There are many reasons why I think people born in my general age group had the most elite childhoods / teen years. So many reasons, in fact, that I decided to make a series about it. Apologies in advance bc I know the majority of the people reading this were not born in my general age group, but also you’re welcome because if you aren’t familiar with any of these things, I think I could maybe change your life. Just saying.

Reason #1: ONE DIRECTION. Where to begin, really.

I was lowkey going through a music crisis in the sixth grade. I was a little preteen baby and wanted to be listening to music that felt a little more grown up than Disney Channel but also not obviously written for adults, which was proving kinda tough. At that point, it was hard to get exposed to the kind of music I was looking for on my Pandora stations or the car radio, and the only songs I had on my iPod were things my mom bought on iTunes. I was literally complaining to my mom about this one day when all of a sudden I heard “One Thing” on the radio. I was like, “Mom, I want to be listening to stuff like THAT.”

I entered my congregation’s young women program that year and met Taylor Washburn, Hannah Cox, and McKenna Kondel. On our way to a church activity I remember them talking about a new music video that had just come out from One Direction. I had no clue what was going on and was like ??? They showed me the Live While We’re Young music video and I was hooked. 

Honestly, as far as media goes there’s a range of stuff you can get into as you’re trying to make the shift from a preteen to a teenager and in my humble opinion, One Direction was pretty good as far as options went. Why? 

The community of girls who were all in on One Direction were truly some of the funniest people I’d ever met. I’ll never forget hearing a story from a friend about how when she went to go see the One Direction movie the girls in the theater screamed so loud for so long they actually had to stop the whole movie until they were done and then restart 🤣🤣🤣 We were all bonded over parasocial relationships with celebrities we didn’t know but I think everyone should get to have that experience at one point in their life (in a safe way haha). 

1D’s sense of humor was so peak. To me, their energy was the epitome of what “boys will be boys” actually SHOULD mean, which is, these guys are such goons but we love it. Like they were so silly goofy and made a whole thing out of the fact that they could not dance at all and just went with it, doing the most simple and wack choreography from then on. Their acceptance of the fact that they were lowkey dweebs and didn’t fit the typical “cool” image was so representative of that hipster era, and still a pretty good message for today tbh. 

You guys, I’m not gonna skip over the fact that they were so fine and it lowkey awoke something in me. The accents. Bro. Need I say more? Was a lot of fun imagining myself dating a Brit or Irishman lmaoooo and ofc long haired Harry stays winning

But overall, what makes 1D so iconic is the music that they put out. I was and am still so drawn to the rock undertone of their sound which gave depth and some kick to what could have been a very surface level bubblegum pop thing. The whole essence of their catalog is just so core to the stuff I like today. On a lyrical / content level, also fuegs. Their songs totally capture the whole essence of teenage crushing and pining and relationships, which is obviously all that was occupying my brain anyway in those days so it was a great fit!! 🤦🏾‍♀️🤣

Also, not that all the messaging in their songs was perfect or totally aligned with what I think / believe but I think it’s a good thing that there was a really visible group of teenage guys at that time putting out songs about loving and accepting women just as they are. Those dudes are not role models in any way shape or form LOL but I think that at the end of the day, that was a positive thing for me to see at a really formative time. 

You guys, their music is so good that I’ve had “C’mon C’mon” as the alarm sound I wake up to for over ten YEARS and I will STILL LISTEN TO IT VOLUNTARILY DURING MY WAKING HOURS. LIKE NOT JUST LISTEN BUT VIBEEE TO IT. LIKE WHAT KIND OF CRACK DID THEY PUT IN THERE SRSLY. Their stuff is literally so good that when I was on my mission there was a period when me and my companion who literally only listened to like classical music growing up were BOTH tweaking to hear like ONE bar of Night Changes. We lost our minds when we heard it playing in the metro station one day and the fact that 1) she even knew that song and 2) that it actually transported us to heaven should testify of how good they really are bahaha

In essence, 1D literally changed me on like a chemical level into the person I am today, which is 1 of many reasons that my generation is and always will be THAT GIRL. Stay tuned for more installments of this series xoxo