ve ever read. Just saying. Weathervane didn’t have to go this deep, but they did.

True Love
True love is such an extraordinary thing,
But you never know what pain and sorrow it could bring.
You think that you have found the one,
That it when you realize what you have done.
You let him play games with your heart,
That’s when you slowly start falling apart.
You know what he did was wrong,
But in your head you keep hearing your song.
And then you see him with another girl,
Then your head starts to whirl.
How could he move on so fast?,
While you are still stuck back in the past.
You know that you made a mistake,
And it was your heart that he did take.
He asked you out and then he dumped you,
He just doesn’t understand all of the pain that
you’ve been through.
People say that your time will come,
But if you ask me I think that my time is done.
Kalais -- OH

Untitled
Our short good byes seems to last an eternity
I can’t bare to stay away
When I’m with you I feel such pleasure
And somehow you make me complete
At first I was afraid
But you offered an unspoken guarantee
You open up what’s inside of me
And still I feel at ease
To be here for a moment with you
Is just too good to be true
If what you have been waiting for is me
Then maybe its time we set our spirits free
Que sera sera, what will be will be
To my heart you have found the key
I look forward to being with you
& I never want this feeling to end
My knees get weak, and I can’t speak at the sight of you
“Smile though your heart is aching” but I no longer need too
To be here for a moment with you
Is just too good to be true
So I’ll follow what my heart says
And allow myself to fall
-Ashleigh

Untitled
You hate him, but you don’t
You don’t love him, but you do
You look inside his eyes and find no clue
Right then and there you know,
Your love for him has died
Deep down inside,
You start to cry
He gets on his knees and wants to die
That’s the story of life
And all people hate it
But that’s life
It’s just the way it is
There’s nothing we can do.
-L. Barnard

Mothers Day
People come and go
But I always seem to know
That you are my mother
I make you mad
I make you sad
Yet you’re one of a kind
and yes you’re mine
You’ll never leave me,
Even if you drown in the deep blue sea
You’ll always stay in my heart
And yet, we never seem to part
God gave me a gift which is you
I’ll always try to be true
If I have bad affection
You always seem to turn me in the right direction
I have one more thing to say to you
Which is that, Mom,
I love you.
- Lisa

Friendship-A Poem
Some say friends last forever.
Mine sometimes do and sometimes never.
Best friends are there with you,
Thick and thin and all the way through.
It doesn’t surprise me to believe
That they will always use me in a time of need.
Whether in school or in the mall,
Friends always seem to get me through it all.
Friends make me happy and make me sad;
I just want to thank them for all that we had.
- Amber Slomski

Because of You
Because of you I have a heart,
you gave me faith
right from the start
Because of you, I never felt sad
I was so happy, I always felt glad
But then you changed
Into something I never knew,
Something took over
Inside of you.
You never talked
You never stayed
You always left
And then I prayed
I hoped for the memories
To come again
To stay forever
Until the end
And although things aren’t the same
And you have become so far away,
Because of you
I still have faith
And always will
Everyday
- Tara, Long Island

Entertainment

This section’s content matter in 2001 seemed to be diametrically opposed to Weathervane’s target demo of teen girls. It listed syndicated Billboard articles about electronic pop band Triangle, Ozzy Osbourne, country group Montgomery Gentry, and Southern rock jam band Gov’t Mule. They should’ve had me blog for them about Britney Spears, Hoku, Mikaila, and Hilary Duff – although I guess that’s what I’m doing now!

The music section seemed to crawl toward relevance in 2003, featuring The Streets, Underworld, and Taking Back Sunday, and entertainment expanded to include gossip like, Madonna’s Life, A Movie? What’s Kirsten Dunst’s Next Movie? What Turns the O-Town Boys On? and tips on what’s in style, featuring Jennifer Garner in Alias, Hello Kitty, and Destiny’s Child.

Horoscopes

Ahhhh we saved the best for last. Looking ahead to next month, here are your Weathervane horoscopes for Taurus season:

Taurus
Happy Birthday! You Will Be Starting A Big Romance That Will Really Pay Off! Reap The Rewards This Month. The Time Is Yours.

Gemini
Let People Know Who You Really Are. Stand Proud And Be Heard! You Can Make It Happen.

Cancer
Your Confidence Will Be Strong This Month. Someone Will Notice And They Will Love The New You!

