“Bring These Back!”: Gen Z Gets Loud About the Stuff We Want Back

Listen, if Crocs and the Jonas Brothers can make a comeback this year, then truly anything is possible. With the decade coming to an end, we need a revival the neon-clad era of the late-2000s and early-2010s. So get ready to reach into the depths of your memory with this list of the stuff Gen Z wants to bring back.

Know what we definitely don’t need to bring back? Nicotine addictions. Through DoSomething’s The Hit We’ll Take campaign, powered by CVS Health Foundation, share our #TBT anti-vaping guide to show that e-cigs are just a bad remake of regular cigarettes.

1. Silly Bandz

In retrospect, it doesn’t make a lot of sense that these were so popular since you couldn’t even see the shapes while you were actually wearing them. But we’re not here for practicality -- we’re here for FUN.

2. The Disney Channel Games

We’d dare to say that the Disney Channel Games are right up there with the Olympics as far as competitions go. Maybe even better since you can’t find Mitchel Musso and Ashley Tisdale dueling it out on an inflatable obstacle course at the Olympics.

3. Webkinz + ZhuZhu Pets

In the 2010s, we liked our pets both virtual and robotic (and it made us feel like we were on the ~cutting edge~). Plants are pretty popular nowadays for people who want to keep something alive without the commitment of a real pet, but maybe Webkinz and ZhuZhu Pets are the real answers here.

4. Pictochat

Forget texting. Forget Snapchat. Forget every other form of communication because Pictochat did it all better 10 years ago. (And if anyone needs to get in touch with us, we’ll be in chat room B.)

5. Crossover Episodes

Before Avengers: Endgame was even on our radar, Nickelodeon and Disney Channel were mastering the art of the ambitious crossover. They gave us gems like That’s So Suite Life of Hannah Montana and The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour -- because nothing blew our minds quite like watching characters from different shows just...hang out with each other.

6. Total Drama Island

Whoever had the idea to make a cartoon reality show was an absolute genius, and we blame them for our current reality TV addictions. Let’s not forget how Duncan voted to eliminate his own girlfriend, or when Heather went through with the head shaving challenge (the Kardashian fam could never).

7. Wii Sports

Some of you never had to flail a Wiimote wildly at the TV screen to hit a tennis ball, and it shows. Things were a lot simpler in the days of Wii Sports, and maybe we just need to go back to our roots. (In the meantime, we’ll be on the lookout for dedicated Wii Sports streamers on Twitch.)

8. Poptropica

The best part of having class in the computer lab was logging onto Poptropica .05 seconds after finishing your work. Flash games really thrived in the early 2010s, and it’s about time they made their way back into our lives.

9. Gripz

Eating miniature versions of your fav snacks just hits different, don’t ask us why. In 2019, we want to capture the energy of having a pack of Gripz in your lunchbox and knowing you were the coolest kid in the cafeteria.

10. Big Time Rush

We experienced a lot of losses in the 2010s boy band space (RIP One Direction), and Big Time Rush had its own unfortunate expiration date. Let’s bring back classics like “Boyfriend,” which we TOTALLY forgot had a Snoop Dogg feature (???).