You may or may not realize it, but the 1990s weren’t just a few years ago, not even just twenty years ago. Though the style has been resurrected of late by younger generations eager to grift the gritty grunge and combat boots of the final decade of the 20th century, and the same slip dresses and crop tops I wore in my high school years are all the rage on, we are now thirty years removed from 1995.
Soak that in for a quick second if you will. The number of years millennials are from our most formative years are numbered enough to have earned a safe driver’s discount.
For those of you as stricken by me by the very thought, take consolation in the fact that we aren’t alone—there are others, especially elder millennials and late Generation Xers breaching the over 40 threshold, who are weeping alongside us—creaky knees, backaches, colonoscopy appointments and all.
Rife with so much yesteryear reminiscence that you’ll be back to wearing low-rise jeans, butterfly clips, and burning CDs using pirated music sites in no time, my debut memoir collection, A Product of Genetics (and Day Drinking), is guaranteed to send you straight into a memory spiral. If you ever bought a box of cereal based solely on the prize promised inside, yearned to be a Full House sibling, or explored hundreds of miles on a bike barefoot and unsupervised, this collection of essays is right up your alley.
The books below are a compilation of funny essay collections written by millennial women that will have you laughing and soaking in the nostalgia of days gone by. The authors of these books have voices that show that quirk is in and that stumbling on the way is the norm. These are the titles you might not have known that you needed (but most certainly do).
You’re Gonna Die Alone (& Other Excellent News) by Devrie Donaldson
For anyone who wants to relive the horror of a Furby come alive in a darkened room (you do, I promise), this taste of growing up in the 1990s is the perfect dip into shared memories and the author’s tales of surviving being messy and trying to figure out who she is. In this fantastic collection of stories, readers can expect to laugh, cry, and commiserate—sometimes all at once.
Shit, Actually by Lindy West
If you aren’t already in love with this author, prepare yourself because you’re about to be all in. In this 2020 tome, West examines all our favorite movies with her inane ability to tell it like it is. Amusingly enough, West says all the things we’ve all been thinking for years, but in a better, funnier, more biting way that makes us wish we had actually said it first. In her examination of the hallmarks of cinema, she begs us to ask ourselves: Do these box office hits and cult classics still hold water? Did they deserve the hype in the first place? What in the actual hell? And should we be proud to admit that they’re our favorites or watch them in absolute zipper-mouth private never to be spoken of?
Well, This Is Exhausting by Sophia Benoit
If there’s anyone who gets what it’s like to just not get it, it’s Sophia Benoit as described in this book of funny essays. Plan to laugh, cry, and feel confused, certain, uncertain, and wholly understood by the book’s end. This collection is such a chef’s kiss embodiment of what growing up in the 1990s was like for so many of our generation. It rides the waves of crappy dates, guilty pleasures, so much self-doubt that our brains runneth over, and a human experience so comfortingly familiar that you suspect that you and the author are meant to be forever besties.
Weird But Normal by Mia Mercado
More than anything, this one made me feel seen and realize that not feeling normal, not always understanding myself, not knowing how to human is, in fact, standard. The author celebrates the fact that from the beginning we are all just a bunch of mostly aimless weirdos. We start out weird and just eventually evolve and age into a different kind of weird. If you don’t get some comfort from that, we are not the same kind of person.
One In A Millennial by Kate Kennedy
There’s a reason that this book was an instant New York Times Bestseller, it deserved to be. Dripping with all things deliciously pop culture and growing up as a millennial, Kennedy takes her essay collection to a new level with her hilarious take on being a woman, her lived experiences, and what our culture and time in space means. Each story in the book drives you to want more and read onward just to revel in the fact that it’s so damned nice to commiserate with someone who is still very much in their figuring-it-out era.
Quietly Hostile by Samantha Irby
Experiences so awkward that just peeking into them is a bit mortifying, hot takes that make you feel like all that crap swirling around in your head isn’t as crazy as you suspect, and chapter after chapter with Irby’s trademark wit and humor go a long way in this recent release. If any book of hers will snag new readers, this is it. She talks about her love for Dave Matthews, run-ins with anaphylaxis, and moments of bare-bones honesty that sometimes just hit you in the face.
Please Don’t Sit On My Bed In Your Outside Clothes by Phoebe Robinson
In this 2021 collection by the iconic comedian who is truly making things happen on and off the page, Robinson’s conversational tone and nothing-off-limits banter make you feel like you’re riding shotgun in your bestie’s car on the way to the store to buy the makings for margaritas. Whether she’s bemoaning the woes of dating or shelling out advice like a big sister, she keeps her essays funny, light, and pop culture-infused enough to always make a reader flip forward for just one more story before moving on.
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