Leo
Summer Is Just Around The Corner And This Summer Will Be One For The Record Books! Summer Cuties Are On The Way To You!

Virgo
Your Helping Hand Will Be Needed By A Friend This Month. Your Friend Will Be Ever Grateful For Your Assistance.

Libra
You Are Definitely Where It’s At This Month. Your Popularity Will Soar. But Don’t Forget To Stay Grounded.

Scorpio
You Will Receive A Surprise Gift From A Secret Admirer And Will Spend All Month Trying To Find Him! You Will Be Surprised When You Find Out Who????

Sagittarius
This Month Use Your Gift Of Gab To Talk To All The Class Cuties. One Will Listen.

Capricorn
Get Ready For A Shopping Spree! But Remember Don’t Go Overboard Or You’ll Pay The Price Later.

Aquarius
Good Luck Is Yours This Month. Good Grades And A Winning Record Are On The Way To You.

Pisces
Your Creativity Will Soar This Month. You Will Come Up With All The Cool Ideas For School And Play.

Aries
Miss Fashion Is On The Way! You Will Be The Envy Of All With Your Fashionable Cool Duds!

Huge thank you to the paid subscribers who support my work: Janine, Marie, Liv, CY, Matthew, Emily, Gina, Taylor, Alejandra, Jess, Lindsay, and Bea! À la Jessica Simpson, I’m gonna love you forever 💐💐💐

Upgrade to paid subscription

If you enjoy my interviews, essays, deep dives, and other musings, please consider supporting Nicstalgia! Your support helps me continue writing the most fun newsletter about offbeat, obscure, and niche pop culture. If you’d rather send a one-time gift of a custom amount versus a recurring subscription, you can also do that here!

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Newsletter ☆ Instagram ⟡ Website ♡ Podcast Archive ☆ Physical Media Renaissance™ Zine

This week’s episode: Linda Kensington will steal your man, I finally got to be a Pussycat Doll, we need more ballet film festivals, an unhinged American Girl doll play, my new vintage dance bag, and my next five DIY projects! (Lol I can’t stop making stuff)

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• Have always loved Gap commercials, will always love Gap commercials. The latest campaign is its first Spanish-language one, choreographed by Zoi Tatopoulos, aka. ‘ztato’ and starring 28-year-old Puerto Rican rapper, singer-songwriter, and former footballer Young Miko. Her song “WASSUP” will make any Millennial’s ears perk up, as it prominently samples “Lollipop” by Lil Wayne. It also samples “Chulin Culin Chunfly” by Voltio, and “What U Gon’ Do” by Lil Jon, who makes a cameo in the song’s outro.

• I’ve watched about a zillion episodes of Top of The Pops in the past two months and somehow came across this archival page of TOTP computer wallpapers. You’re welcome!!!

• One commenter cheered “I WANNA SEE YOU BE BRAVE” as Sara Bareilles shoveled [redacted] out of her chimney in a recent viral video. I would 100% watch a Martha Stewart-esque HGTV show hosted by Sara, where she intermittently sings about country living. Why? I’m not sure, but I’m sold.

• I was listening to Katharine McPhee’s album after perusing through my All American (Idol) Rejects playlist, for reasons you will discover below the paywall. I pressed play and my first thought was, ‘Honey, we have Amerie at home.’ McPhee’s album was produced by Danja, who made a much better album in the same year: Britney’s Blackout (2007). I was distracted from “Love Story” by the perplexing lyrics to “Open Toes”, which I will share via lyric video below. I need to read the memoir of Kara DioGuardi (one of the FIVE writers of this wacky song, including McPhee and Danja) to see if there’s a plausible explanation for this.

• I am always talking about the inconsistencies in women’s clothing sizing conventions, how women’s clothing is still proportionally made for teenage bodies, and how adult women thrifting “Y2K” clothes that were specifically made for children is high key weird. Finding (relatively) ethically manufactured and reasonably (if not affordably) priced clothing at a decent quality is damn near impossible in today’s day and age. I absolutely think the body positivity movement of the 2010s tricked people into thinking just because there were more sizes available (sometimes), they would fit better (categorically false). The Pudding made an excellent data visualization about women’s sizing that I highly recommend. Trust me, the problem is the clothes, not you.

