Endless Bliss | Happy Lifestyle Blog: 39 Signs You Were a Preteen in the 2000's.

39 Signs You Were a Preteen in the 2000's.

2000s preteen


Even though the 90's were my favorite decade to live through, the 2000's were pretty incredible too. I was going through that awkward stage of growing up and trying (and failing) to be cool. The Olsen twins and Hilary Duff were my idols, and my dreams included getting my first kiss and being in the audience of an episode of TRL. 

If you were a preteen in the 2000's, then you'll love this list!

1 | You remember thinking that Y2K wasn't going to be a big deal, and you thought the adults needed to chill out. You also thought that if the power did go out, you thought it'd turn into an epic (semi-permanent) camping trip. 

2 | You flipped your ish when you found out that the girl from Casper Meets Wendy was going to be Lizzie McGuire (which ended up being your favorite show in the universe).


3 | One word: Chokers

4 | You listened to Avril Lavigne and felt like she just got you because why did people have to go and make things so complicated? 

avril lavigne complicated gif

5 | Midnight Harry Potter book and movie releases will always be the most epic releases. 

6 | If you and your best friend didn't have Best Friends necklaces, were you even really best friends? 

7 | When you redid your "teenager" bedroom, you had to get a canopy...and a lava lamp.

8 | When the teacher rolled in the TV and VCR cart, you knew it was going to be a good note passing class. 

9 | You remember when MTV actually stood for Music Television, and you loved watching TRL after school and getting ready to the morning music videos. 

MTV TRL fax request Melissa Joan Hart Britney Spears

10 | Teen Beat, YM, and J-14 were your bibles, not only for the articles, but largely because of the ginormous posters. 

11 | It didn't matter if they were uncomfortable, toe rings were worn.

12 | You did MASH as many times as you needed to to get the future you wanted.

13 | Dreamboats: Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Erik von Detten, Justin Timberlake, Lance Bass, David Gallagher, Jason Behr, Nate Richert, Rider Strong, and Scott Weinger

cory and shawn boy meets world gif


14 | Origami meant making a million paper fortune tellers.

15 | Stressing out over the band color of your braces (and coordinating it with the holidays).

16 | You dreaded getting called on in class to do a problem on the projector. 

17 | You hated that annoying person who got up to use the spinny pencil sharpener. Why didn't they just invest in a mechanical pencil? '

18 | The first time you saw Hilary Duff on MTV was monumental. 


19 | You were actually kind of excited about purple ketchup because red ketchup was so overused. Green ketchup, on the other hand, was super gross. 

20 | Getting your classmates together to do the "down by the riverside, the hanky panky" game at recess was the perfect excuse to almost hold your crush's hand. 

21 | You screamed when you saw Lizzie and Gordo kiss in The Lizzie McGuire Movie

lizzie and gordo kiss

22 | You convinced your parents to buy you candy cigarettes every time you were at the gas station, because pretending to smoke them made you look cool. 

23 | You're still waiting for someone to serenade you on the school intercom with band accompaniment a la 10 Things I Hate About You


24 | You wore colorful rubber bracelets all up your arm. If you were feeling a little depressed or rebellious, you wore all black ones. 

25 | You were pissed when they changed the cast of All That

26 | So Weird had you questioning whether supernatural things actually existed. 


27 | The stress of choosing your AIM away message was so real. 

28 | Now CDs had all of the best songs on it (minus, like, three. There were always three meh songs.). 

29 | You and your friends had a Slam Book. 

30 | You hated when you put in a Blockbuster VHS and the person who had it before you didn't rewind it. (Umm...hello...be kind, please rewind). 

31 | You still think the best episode of Even Stevens was "Influenza," which was the musical episode. You're still waiting on the musical Lizzie McGuire episode.


32 | Colorful scrunchies. The scrunchier, the better. 

33 | Printing out MapQuest directions and still getting lost.

34 | The stress of choosing your MySpace profile song (even though everyone paused it as soon as they got to your page). And then the thrill of being able to make a playlist and not have just one song. 

35 | You cheated during Heads-Up 7-Up by looking at people's shoes (I actually never did this, but I know you did. Cheater.). 

36 | Blo-Pens, my friend. Blo-Pens.

37 | You had a mini collection of tinted sunglasses, mostly from the Mary-Kate and Ashley brand. 

mary-kate and ashley gif billboard dad


38 | Every time you took a drink of milk, you acted like you were in a Got Milk? ad. 

