The 90s were nothing if not a decade-long example of how easily entertained we were. Case in point? Gel pens.
Why use a boring old Bic pen when you can make your words sparkly, pastel-colored, and nearly impossible to read on a white sheet of paper?
When I was in school, the cool thing to do was to use gel pens to write/draw on your Trapper Keeper (another solid choice in school supplies but a different post entirely). Since people knew I liked to write, I also received a number of journals made of black paper that came with a sparkly gel pen. Of course, the glitter in the pen would quickly clog, necessitating the purchase of more gel pens since you couldn’t substitute a regular writing tool because the pages were black.
Gel pens were basically the precursor for every obnoxiously glittery badge you put on your Myspace page.
By the way, there’s a website called “Geocities-izer” where you can type in any website and they’ll show you what it looked like if it were “made by a 13-year-old in 1996.”
This site is why I’m positive that if aliens exist, they’re definitely laughing at us.
Happy Throwback Thursday!
Emily Regan 