The Pussycat Dolls are reuniting as a trio, and apparently none of the other original members knew about it. I love that Lil Kim and Mya are touring with them, although I will not be going. Once you see them open for Britney’s Circus tour, how do you go up from there??!! I will be going to a PCD burlesque class taught by Robin Antin herself this afternoon, so I’ll let you know how that goes. I assume Melody, Carmit, and Jessica weren’t invited because they’re too good at singing and therefore would detract attention from Nicole (unlike two blondes that no one can tell apart), too good at dancing and therefore would detract attention from Nicole, and a right-wing vaccine injury advocate, respectively.

But let’s give some credit where credit is due: PCD was the pinnacle of Literal Trash (compliment). When people ask me what twenty-something girls will look like walking around NYC this spring/summer, my answer is, ‘Like the 2005-2008 Pussycat Dolls’. Need outfit inspo? Look no further.

Exhibit A: More is more

Large nonfunctional belts; tiny skirts; lots of brown; cowboy boots, ballet-inspired, and strappy footwear; dropped waist and/or empire waist; and even Ed Hardy. (I know, I can’t believe it either.) Layers? Sure. Butterflies? Why not!!!!!! Coco Chanel once said to look in the mirror and remove one accessory before leaving the house. That rule of thumb no longer applies, and not just because she was a N*zi sympathizer. (Sorry that’s dark, but it’s Fashion History 101.)

Exhibit B: Fashion deja vu

Corsets; buckle and O-ring belts; hair poofs; ruffles; low-rise pants; cargos; lace camis; and yes, headbands. (Rachel Berry rejoices!) It doesn’t matter which era these isolated trend objects were regurgitated from, you just know you’ve seen them somewhere before. Is it the 2000s? Or is it the 80s? Or….the 50s? The answer is usually: all of the above! Due to context collapse on the internet, where the audience doesn’t have a monocultural, shared concept of pop culture history and references, it’s very hard to achieve pastiche. This is why you keep seeing blatant homages or recreations of the past, e.g. everything Addison Rae and Tate McRae do being direct callbacks to the legendary Miss Britney Spears.

Exhibit C: The cycle continues

As Justin Timberlake and Timbaland once said, “I thought I told you…what goes around comes back around…” In contrast to Exhibit B, where everything looks vaguely familiar, Exhibit C contains zero subtlety: gothic Juicy Couture/Von Dutch fonts; graphic tees containing IP licensed into oblivion; camo pants; studded belts; tiny little shrugs (one can only hope).

In PCD’s 2005 pic below, you can see a LOT of sleazy 70s/80s trends – bodysuits, rainbows, side cutout bodysuits, halter bodysuits, sweatbands. (This is where American Apparel’s aesthetic came from in the 2000s.) Now, we’re seeing that trend cycle complete AGAIN. The 80s came back in the 00s/10s, and now both the 80s AND the 00s are back. Everything can change, but some things always stay the same – like cheetah print!

If you are old enough to have experienced what I call The Chasm – the completion of a 20-year trend cycle in its entirety – then you may be shocked and appalled that youth culture trends fixate around whatever you wore in elementary/middle/high school. PCD’s debut album was released on September 12, 2005. Anyone under the age of 21 was not even ALIVE when “Don’t Cha” and “Buttons” changed the world. I need to go lie down…

Huge thank you to the paid subscribers who support my work: Janine, Marie, Liv, CY, Matthew, Emily, Gina, Taylor, Alejandra, Jess, and Lindsay! À la Jessica Simpson, I’m gonna love you forever 💐💐💐

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This week’s episode: my latest crafting projects, two more celebrity memoirs with casually harrowing details, archival Oscars clips, the movie that cured my ADHD.

Next week I’ll tell you about the music video I was in, the Pussycat Dolls burlesque class, a super fun ballet film festival, an unhinged American Girl doll play, my new vintage dance bag, and my next DIY project.

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Updates for you:

• Website update: You can explore the archive of my 135 elliptical class themes on my new website. It will soon be complete with Spotify links, which I have never shared before (!!!!!!) so if you need songs for the gym – or truly anything – you can find it there. Playlisting is my passion!!!

• We have a new section today called Well, that’s my life! where I talk about something fun I was up to recently. It’s behind the paywall at the bottom. People tell me quite often I should have my own reality show – which I take as a compliment – so here it is.

