5 things scene girls of the early-00’s hearted (part 2!!!)
to my relief, i am not the only adult lady clinging on to my scene girl past. enough people seemed to relate to 5 things scene girls of the early-00's hearted [part 1]Â that i've now been motivated to create a part 2:
1. jones soda
i only knew of two places to buy jones soda: at the record store or at the all-ages scene venue. and for many underage, straight edge girls, sugar was our poison.
there was nothing un-scene about sodas that came in fun colors like pink and light blue, were only carried by indie retailers, had secret inspirational words under the caps and most importantly, came packaged in black and white labels featuring crowdsourced teen photography. Â
you could go on jonessoda.com and submit your own photos - then surf the submissions and vote up the ones you liked best. imagine that! scene girls were evangelists in a pre-instagram, pre-reddit time. these are #nofilter unless you knew how to use photoshop...which many of us did and this brings me to the next thing on my list...
2. deviantart
picture credit 1 & 2
before they had phone apps that let you overlay pictures with filters, borders, doodles and text - we taught ourselves photoshop. we knew how to adjust greyscale and contrast. we knew how to use brush tools. we basically invented instagram and we for sure invented selfies. deviantart was the main showcase for these celebrations of song lyrics, scene fashion & teen emotions.
3. t-shirt surgery
via t-shirt-surgery livejournal community
being a scene girl meant amassing a ton of band tees. but back then, we wore our tees tight with a strip of midriff showing. before american apparel came around and monopolized the band tee shirt market with girly fit tees, obtaining the proper size could be challenging. often we took to hacking off the bottom, sewing up the sides and cutting the top into a boatneck.Â
eventually these alterations evolved even further. livejournal communities were born, books were written and ideas were exchanged as band tees became miniskirts, tube dresses, halter tops with bows, scoopneck tees with princess sleeves, etc etc etc.Â
props to the girls who transformed their t-shirt surgery endeavors into lucrative businesses; forever 21 ain't got nothin' on you.
alexisonfire & silverstein t-shirt surgeries via lipgloss and black
lipgloss and black is one of my fond favorites. i remember it primarily as a myspace profile where two sisters showcased their reconstruction designs. like many early pioneers of outfit posting, went on to become successful fashion bloggers - and it looks like their etsy store is still going strong today. they definitely inspired many of my own t-shirt surgeries:
minor threat skirt and scarlet halter via yours truly, circa 2003-2004 :-)
4. amélie
oh gosh, what movies was everyone sweating in 2001-2003? fight club? donnie darko? mulholland drive? the music we listened to could get very dissonant and emotional. likewise, we were drawn to movies with enough dark cinematography and entry-level themes of existentialism to leave us feeling hollow.
amélie offered a nice glimmer of contrast as it made its way around the scene circles in ~2002. it was hard not to relate to an emo story with a happy ending: shy, lonely, whimsical girl lives in her own world - but gets the guy! we also all luuuv'd audrey tatou's baby bangs.
5. chris carrabba chris fucking carrabba. he had a dark, brooding exterior with his two full sleeves and dark, deep-set eyes. but his music was that of a hopeless romantic music and his lyrics spoke to teen girls as if we'd written them ourselves:
We're not twenty-one, but the sooner we are, the sooner the fun will begin, so get out your fake eyelashes and fake i.d's and real disasters ensue. It's cool to take these chances. It's cool to fake romances. And grow up faaaaaast. before chris carrabba became a mainstream heartthrob, scene girls appreciated him for fronting further seems forever in the era of what i and many others consider their most influential album. his street cred also dates back to playing in a pretty awesome pop punk band as a teen and being a touring member of new found glory. he also did our crush fantasies a huge service by never outwardly having a girlfriend. --GRACE









