Welcome to the period of reverting again to teenagehood.

Simply take Olivia Rodrigo for instance. Her newest studio album, “Guts,” has allowed her to amass a big group of 20-something and 30-something “youngsters” who’re obsessed along with her music. Whereas Rodrigo is barely 20 herself — and broke out along with her debut, “Bitter,” as an 18-year-old — she’s been ready to uncannily enchantment to an older, extra mature viewers.

After all, the thought of embracing youth as we age is not a brand new idea, however this second feels completely different. Throughout social media, millennials are speaking in regards to the phenomenon. From memes to movies, the “20-something teenager” is a veritable identification, thanks to Rodrigo’s 2000s pop-rock sound; the resurgence of former Disney stars like Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato; and numerous Y2K vogue tendencies, from accent nails to jersey clothes.

However how did we get right here, and why are so many adults discovering consolation in reminders of their youth?

“The resurgence looks like a possibility to reapproach tendencies I did not have the boldness to participate in as a teen.”

For one, this resurgence of tendencies from the 2000s appears to be one thing that was particularly spurred on by the pandemic. Whereas folks stayed at residence, the recognition of exhibits like “Gilmore Ladies,” “Charmed,” and extra skyrocketed as we rediscovered these exhibits or watched them for the primary time. And on TikTok (which we had been all spending plenty of time on), many exhibits from the 2000s and 2010s — together with “Home,” “Gray’s Anatomy,” “Determined Housewives,” and “Fits” — skilled a resurgence due to the three-minute clips of episodes which can be being uploaded to the platform. In accordance to Rolling Stone, when the 2000s traditional “Ugly Betty” was added to Netflix, it took just a few weeks for curiosity within the present to improve by 500 p.c on TikTok.

However it’s not simply that these cultural touchpoints are extra available to us. Wanting again at these TV exhibits, films, music, and vogue tendencies additionally permits us to embrace the tendencies in a method we could not have understood after we had been, the truth is, youngsters. Taylor Swift’s rerecordings are an ideal encapsulation of this. Many millennials heard her albums for the primary time as youngsters, however along with her “Taylor’s Model” albums popping out now, we’re ready to recognize her music in a brand new gentle and relive the moments in our lives related to the albums. By way of these nostalgia-soaked listening classes, we will method the music with extra understanding of the love and heartbreak that so a lot of her songs are about.

One fashionable Instagram person put it completely. The account, referred to as Sh*t You Ought to Care About, wrote about why Taylor Swift saying the discharge of “1989 (Taylor’s Model)” at her final present of her US tour has such sway over us. “We have been regifted the Taylor Swift albums that when instructed us that sometime we would be dwelling in a giant outdated metropolis, and now that we’re, they’re asking us whether or not we have completed issues better than courting the boy on the soccer crew,” they wrote. “And we’re consuming this sh*t up.”

From private expertise, reliving the carefree moments of teenhood by the music, films, and TV exhibits that invoke nostalgia is extra about therapeutic my inside teenage self, particularly as a girl of colour. I personally grew up with plenty of insecurities and strived to slot in with everybody else. However becoming in felt tougher to obtain when lots of the tendencies from the previous weren’t geared in direction of folks of colour.

Now, the resurgence looks like a possibility to reapproach tendencies I did not have the boldness to participate in as a teen. Whereas I do love rewatching “Gilmore Ladies” the second the climate cools down, it is arduous to ignore the microaggressions, fatphobic feedback, and different problematic habits that had been swept apart as lighthearted jokes on the time. As an grownup, I’m ready to recognize the nostalgia that it brings, but additionally take a look at exhibits like that with a extra vital eye and perceive now that my variations do not maintain me again the way in which I believed they did as a teen.

“Considering of ourselves as youngsters is about extra than simply embracing our youth.”

That is additionally why I am additionally glad to see that extra younger grownup TV exhibits, books, and films are extra various in the kind of tales that they inform today. Watching exhibits like “By no means Have I Ever,” which facilities the coming-of-age expertise of a younger South Asian teenager, and “Ms. Marvel,” which highlights the joyful youth of a Muslim excessive schooler, is very therapeutic for me.

And this all brings us again to Rodrigo’s newest album. Within the track “Lacy,” Rodrigo sings in regards to the expertise of feeling insufficient to the character Lacy, a metaphor for a white woman who is ideal in her eyes. Listening to a preferred singer who’s universally beloved sing in regards to the ache of not having the ability to compete with the sweetness requirements related to whiteness undoubtedly wasn’t a part of the dialog in popular culture prior to now. However right now, it is highly effective to have these pop-culture moments that resonate with folks of colour of all ages on the forefront.

So for these of use in our twenties and thirties, pondering of ourselves as youngsters is about extra than simply embracing our youth. Feeling like a teen is a protected haven from no matter struggles or hardships we’re dealing with. It is an opportunity to rechart our histories, to repaint a time that is actually worry-free and full of pleasure. And maybe greater than something, it permits us to join over shared nostalgia and create actual group — even when only for the fleeting second of an Olivia Rodrigo track blasting by our automobile audio system.