The noughties was when teenage life was at its peak

Every teenage girl thought she was Rhianna and every teenage boy wanted to be Pete from Fall out Boy. Before we got too into politics and had to worry about debt and deadlines, growing up in noughties was the best time to be a teenager.

The hair experiments

Teenagers actually looked their age, nowadays 14 teen year-olds look about five years older than they actually are. The noughties was all about experimenting with fringes, hair gel and braids. Some got it right but most of us got it really wrong (especially Britney during her ’07 meltdown) but that’s what growing up is all about. Dramatic side fringes and layers were in and they defined growing up in the noughties.

We didn’t want to grow up quickly

We were quite happy sitting around in a park drinking Vks playing My Chemical Romance out our Nokias. Not watching YouTube tutorials on ‘How to contour’.

TV was at its peak

Coming home from school and watching The Simpsons and the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air back to back from 6pm every weeknight was the ultimate guilty pleasure. Also, there were plenty of unsung heroes of the noughties – One Tree Hill, The OC, Lizzie McGuire, and Skins – the Tony and Sid generation – (before they ruined it). We cried when Chris from Skins died and were rooting for Seth and Summer to finally end up together and were old enough to remember the last ever episode of Friends airing on Channel 4.

You could get away with wearing the most ridiculous outfits

Having a head to toe outfit from either Hollister or Abercrombie or Pineapple was the epitome of cool, and getting to wear your black and white tartan mini skirt from Tammy with the diamante heart to your best mates birthday party was the highlight of your week.  Boob tubes, matching velvet trackies, bandanas, a slightly more co-ordinated Vicky Pollard was the vibe – and no one gave a fuck.

MSN took over your life

Getting home from school, all you wanted to do for the rest of the evening (or however long mum would let you before complaining about using the phone) was signing into MSN to chat with your bestie about how Jenny told Ben she liked him in PE. You see Jenny sign in, so you set your profile to offline and continue talking. You don’t fancy listening to Jenny whine about how she got rejected by Ben.

The age of the brick phone

iPhones were still being developed so when you were old enough to get a phone – usually around 14 – getting a text from someone was a really big deal and using emoticons to flirt was actually acceptable. You also had to beg your mum to top up your pay as you go phone so you could reply to your mates, “Soz m8, ran outta credit,” and manually delete your inbox to make room for new incoming important messages from your huns.

Old school gaming was the best kind

There was no greater pleasure than playing Crash bandicoot on a games console with the controllers still attached the the set so you’d actually have to physically sit in front of the TV – or racing home from school to play Super Mario 64, Goldeneye 007, SSX tricky and blowing on the bottom to make sure all the dust was out before you slotted it in.

No one took themselves too seriously in the noughties but at the same time, when we worried about our MSN away messages being the perfect angsty song lyrics and when your mum would finally let you buy a thong – everyone did.