Being an Aspec Kid in the 00s

The 00s were peak crush culture.
Every magazine quiz, every Disney Channel subplot, every MSN chat seemed to revolve around one thing: “So, who do you fancy?”

If you didn’t have an answer, you weren’t just “different.” You were basically an alien.

Meanwhile, there I was — sitting with my Groovy Chick diary and my Neopets account — wondering why everyone else was writing Mrs [Insert Boyband Member] all over their pencil cases.

The Funny-Chaotic Bits

• Truth or Dare always turned into “Who do you fancy?” I’d panic and name someone random just to avoid being labelled “weird.”
• My friends: “Come on, you MUST fancy someone!”
  Me: “…Uh, Peter from Narnia? He seems polite?”
• Watching High School Musical and realising I didn’t care about Troy’s abs. Sharpay’s pink fluffy wardrobe was the real star.
• Boyband wars — everyone had their dream husband lined up. I just liked the songs. (Okay, and maybe the hoodies. The hoodies were 🔥.)

The Reflective Bits

The truth was, I didn’t have the word for it yet — aspec. Back then it just felt like I was missing the “right” software. Everyone else seemed to download the crush.exe update and I was still running Windows 98.

I thought it made me broken. But looking back, I wasn’t broken — I was just different. Crush culture was everywhere, but no one told me that not feeling it was a valid option.

Finding the aspec label later was like finally getting the patch notes: “You weren’t missing anything. You were just playing the game differently.”

Daisy’s Corner 💬

“Oh babes, you didn’t miss out — you LEVELLED up. While everyone else was crying over boys with neon shutter shades and spiky gel hair, you were building actual personality. They wasted time doodling Mrs Timberlake in the margins; you were out here surviving, thriving, and accidentally becoming iconic. Windows 98? More like Windows GREAT. Boom Boom, upgrade complete.”