For so many kids coming of age in the 1990s, young adult books served as their entry into adolescence. Popular series like Sweet Valley High, The Baby-Sitter’s Club and Fear Street helped pre-teens understand themselves and the world around them—even if their lives and identities were nothing alike. Diversity was largely ignored in YA publishing at the time, but kids around the world managed to see themselves in these stories, grafting pieces of who they were onto the characters, as well as recognizing the universal “firsts” these books explored: first time lying, being ostracized, seeing parents as people, and, of course, crushing on classmates.
These books were everywhere, dogeared in school libraries, eagerly grabbed at Scholastic Book Fairs in the U.S., or secretly shared at boarding school in Nigeria (see our first story below).
Today, they loom large in our minds, as well as on the internet, where now-grown-up 90s kids have transcribed their impact into stories that go deeper than the original texts. We’ve gathered an eclectic mix of those pieces, essays that will activate your nostalgia and push you to think about these YA classics in new ways.
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14 Freaky Facts About R.L. Stine’s ‘Fear Street‘ Books
In the late 1980s and early ‘90s, R.L. Stine’s horror series Fear Street—which featured ghosts, vampires, and killer cheerleaders, not to mention illustrated covers decked out with creepy fonts—terrified teens.
BONUS READ: Pleasure in the Pulp: The Tweenage Thrills of Early-90s Point Horror Novels, via The Spinoff.
R.L. Stine, the Giver of ‘Goosebumps,’ on 30 Years, Countless Nightmares, and a Lot of Luck [LISTEN]
Stine discusses why he didn’t want to write a series of scary stories for 7-12 year olds initially, but why he now considers them the best audience.
BONUS READ: Goosebumps’ Covers Owe Their Weirdness to One Hardworking Artist, via Polygon.
In Love With Teen Lit: Remembering The ‘Paperback Crush’ Of The ’80s And ’90s
As a preteen Gabrielle Moss devoured books in “The Baby-Sitters Club” and “Sweet Valley High” series. She reread them for “nostalgic stress relief” and ended up writing a book on the genre.
BONUS READ: If You Have a Box of Baby-Sitter’s Club Books at Your Mom’s House, You Need This Book, via Bustle.
Becoming an American Girl: Lessons from The ‘Baby-Sitters Club‘
If we had left Venezuela, it had to be because life in America was going to be better, but the BSC world didn’t seem inherently better—just different.
BONUS READ: I Didn’t Expect “The Baby-Sitters Club” Books to Be So Relatable in My 30s, but Guess What, They Are, via BuzzFeed.