  

Huge thank you to the paid subscribers who support my work: Janine, Marie, Liv, CY, Matthew, Emily, Gina, Taylor, Alejandra, Jess, and Lindsay! À la Jessica Simpson, I’m gonna love you forever 💐💐💐

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If you enjoy my interviews, essays, deep dives, and other musings, please consider supporting Nicstalgia! Your support helps me continue writing the most fun newsletter about offbeat, obscure, and niche pop culture. If you’d rather send a one-time gift of a custom amount versus a recurring subscription, you can also do that here!

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My favorite things from the internet this week:

• Everyone romanticizes romcom journalists and misses front of book content (aka. the fun stuff) from 2000s magazines. Luckily, Nicstalgia is there to fill the void!!! Do you remember this cover/quiz from Nicstalgia’s 50th Episode in 2023?

• Lil Wayne songs to listen to when… “in nursing student handwriting” teleported me back to 2008 immediately.

• Most of my time online is spent researching and falling deep into Internet Archive and eBay rabbit holes, and sometimes I come across unhinged items I am completely enthralled by. Case in point: an Old Navy ‘croquette’ (a fried food, confused for the ‘coquette’ aesthetic) top and a $50 René Angélil Celebration of Life cookie. (Have you no shame?)

• This account that makes fake banners in the Philippines is so funny to me…Exhibits A and B: Avril Lavigne Alysa Liu and P!nk Pinkpantheres.

• This shirt is heinous, but imagine thrifting the top worn in my favorite Vine of all time? (A mashup of one hit wonder Magic’s 2013 weaksauce “Rude” with S2 KUWTK where Kim hits Khloe over the head with her handbag)

• The disappearance of colorful squishy pencil grippers in American schools directly correlates to fallen literacy rates. I’m a school store nepo baby (my mom was the buyer and I helped pick out which pencils and erasers we carried), so this crisis hits close to home.

• I love that Zooey Deschanel hates Crumbl cookies.

This week’s episode: My favorite Daylight Savings Time song, the celebrity book I loved, the celebrity book I stopped reading halfway through, the celebrity book I’m excited to start next, teaching my fitness classes, life on the dance floor, getting over 1 of 2 of my childhood fears, and almost collapsing in the record store.

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Macro and micro level, it’s been a week. Getting turned away from The Drew Barrymore Show with Hilary Duff as the guest is my villain origin story. Let’s see if I have more luck with Kelly Clarkson next week. I’m struggling to get through the winter, but I’m giving my best attempt at embodying the wistful energy of Jennifer Lopez in the “All I Have” music video.

I am pleased to announce that seasonal bucket lists, a favorite topic of Nicstalgia readers, will be back for SPRINGGGGG!!! You will get plenty of ideas for how to exercise your free will. In the meantime, here’s what I’m reading and listening to!

Now reading:

• Black Dance in America: A History Through Its People by James Haskins (1990)

Recently read:

• Eternally Electric: The Message in My Music by Debbie Gibson. What a talented woman. I love a celebrity memoir.

• So many 33 1/3 books because they’re easy to carry on the subway, including the ones on Britney’s Blackout, The B52s’ Cosmic Thing, and Belle and Sebastian’s If You’re Feeling Sinister.

Favorite recent pieces on Substack:

Fandom Exile

Harry Styles: The Prince of Potemkin Pop Culture

Welcome to Fandom Exile, your destination for anti-nostalgia fandom research and cultural criticism…

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6 months ago · 110 likes · 27 comments · Monia Ali

Internet Bedroom

🎀my girlhood essay🎀

When I was about to become a teenager, my family moved from a suburb outside of Toledo, Ohio to a suburb outside of Columbus, Ohio. My father had already been living in Columbus for some time, sharing an apartment with a man who was his spiritual guide and who told my parents to tell other people that he was my godfather when anyone asked questions…

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6 months ago · 30 likes · 4 comments · rachel moss

Matriarchal Blessing

There is one word that explains how so many men can be in the Epstein files. So why is no one saying it?