39 | You made book covers for your textbooks out of brown paper bags from the grocery store and then decorated them. 

Were you a 2000's pre-teen? 

51 comments :

  1. Oh my goodness everything about this is spot-on. Reading this was like reliving my childhood. Thank you for sharing and making me feel nostalgic this Monday morning!

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  2. Caroline {Virginia Sweet}April 6, 2015 at 8:19 AM

    Oh my god - this is awesome!! Took me WAY back!!!

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  3. This is so on point!!!! I was obsessed with Blo-Pens. My grandma bought me the regular colors and the brights...everything was lime green, hot pink, and orange!

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  4. LOL these are SO SPOT ON!! Omg!


    The AIM away message one... when I was in high school (being the closet case I was on top of typical teen angst) I was sent to the guidance counselor more times than not because my away message was so depressing or some suicidal song lyrics. Woops.


    And as for my first email address ever? Bbluelava. You get it. lol


    This post is already an instant classic!

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  5. Right? What an awesome way to start a post-holiday Monday morning workday!

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  6. All the neon colors. EVERYWHERE! lol

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  7. Oh gosh this post made my day!! I just LOVE anything to do with the 90s/early 2000s (in fact I have a whole Pinterest board devoted to this obsession) so I loved so many of these. :-) Cheers to such a great time in history!

    xoxo A
    www.southernbelleintraining.com

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  8. Oh my gosh yes!! Especially the Lizzie and Gordo kiss. No lie, I still love the Lizzie McGuire movie and will watch it. Also, the stress of AIM in general was so real. Choosing a screen name, choosing a passive aggressive away message, signing on invisible so that it didn't seem like you were constantly on...oh yes. The good days.


    Jenny
    fromthedeskofj.com

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  9. Oh my goodness! Thank you for such a fun blast from the past!!!

    XX, SS || A Little Seersucker Sass

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  10. I wasn't a Preteen in the 2000's but I sure do remember a lot of these. Due to my sister was a preteen.

    http://www.amysfashionblog.com/blog-home

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  11. Let's be real, I still love to jam out to Avril. All the time. And Rider Strong is basically my forever crush. He was on an episode of Girl Meets World and I basically died. Like, still beautiful and crushing. And I feel like I didn't appreciate TRL as much as I should have, because now I miss it so much. RIP old school MTV. RIP.

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  12. OMG soooo much awesomeness. I keep meaning to do a post like this! Hopefully soon! Just got back from two weeks work/vacay, then leaving AGAIN in two weeks ha. Life on the road.

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  13. Yes Yes Yes. I totally forgot about green ketchup! Ew. Even Stevens - Influenza was one of my favorites! I think the most memorable for me was when Ren lost the sock monkey and when Lewis slept in that bed for 2 days or something crazy like that! Also, the Mary-Kate and Ashley movies. Why didn't my parents let me run around big cities all by myself like theirs did?!

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  14. TIFFANY THIS IS MAGICAL! I was cracking up and loving every second of reminiscing here (when I should be studying...) But I mean remembering blo-pens, so worth a not-so-great exam grade!

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  15. What ever happened to Gordo? I had such the major crush on him. Him and Rider Strong though I hear he's an English genius now or something. I LOVE your TRL fax gif. Lolwhat's a fax.

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  16. Omg yes yes yes to everything! Especially those Mary Kate and Ashley sunglasses!

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  17. I wanted everything Mary-Kate and Ashley! I bought so much of their stuff when they started selling stuff at Wal-Mart.

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  18. Right? Is he not in the industry anymore? I'm going to have to look him up. Rider Strong <3 <3 <3 English genius? What?! That's awesome. When I saw that TRL fax, I laughed so hard. I didn't even know how to use a fax machine back then because it was so "high tech."

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  19. Blo-Pens were the best! They were actually a lot of work though, but so much fun haha

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  20. Are you talking about the episode where he was sleeping in like a glass thing and everyone could look at him and then the bed went crazy?! I don't remember exactly what happened, but I remember it being hilarious, as were all the episodes. I also liked the movie! Mary-Kate and Ashley always made me feel like I should be going off on some great adventure. Clearly, our parents weren't nearly as cool as theirs. Or maybe our parents were just smarter? Nah.

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  21. Crazy! I'm on a work trip right now too!

