Pre-teens and teenagers spent a lot of their days off perusing the food court and shops of their local shopping malls. It was a hub to meet up and waste several hours of the day playing video games at the arcade, chasing the opposite sex, shopping (but not really buying) and loitering around the food court.
Dolls, stuffed animals, and action figures were as popular in the '90s as they'd been in the '80s, '70s, and earlier—in fact, some of the biggest Christmas crazes of the decade were as low-tech as the Cabbage Patch Kids or mood rings that came before them.
Children would share toys such as hoops, marbles and skipping ropes. Other games included tag and hopscotch – which are still played in schools and playgrounds today. In the 1930s, many families were too poor to afford manufactured toys, which meant children would have to find creative ways of making their own fun.
They had an exceptional decade of music
Grunge was the sanctuary of sadness, anger, and angst. Rock was heavy and intense. R&B was supremely sexy, and made '90s kids understand their own desires. The music of the '90s was the guide to life, and the justification of every emotion felt and expressed.
“Members of the millennial and Gen Z generations are especially likely to be prone to nostalgia for the 90s/00s now, as they remember their childhood, teen years and late adolescence,” she says. “Those years predate much of the stress imposed by dramatic transformations in the way we currently live.”
Why the 90s? Well, for Gen Z it's about the whole vibe. Many feel that the era represents a carefree time that was about having fun. Considering the stressful reality we've been experiencing over the last few years, it's no wonder Gen Z are feeling nostalgic for a simpler time.
Slip dresses, bomber jackets, scrunchies and plaid flannel shirts were all the rage during the '90s — and many of these fashion trends are working their way back into vogue (although some of these pieces may have never left your closet).
Popular games of the 1900's included tag, marbles, board games, hide and go seek, and a game called Kick the Wickey where one kid kicked a foot-long stick and whoever caught it was the winner.
Since there was no TV or radio, kids had to entertain themselves. Singing around the piano or home organ was great fun. In the city, roller skating and cycling were favorite pastimes for boys and girls. You would feel safe to roam around in your neighborhood and even travel alone about the city.
In celebration of the Easter Rising 1916, first class children have been learning 'How children played 100 years ago'. We had fantastic fun playing games such as Queenie I-O, Hopscotch, Donkey, The Alley Alley-O and Skipping!
Stickball, street hockey, Ringolevio, Marco Polo, and hide-and-seek were just a few of the games that kids played on high-trafficked streets in the '60s. They also played with marbles and aimed them into the small holes in manhole covers, and there were hopscotch boards written with chalk on the asphalt.
1993: Pogs
A simple game that defined the decade, Pogs slammed onto the scene in the mid-1990s. The origin of the fad goes back generations earlier; kids played “milk caps” in Hawaii as early as 1927.
Other sporting activities which people performed during this time included roller skating, bicycling, swimming, ice skating, sleighing, hunting, and fishing.
Kid 'n Play is an American hip-hop duo from New York City that was most popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
TOP TEN TOYS OF 1900-1920
Other popular toys of the time included: Baseball Cards (1900), Ping Pong (1901), Jigsaw Puzzle (1909), Snap Card Game, playing cards, marbles, checkers, chess, yo-yos, wooden tops and (of course) dolls.
In reality, 90s kids are those born from 1981-1990, basically the Older Millennials. They entered the 90s as children and left that decade as tweens and teenagers.
Wear plaid, and lots of it.
Plaid button-up shirts, plaid skirts, and plaid dresses were '90s staples. Try layering a plaid button-up over the rest of your outfit (leaving it unbuttoned), or wrap a plaid shirt around your waist. Try finding plaid as worn out as possible, giving it the grungy look.
A member of Gen Z is anyone born between 1996 and the early-mid 2000s (end date can vary depending on source). In the U.S., there are approximately 90 million members of Gen Z, or “Gen Zers.”
Researchers and popular media loosely use the mid-to-late 1990s as starting birth years and the early 2010s as ending birth years for defining Generation Z.
Gen Z also faces an unprecedented behavioral health crisis: US Gen Zers surveyed by McKinsey report the least positive outlook and the highest prevalence of mental illness of any generation, and European respondents report struggling with self-stigma.