Attention! This Tuesday, Feb 24th the doors to enroll in Women’s Circle 2026 will close, and will not open again for another year! What is Women’s Circle? It’s the founding membership of Matriarchal Blessing where a badass group of women meet each month to watch movies together and discuss patriarchy. It’s all online. Join from anywhere. All details and…

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6 months ago · 17252 likes · 1472 comments · Celeste Davis

Found Object

They Killed Normal and Called It Progress

If My Best Friend’s Wedding came out today, it would be a prestige streaming series called “Unlikable Woman”, marketed as “brave,” dissected on Instagram, and quietly buried by the algorithm in forty-eight hours…

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6 months ago · 1782 likes · 242 comments · Rodrigo Brancatelli

Songs from my CORE class playlist:

Huge thank you to the paid subscribers who support my work: Janine, Marie, Liv, CY, Matthew, Emily, Gina, Taylor, Alejandra, Jess, and Lindsay! À la Jessica Simpson, I’m gonna love you forever 💐💐💐

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If you enjoy my interviews, essays, deep dives, and other musings, please consider supporting Nicstalgia! Your support helps me continue writing the most fun newsletter about offbeat, obscure, and niche pop culture. If you’d rather send a one-time gift of a custom amount versus a recurring subscription, you can also do that here!

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Newsletter ☆ Instagram ⟡ Website ♡ Podcast Archive ☆ Physical Media Renaissance™ Zine

ICYMI, in last week’s letter, I shared a photographic treasure trove of physical media I did not buy! Since then, I found like, a dozen more pictures. My camera roll is a bottomless pit, I swear. It does remind me that I should go back to [redacted] and buy that Kudos compilation CD.

Hope you fared well this week with the snow. I try to look as glamorous as Jennifer Lopez in the “All I Have” music video, but I’m so sick of winter. BRING ON THE SPRING!!!! I’ve still been having fun though:

• Got new headshots through Shoott!1

• Have been dancing consistently, plus teaching my classes (yay!)

• Started vocal technique lessons (so fun, and “natural talent” was how my teacher described my abilities…just saying…)

• Did karaoke for the one and only Amethyst at Montero’s (she loved my song choice) and started designing a NYC Karaoke Bingo template just because!

• My website is still massively under construction, but I finally finished my virtual physical media collection page! ISN’T IT FABULOUS?!?! I also finally organized the literal shelf in my room, which looks like the one pictured.

⭐️ Physical media shelf superlatives ⭐️

As you know from exploring the Nicstalgia Consumption Rubric, not all CDs I find in the wild are added to my collection. That doesn’t mean that hundreds haven’t made the cut LOL. Here are some of my favorites!

Best deep cut

Eden’s Crush’s Get Over Yourself single out there, but I really wanted the Popstars album! I found it before Eden’s Crush was later put on Spotify, and I will still have it after it inevitably disappears from streaming again. I need to be able to listen to their cover of Sheila E’s “The Glamorous Life” at any given moment.

Best hidden gem

As the Co-President of the Mikaila Fan Club (with Chet), it was imperative that I acquired Mikaila’s album. In my opinion, “Emotional” is the perfect pop song. PERFECT. I now own 3 copies of this CD, because one didn’t have the jacket and another I just felt like having for backup? Anyway, if you are not already acquainted with the actress who was on Wishbone (!!!) and sang some amazing bubblegum pop bangers, I highly recommend you tap in immediately.

Best gift(s)

has an incredible ear, thorough musicality, a deep passion for music, and uncanny ability to pick out a gift for me that reflects his respect for both my kitschy, campy, and melodramatic tastes. This category is a three-way tie between Mariah Carey’s Glitter, Nude on the Moon: The B-52’s Anthology, and Lady Gaga’s The Fame 10 year anniversary edition that comes with a little Lady Gaga flash drive!!!!!!

Best single

Ricky Martin and Christina Aguilera’s “Nobody Wants to Be Lonely”. This song went triple platinum in my house!!!!!! The next time I am in Florida, I kind of desperately need to go to Coral Gables where they filmed the music video. Their chemistry is so unconvincing (for obvious reasons) and it looks like they were CGI’d in the same room, which was a great relationship model for 11-year-old me. (I actively avoided my first boyfriend in the hallways of our middle school.)

Best soundtrack to a movie I have not seen

I have a confession to make, and please don’t hate me for saying this: I have never seen the movie A Walk to Remember. I really don’t like lying, but I think that about 90% of the time I’ve lied in my life was telling people I’d seen A Walk to Remember when I hadn’t. But I DID have the soundtrack, which honestly, is kinda close enough??

Best splurge

Spiceworld was at a flea market for $9, which is now more than I would ever pay for a vintage CD. But it was the first album I had on cassette tape, and it absolutely changed my life, so it had to be done. I spiced up my life in 1997 and haven’t stopped since.

