You Might Like: '90s Nostalgia! Recommendations from The Persistent

Welcome to You Might Like, a new(ish) recommendations column from The Persistent. Every Friday we’ll share a  list of things that Persistent staff, contributors, writers and illustrators are loving—things we think you might like, too.

This week, what’s old is new again. Gen Z has fully embraced '90s trends from baggy jeans, crop tops, and butterfly clips to mix tapes and film cameras. (Oooh! So retro!) (Our contributing writer, Luba Kassova has written a whole thing on Gen Z nostalgia here. You're welcome.) So we’re jumping on the bandwagon too. From fashion we are revisiting (hello, brown lipstick!) to albums that should still be in heavy rotation (Alanis, Björk, Spice Girls), to Instagram feeds that make us long for a pre-digital era, our contributors shared their favorite things from the '90s.

So, grab a baby doll dress and some combat boots and let's party like it’s 1995! 

Listen: Spice Girls debut and second album, they’re just so nostalgic. (Need we say more? We need not.) 
— Rahana Dariah, illustrator 

Watch: I’m a sucker for a teen rom-com that reimagines a classic work of literature, and in the ’90s we had two of the best: “Clueless,” based on Jane Austen’s “Emma,” and “10 Things I Hate About You,” which modernized William Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew.” The pleasures of each are endless, from Heath Ledger (RIP) as Patrick serenading Julia Stiles’s Kat with “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” on the high school bleachers, to Cher (Alicia Silverstone)’s astute debate on Haitian refugees: “It does not say RSVP on the Statue of Liberty.” If you’ve never seen either of these gems, both are streaming on Netflix. Enjoy, and I hope not sporadically.
— Patricia Chui, head of growth & marketing

Read: This one is a bit heavy, but I’m reading “Parable of the Sower” by Octavia Butler, published in 1993 and set in 2024-2027 America, unraveling under climate disaster and social collapse. This visionary novel feels eerily timeless, and Butler’s questioning of power dynamics that disenfranchise the masses feels more relevant than ever, considering everything going on in the world. The book is a powerful reminder of the speculative brilliance that defined the ’90s and how that era still shapes how we think about the future. Buy it from Octavia's Bookshelf, a Black owned bookshop in Butler's hometown of Pasadena.
— Julia Craven, contributing writer

Listen: Ani DiFranco's first album from 1990, unhelpfully titled "Ani DiFranco" — absolutely was my awakening to alternative rock and an early iteration of the radical activism that underlies a lot of her music. 
— Daniella Zalcman, photojournalist

Follow: “Out of the shoebox and into our shared memory” is the tagline to the 90sartschool Instagram feed filled with hundreds of forgotten snapshots collected from art students from the grunge years. It’s a time capsule that takes me right back to my own art school days, just before digital cameras became a thing. The submissions pull on my nostalgia for a time when film captured the spontaneity of a moment—combined with creative, hazy art school youth in all its glory. 
—Melissa Jun Koshal, designer

Watch: "My So-Called Life" didn’t even last a full season on ABC in 1994, but it had an enduring effect on me. As an 8th grader I identified deeply with Angela Chase’s turmoil, and much to my mother’s chagrin I even dyed my hair Manic Panic Red. Not only did the series introduced Claire Danes and Jared Leto to the world, but it addressed issues like LGBTQ visibility in a way nothing else in the mainstream would touch at the time. Rewatching now I identify much more with Angela’s parents than the teens but it’s still worth rewatching. Bonus: It was my introduction to the Violent Femmes.
— Kathleen Davis, executive editor

Read: When it comes to novels, the '90s really have some gems that have stayed with me. That’s when Zadie Smith made her literary debut with “White Teeth.” I’ve always been an anglophile and Smith’s portrayal of three families in modern London just sucked me in like the great British novels I loved as a kid. But my favorite book of the '90s is Arundhati Roy’s “The God of Small Things.” Rereading it recently, I was so happy to find that the family saga about caste and culture has not lost its beauty or relevance.
— Paula Derrow, features editor

Listen: Björk’s album Debut (1993) came out when I was 5 years old, and I was lucky enough to have parents who played it loudly on the cassette player on the weekends. I came back to it in high school, and I realize now that Björk’s music showed me that it was okay to be weird. Growing up in a decade filled with body shame, and pressure to conform, Björk was unabashedly herself. Through her music, I realized that femininity is multifaceted and that creative exploration is liberating.
— Cat Willett, illustrator

Wear: This '90s gal couldn't be more stoked to see brown lipstick making a comeback. Having grown up spending way too much time in the cosmetic aisles, when something resurfaces and you get a glimpse of it, it's almost like the return of an old friend. From the shiny to the matte and muted, these chocolatey hues are very much front and center in many a makeup bag and no longer a distant memory. Some of my favorites include the Gisou Honey Infused Gloss in Milky Mocha (for the more spendy) and the Wet and Wild Mega Lip Last Matte in Mochalicious (very affordable and beloved). 
— Grace Williams, contributing writer 

Listen: The '90s were the era of MTV, of Biggie vs Tupac, of piano house; of Alanis's howls and Björk’s yelps and The Prodigy's snarls; of girl power in stacked sneakers and guitars played by boys in baggy jeans. But how did they all fit together? In the Ringer’s podcast, 60 songs that explain the 90s, the music journalist Rob Harvilla takes a deep dive into songs, from Alanis Morisette's "You Oughtta Know" to Green Day's "Basket Case," that defined the decade, explaining how they were produced and exploring the lore surrounding them. Harvilla called it “bizarre and sprawling tribute to a bizarre and sprawling decade.” If you're a music lover, it's addictive.
— Emma Haslett, managing editor

Listen: Alanis Morrissette’s “Jagged Little Pill” Album might be my favorite album of all time and not just because it was one of the first CDs I ever bought. While it perfectly epitomizes the angst of the '90s era, the songs are absolutely timeless.
— Melanie Winer, advisor

What are you obsessed with right now? Send your recommendations to hello@persistent.com and we might feature them in a future edition of You Might Like. We’ll be back with more next Friday!