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  22. Right?! I still jam out to Avril too. Not so much her new stuff because it's so strange, but I still love all of her older music. I'm so glad you watch Girl Meets World too. I think it's super cheesy and not even close to being as awesome as Boy Meets World, but for some reason, I keep recording it on the DVR. But yes, he is definitely still beautiful. I don't even watch MTV anymore! They don't even play music! It's just bad reality TV shows.

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  23. You're welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

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  24. I still love Lizzie too! You are not alone. I have it on DVD, and sometimes I just watch Lizzie showing up Paolo at the end, because it makes my heart happy. But then it makes me sad because I'm never going to be mistaken for an Italian pop star. Sigh.

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  25. Yay! I'm so happy it made your day. I love the 90's and 2000's too. They were definitely the BEST decades to grow up in. Sorry everyone who's not a millennial haha.

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  26. Oh gosh, I can't even imagine. I was never sent to the school counselor, but now I wish I had a free shrink of sorts. If I want to get some guidance now, I have to pay $50/hour. Lame.


    Bbluelava. I don't even know what to do with that information right now! Ahhh! I went through a series of "hugsnkisses" and "shortnsweet" screen names. Bless.

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  27. I never had my own set and had to use my friends. Shared germs. Didn't care. Oops.

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  28. Blo-pens were actually a lot of work for a picture that didn't turn out remotely how you wanted it to. Still loved them though.

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  29. Yay! I love reminiscing, especially on something as awesome as the 2000s. Such a good decade.

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  30. You're welcome, Kate! I'm glad you enjoyed taking a mini trip back in time. Happy Monday!

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  31. Oh my goodness, this is so accurate. Especially the J14 magazine posters...my walls were legitimately covered in them & I fought with my sisters over who got the best ones!

    xoxo, SS

    The
    Southern Stylista

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  32. Um, yes to everything on this list. Now going to look up what David Gallagher has been up to.

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  33. HAHA the candy cigs were sooo realistic. I used to sit on the front porch and "smoke" them. We lived across the street from the police station and I wanted to punk the cops soooo bad. As for textbook covers, remember those stretchy ones that had designs all over them??

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  34. I definitely owned a lot of Now CDs! I can't believe they still make them though! What are they on 500? I can definitely relate to everything on this list, although I never really got into Even Stevens! Phil of the Future & Lizzie McGuire were always my go to shows!

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  35. Omg so many flashbacks. BLO-PENS WERE IT. Seriously. Also I totally loved that episode of Even Stevens, and now that you mention it, am mad Lizzie never had a musical one. So true!


    acupoftay.com

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  36. That's so awesome! Glad you hung up all the posters too!

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  37. Haha what HAS he been up to? I need to go find out.

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  38. That's so hilarious! I love that you were trying to trick the cops! Ha! I do remember the stretchy ones too! They only fit like half my books, because "one size fits all" is not a thing when it comes to textbooks.

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  39. Yes! I still have a few Now CDs and pull them out every once in awhile. There are so many Now CDs! And they have little themed ones too instead of just the regular ones. I'm sad that you didn't like Even Stevens! It was one of my favorites. I was also a fan of Phil of the Future.

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  40. Blo-Pens were so amazing! The closest they got to a musical Lizzie McGuire episode was that one they did with Aaron Carter. I'm surprised they didn't do one since Hilary actually sings. I guess she did in the movie, but still....not enough!

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  41. So. Much. Happiness. Wow what a throwback. Speechless with nostalgia.


    cominguprosestheblog.com

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  42. I was a preteen in the year 2000, hahaha. :P

    10 Things I Hate About You is still one of my favorite chick flicks ever! <3

    I totally used to match my braces band colors to the holidays! :P And Now CDs! <3 I wonder what number they're on now (if they're still making em')...

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  43. SO much YES! I cheated in Heads Up 7 Up by looking at people's shoes hahaha

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  44. My boyfriend did too! I never did though. I didn't know people actually did that until I got older haha. I'm so behind.

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  45. 10 Things I Hate About You is one of the best movies ever! I still love it. I'm curious as to what number they're on for Now CDs too. I'm surprised they're still making them!

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  46. I had way too much fun putting together all of these things. I might have paused progress to watch a few episodes of Even Stevens.

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  47. OMG. I was a big fan of Lizzie McGuire and Hilary Duff that I made a speech about her in english class. These are so relatable. I miss these times so bad. I was a preteen too!

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  48. That's so awesome that you did a Lizzie McGuire/Hilary Duff speech! I love it!

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