Best “parental advisory” CD

Has to be Missy Elliott’s Miss E…So Addictive. When I saw the “Get Ur Freak On” music video on MTV, I was shocked and awed by how cool, futuristic, and innovative she was. She’s a legend!!! That reminds me I need to print out the tweet of mine that she responded to with a single purple heart emoji. (I don’t care if it was her assistant or Miss Fendi Dior, it was someone with her login info.)

Most nostalgic find

There is a trifecta of CDs that changed my entire life: Celine Dion’s Let’s Talk About Love, Mariah Carey’s Music Box, and Britney Spears’s Britney. These artists (plus Missy Elliott!) are my Mount Rushmore. No further comment needed.

Most satisfying find

Sometimes I buy CDs from this massive warehouse in Connecticut – they used to be a physical store but now only sell online. Tri-State Area people (and readers of Nicstalgia, obviously) may already know about Drew’s. It was a company out of New Jersey that made themed cover CDs of party music. You could get one for Halloween, luau, baby shower, whatever. They sold them at iParty (RIP) and my favorite was Drew’s Famous Smash Party Hits. Though I’d parted from my original childhood copy, I was incredibly satisfied to fulfill my vow that one day, we would reunite again.

Best promotional CD

I collect retail promotional CDs because I have spent about 15% of my life inside of malls. I have CDs from Old Navy, GAP, Urban Outfitters, American Eagle, Victoria’s Secret, Limited Too, and dELiA*s. Even though I can select particular CDs from the warehouse, it’s way more fun to find them in the wild. I was at Goodwill with my mom a couple weeks ago and found the first edition of a dELiA*s CD. I practically sprinted to the register…

Most fated find

When I first got really into CD collecting in 2022, the last CD I found on my first trip was NOW That’s What I Call Music! 7. I almost started crying right then and there. Literally over 100 of these CDs exist, and yet my favorite one – the only one I had as a kid – was NOW 7. At the time, my sister had a car with a CD player and we listened to it on the way home. It really was like hearing Destiny’s Child’s “Survivor” again for the first time.

Huge thank you to the paid subscribers who support my work: Janine, Marie, Liv, CY, Matthew, Emily, Gina, Taylor, Alejandra, Jess, and Lindsay! À la Jessica Simpson, I’m gonna love you forever 💐💐💐

Upgrade to paid subscription

If you enjoy my interviews, essays, deep dives, and other musings, please consider supporting Nicstalgia! Your support helps me continue writing the most fun newsletter about offbeat, obscure, and niche pop culture. If you’d rather send a one-time gift of a custom amount versus a recurring subscription, you can also do that here!

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Here’s some of what I watched this week:

• I’m obsessed with the Olympics and no one can stop me!!!!! I’m particularly a fan of figure skating, ice dance, and snowboarding. I loved Annika Hocke and Robert Kunkel’s routine to the bus driver from Spice World’s (Meatloaf’s) song, which they’d previously performed at the German National Championship.

• Friend of the Letter Chet recently released the newest episode of Hit and Run, where he interviewed members of iconique Y2K Pop group PYT 25 years after their debut. In a world where context collapse prevails and literally anyone can interview celebrities (just saying), Chet is a breath of fresh air. He is SO well-researched, articulate, prepared, and composed. I really enjoyed it, as will all niche early 2000s pop music fans!!!

• I watched Netflix’s America’s Next Top Model 3-part documentary so you don’t have to. It only skims the surface in terms of its problematic treatment of its young contestants, it could’ve been shorter, and I’m more interested to see the one on E! where the narrative is shaped by the models rather than Tyra. Although I find using UGC in documentaries a lazy copout that uses creators’ work without consent or compensation, it was fun to see a familiar face – Friend of the Letter Janine! Shoutout to her for giving me a slice of her cake from Netflix hehe :) WE WERE ALL ROOTING FOR YOU!

Below you will find a photographic treasure trove of physical media I did not buy! The impetus for sharing these pics now is because they clog up my camera roll. I’m tired of getting notifications that I am utilizing 127.9 GB of 128 GB of my iPhone storage – I haven’t forgotten! Consider this the third installment of My Digital Archiving Project (aka. MDAP, which you can read more about here and here). I’ve been keeping my photo count under 10k, which I consider pretty good.

If there is one takeaway for this week, it is: You don’t have to buy everything!! (Case in point: The Cosmopolitan Intimate Moments compilation CD…) For all intents and purposes, I’d like to differentiate consumers, resellers, and collectors because they have different motivations for buying things. Here, let’s focus on the collector’s POV.

