It was 1999 and I actually was 17, so the magazine was very appropirate. I wasn't really into labels, but if pressed I might've said I most closely identified with this emo thing at that time. It wasn't preppy or raver or cowboy or Pentecostal or hip hop. Words like "alternative" and "grunge" no longer meant anything, and I couldn't skate so I wasn't comfortable with "skater." As a label for what your fashion said about your music choices and other interests, it was kind of perfect for artists and weirdos, readers and dreamers, thinkers, people who played instruments and Magic the Gathering, who maybe didn't quite fit in but still managed to be a version of cool. It was the late 90s version of, "hip to be square."
I vividly remember being both excited and put off by this spread. On the one hand, it was awesome to see those of us outside the homecoming court represented in a popular teen magazine. That never happened; not like now. I'd been having Jane Pratt's Sassy withdrawals for about 10 years at that point, and this almost felt like I could maybe find a new home in the form of a glossy grocery store medium. On the other hand, there was this irrational proprietary urge not to let "our" thing become something silly and trendy; something that could get chewed up by the highlighted Tommy Hilfiger set for 15 minutes and then go out of fashion. I mean, get out of our bathtub, Seventeen! This is our thing! Don't make our special, super-secret trends all trendy! Kids are so dumb. I went over each little point and accessory on the spread above with my girlfriend as if it mattered if they got it "right" (like we'd know; as if our hicksville town was the epicenter of a trend movement or something). I remember specifically being put off by the female model's pants, which were clearly too tight and too highwater, and which I now find adorable. The general consensus was, "Well, that's the homogenized magazine version, but yeah, that's kinda how some of my friends and I dress."
And then suddenly emo meant goth and I was old.
So, am I emo? Based on this magazine image, I think I may be more emo now than I was in the 90s. I choose not to think about what that says about me.
