Was it Lizzie McGuire’s angelic smile, girl-next-door personality, or bedazzled jean jackets that made all 90s babies fall head over heels for her 15 years ago?
Fifteen years may have passed since Disney’s “Lizzie McGuire” first aired, but childhood memories are stronger than ever for most students in their 20s. We are all just as obsessed now as we were back then.
“The other day an old re-run was on television,” sophomore journalism major Shauna Golden said. “It definitely made me feel nostalgic (and old). Those were the good old days.”
“Lizzie McGuire” lasted for four years, first gracing our television screens February of 2001 and leaving them in 2004.
For millions of millennial girls, this was their primetime developmental phase. Overall the show taught many life lessons and gave little girls something to aspire to.
Golden remembers watching one episode when Lizzie’s mom got her a cute pair of jeans, but they weren’t the $100 pair she wanted. Lizzie wore both to school and got more complements on the inexpensive pair.
“This episode really taught me an important lesson that it’s really what’s on the inside that counts, not the outside,” Golden said.
Even though the show is long over, our favorite middle-schooler left a legacy of brilliance unlike characters on shows playing today.
Today’s popular Disney shows, such as “Dog with a Blog” and “Jessie,” revolve around materialistic characters and drama without real solutions.
“What Disney has become makes me sad,” said Julia Geisel, a freshman occupational therapy major. “Shows seem much dumber with no good morals. I remember coming home and laughing, looking forward to TV time, but not now.”
For example, on the Disney Channel show “Jessie,” A winter storm blew into Manhattan. For 13-year-old Emma, this automatically turned into a “Who wore it better” competition. Emma looked on social media, saw her friend was wearing cuter snow boots than she was, and asked her nanny Jessie, “How fast can we get to Milan?” (referencing her parents helicopter).
“When we were young Disney Channel emphasized average families doing average things. Now shows are about extraordinary kids which doesn’t make them more entertaining,” sophomore media studies major Lindsey Goode said.
Goode has a point. Disney Channel thinks that’s what kids want to see, but they just want to see every day scenarios. This way if the child is struggling with the same issue the character is, there is an instant bond. Who remembers when Lizzie demanded that she wanted a bra?
“These new ideas seem tired and old,” Golden said. “I don’t think audiences have the same connection to the characters and the shows like we used too. They are running out of ideas and should just create a whole new channel of just re-runs.”
Millennials would be thrilled with that.
But for now, thank you Lizzie, Miranda and Gordo for teaching us that bullies exist, but everything will be okay, that friendships can become everlasting, and that it’s okay to make mistakes.
Our childhood would not have been the same without you.
Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons/ThisIsJonny
