so choice

Our generation is living in a time where nostalgia is felt with every inch of our platform sandals. We don’t want to cook our own food or worry about rent this month. We want to come home and watch Disney Channel every day. With every generation comes a sense of longing for what used to be to come back, but in today’s social atmosphere, with the threat of global climate catastrophe heavy and the political state of our country fracturing, it’s no wonder this generation feels a strong desire to live in a time where the only thing we had to worry about was getting a snack before the commercial break ended. No more so is this desire seen than in the youthful fashion of teenagers and young adults. The Security of Being Young

Now that youthful fashion is embraced and encouraged by society for those typically too old to wear it, much of our generation is flocking to it. From scrunchies on “VSCO girls” to jelly shoes on the runway, we’re seeing another rise in the clothing of the early 2000s when many of us were too young to know what a 401k was. Why is this happening? For now we can only have theories, but perhaps this generation is doing it because there’s a sense of security in being and feeling young. The last time society accepted us in this clothing was back when we didn’t feel like we had to fight for our country, our planet, and ourselves. We could simply exist exactly as we wanted to without fear of what the next news headline would say. With things around us changing faster than we can get a hold of, part of our security blanket is found in the things that bring us back to our most sheltered time.

This “nostalgia era” isn’t just in fashion though. Pop culture has latched onto the trend and now more than ever old television shows are coming back or being remade in a modern fashion (i.e. Fuller House and the new High School Musical series). These shows remind us of the tween magazines we’d pour over and pop stars we’d celebrate at face value, before interacting with them on social media. Companies are profiting off nostalgia, by the likes of Disney+ and their collection of old movies and TV shows, and stores like Forever 21 releasing graphic tees with beloved childhood characters on them. Society is profiting too, as Twitter is filled with nostalgic memes and commentary to the point where it’s become trendy to feel this way. We’re simultaneously mourning the loss of our innocence while hoping we can bring some of it with us into adulthood.

There comes a point where nostalgia changes our mindset, with old feelings and joys making us lighter, a well-invited break from the occasionally daunting present. We want to go back to when time was simpler, but how simple it was requires cleaning off our rose-tinted glasses to see what life was really like back then. Psychology even proves that the past looks more desirable than the present in an instance called “rosy retrospection.” This isn’t to say the past was better than the present or not, though many may argue it was, but if you really look closely, it might just be that the past was no better than right now; it was just different.

Whatever the reason it’s come back around again, it’s a relief to know that our present circumstances allow us to reach back into the past, where our childhoods live permanently and are not too difficult to find. When the world is too much, may we always remember to embrace nostalgia for what it is, and the present and future for what it could be.

Go big or go home: a saying that has been used for decades to explain that bigger is usually better. This idea of more being better has started to take shape in this new wave of fashion with newer generations taking what used to be considered over the top and tacky and turning them into everyday outfits and accessories. As children we thought candy necklaces, costume jewelry and bright colors were the peak of fashion. As we grew older our ideas of excellence shifted and so did our sense of fashion. Our ideas of abundance changed as we started to go through different changes in our lives.

With the rebirth of many of our childhood shows like That’s So Raven, Boy Meets World and Full House, memories we cherished in our childhood along with the fashion we thought couldn’t get any better is making its comeback with slight alterations. Plastic princess shoes from Walmart were no longer the best thing you could get but instead it is those white boots you have been looking for everywhere and you finally found them in the thrift store you have been meaning to check out. The clip on earrings with a giant fake jewel were replaced with the $5 hoops you bought from Claire’s. The beret your parents got from France may not be as lavish as the sequin beret you got from Justice but they are what you consider to be luxury now. When used in the right way, the unfashionable turns fashionable .

Tube tops, scrunchies, and big earrings were what we wore as kids to feel like we were royalty. Now, these items are what most college students wear when they go out to a party. These things have started to re-emerge and take shape to be the new idea of luxury for the newer generations. Bright colors are being added to outfits and big barrets are being added to hair to put just a small touch of pop to outfits. One underrated accessory is the use of makeup to put the final touches on a look. A statement lipstick or perfectly winged eyeliner can change the entire mood of an outfit. In the HBO hit show Euphoria, all of the characters are given stunning makeup that gives the show a whole different atmosphere. In the dark atmosphere of this show, the makeup brings a beauty and childlike innocence to the screen. They take things like rhinestones and glitter that you would use as a child when putting on makeup and transferred those items to the more mature lifestyle that is shown in the show. With the idea of more extravagant makeup with less extravagant clothing becoming more popular in society, it is starting to develop into more of a necessary accessory like earrings and necklaces than just a way to cover up a blemish. These accessories and colors are what we used as children to express ourselves. The crazy mismatch of patterns and use of over the top colors are becoming ever more popular in today’s fashion. Taking small sources of our childhood riches and putting them into everyday outfits for adult life is becoming the go to way to express oneself through fashion. In the words of a woman who’s outfits are almost as iconic as the work she did, “Life is a party. Dress like it.” - Audrey Hepburn.

Maura Johnson & Bailey Roulo

our american dream.

What does the American Dream look like to us? Is it illusionary or is it real? Does it mean more to some than it does to others? Regardless of how we perceive it, it’s a part of how we are shaped and how we move through our world as Americans and American residents. A goal that this country holds above us looms through our minds and our desires no matter our wealth, our race, our age, or our gender. The children who belong to the late 90s and 2000s aren’t children anymore. And we start to realize the harsh realities of what that American Dream means to us versus what it meant to our parents or grandparents.

It’s amazing to think about what we wanted versus what we have now. When I was younger my firstgrade teacher asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up and she had us write it down on a worksheet and read it aloud to the class and our parents. We were some of the biggest dreamers you can find in a group of middle-class American children. Every little boy dreamed of being a basketball or football star and every little girl wanted to be Hannah Montana. When we were a little older we wanted to be CEOs or badass lawyers. We wanted to be broadway stars or influencers. The beauty of Generation Z is that we always dreamed big and dreamed loud. We all hoped we were going to have a life filled with opulence and flashy excitement and this was inevitable considering we grew up with reality tv and social media. Our American dream encompassed more than just a white-picket fenced house and a car, for a lot of us our dreams craved the impossible.

Season Magazine explored the American Dream through the minds of the young Generation Z woman with a strong connection to their heritage while still knowing what it’s like to live in America with the American Dream.

“My Eritrean culture is something I take pride in for multiple reasons. My parents taught me to have pride in the nation because many, many people fought and lost their lives to get that title of being Eritrean... Being Eritrean not only comes with language, food, clothes, and other symbols and materials but also the morals and guiding principles that my parents raised me on. There have definitely been both highs and lows to being part of “the first generation born in the US” and even highs and lows within the nation itself, but alas being Eritrean is a high” says Eritian-American IU student Salina Tesfagioris.

“The American Dream in a broad sense has been the idea to come to America to have this ideal, picture-perfect life... sadly however it is a dream that is short-lived. It has become something unattainable and truly just a dream that won’t come true”, Tesfagiorgis continues.

our american dream. A picture-perfect life is something different for all of us, but the reason people our age may feel like the American Dream is just a fairytale isn’t just