• Consumers buy shit they absolutely do not need, usually from giant corporations that actively negatively impact the world and adversely shift consumer behavior: Amazon, Shein, Walmart, Target, TJ Maxx, etc. Intention is low, as they are not purchasing commodities or essentials. These buys are fueled by impulse, novelty, and/or boredom.

• Resellers buy shit at the deepest discount possible so that they can resell it on a secondary marketplace and generate maximum profit: Poshmark, Depop, eBay, etc. Intention is high, as sellers’ livelihood depends on market value of goods sold – though it’s a volatile, ever-changing figure.

• Collectors buy shit because they feel some kind of attachment to or fulfillment by physical items. Intention is high, as collections are shaped by the collector’s individual taste, memory, and sentimentality. If intention was low, that would just be hoarding!!

In my Physical Media Renaissance™ video podcast episode, I go over my Nicstalgia Consumption Rubric. This is how I decide what gets on “the list” of what I buy and what doesn’t. The list is shorter than you might think!

• Rarity: Is the item readily available, still in production, or available at a reasonable cost on the secondhand market?

• Sentimentality: Do you have firsthand nostalgia, emotion, or investment in this item?

• Opportunity: Is this something you would’ve wanted when you were younger and didn’t have it, or couldn’t find at a reasonable price.

• Risk: Would you be mad if this piece of media wasn’t on streaming platforms and disappeared forever?

I came across these CDs/DVDs/tapes/etc. in 2025, and they didn’t quite fit into the criteria for purchase. I kinda wanna go back to the stores and get the first row of items here – FWIW, the MyScene movies are fabulous. But sometimes, it’s okay to just take a picture of something and call it a day. Stay tuned for what I did add to my collection soon…

Huge thank you to the paid subscribers who support my work: Janine, Marie, Liv, CY, Matthew, Emily, Gina, Taylor, Alejandra, Jess, and Lindsay! À la Jessica Simpson, I’m gonna love you forever 💐💐💐

Upgrade to paid subscription

If you enjoy my interviews, essays, deep dives, and other musings, please consider supporting Nicstalgia! Your support helps me continue writing the most fun newsletter about offbeat, obscure, and niche pop culture. If you’d rather send a one-time gift of a custom amount versus a recurring subscription, you can also do that here!

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Happy Almost Valentine’s Day! 💋 I love ~love~ in its many forms, and what better way to celebrate than with the perfect playlist? I first saw Cosmopolitan’s Intimate Evenings (1996) in a thrift store a year ago, and although I didn’t buy it for $2, I think about it all the time.1

The atmosphere in which the CD should be enjoyed is prescriptively written on the back cover, setting the anticipatory scene for romance:

“The candles are lit, the wine is chilling and dinner’s in the oven. As you glance around the room, you check that the couch pillows are fluffed, all magazines and papers are stashed in drawers, cat toys are out of sight. Everything is exactly right for an intimate evening with that special man in your life.

Now’s the perfect time to slip a CD into the disc player -- some background music to enhance the intimacy of the moment without interfering in your conversation. The music on this collection was chosen with exactly such moments in mind.”

But why should an intimate evening with that special someone be limited to classical music? SNOOZE!!!! I need soundtracks for improvised living room dance parties, impromptu singalongs, and blissful moments of quality time – drinking Prosecco cocktails, solving a crossword puzzle, eating a perfectly cooked steak, laughing, and snuggling in as many blankets as humanly possible. Please enjoy the first eight Cosmopolitan CD compilations, released from 1992-1994. There’s truly something for everyone, perfect for whatever your Valentine’s Day happens to be!!

PS. ICYMI, last week I made a playlist with my Valentine of all the best songs ever…

Huge thank you to the paid subscribers who support my work: Janine, Marie, Liv, CY, Matthew, Emily, Gina, Taylor, Alejandra, Jess, and Lindsay! À la Jessica Simpson, I’m gonna love you forever 💐💐💐

Upgrade to paid subscription

If you enjoy my interviews, essays, deep dives, and other musings, please consider supporting Nicstalgia! Your support helps me continue writing the most fun newsletter about offbeat, obscure, and niche pop culture. If you’d rather send a one-time gift of a custom amount versus a recurring subscription, you can also do that here!

Send a one-time gift

Newsletter ☆ Instagram ⟡ Website ♡ Podcast Archive ☆ Physical Media Renaissance™ Zine