life
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From My Memory Box: The Day I Wrote a Song (With My School Mates)
This post is part of From My Memory Box — a series where I open the lid on the personal memories that shaped who I am today. The little things that still glow softly in my heart. The Memory I can still picture it — that jumble of lined paper, blunt pencils, and big ideas. Read more
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🎞️ The VHS That Defined My Childhood: My Best Friends
One chunky yellow cassette. A whole mixtape of cosy 90s telly. Instant comfort. Before streaming, before DVDs, before I could even work a remote properly, there was one tape that ruled my world — a sunny yellow VHS called My Best Friends. A BBC/NCH (National Children’s Home) compilation from the early 90s, it felt like Read more
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💚 JLS: The Comeback That Actually Understood the Assignment
Nostalgia, harmonies, and the glow-up we deserved When most pop comebacks feel like opening a glittery time capsule only to find weird vibes and “we’ve gone experimental” energy, JLS did the impossible — they gave us the nostalgia and the glow-up. Back to that first beat It’s been years since those colour-coded hoodies ruled our Read more
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🎤 Daphne & Celeste Are Back?! The 18-Year Wait That Nobody Was Ready For
In which nostalgia pressed play… and immediately said “oh.” In the year 2000, Daphne & Celeste yelled “Ooh Stick You!” and told us we were all “U.G.L.Y.” and honestly? We ate it up with our Saturday-morning cereal. It was brat-pop, it was cheeky, it was glittery chaos — peak school-disco energy. Fast-forward eighteen years (yes, Read more
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✨ ADN Hits 200: Because Apparently I Can’t Stop Talking About The 00s ✨
A fun-and-cheeky milestone from your resident nostalgia queen 💅💖 Remember when I said, “I’ll just start a cute little nostalgia blog — y’know, for fun”?Fast-forward 200 posts later and here we are — still overanalysing S Club lyrics, still emotionally invested in CBBC competitions from 2004, and still drinking Pepsi Max like it’s a creative Read more
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Being a Teen in the Mid-Noughties ✨
Sometimes I think the mid-noughties was the most gloriously awkward time to be a teenager. We didn’t have TikTok or iPhones yet, but we had enough tech to feel like the future was right there in our bedrooms — buzzing, blinking, dial-up loading… MSN Messenger was life. Every night I’d log on, change my status Read more
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💌 Parasocial Crushes: My First Love Wasn’t Real (and That’s Okay)
Asten Does Nostalgia • 27 August 2025 When I look back at my teenage years, one of the things that makes me cringe the most is the intensity of my parasocial crushes. You know the type — the popstar on your bedroom wall, the TV character who felt like they “got” you, the safe obsession Read more
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🎃 ADN’s Fear Files: The Dread of Saying My Own Name
There are many things I feared as a child: balloons, certain adverts, and people in giant costumes. But one fear that never quite left me? Saying my own name. Sounds ridiculous, right? But hear me out. For as long as I can remember, I’ve felt a weird, cringey discomfort around having to introduce myself out Read more
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Goosebumps, Guitars, and Girlhood: My Body Remembers the Disney Channel Era
You know that moment when you’re just vibing, minding your business, and then an old Disney Channel bop hits different — and suddenly you’ve got goosebumps on your arms and tears threatening to form because WHY does this slap so hard? Yeah. That. I got goosebumps the other day from a song that used to Read more
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Was Basil Brush Actually My First Crush? (Spoiler: Yes)
I think I always knew my first crush was… unconventional. While other kids were swooning over boyband posters or teen heartthrobs in Disney Channel movies, I was tuning into CBBC and feeling a weird flutter in my chest when a certain puppet fox appeared on screen. Yep. Basil Brush.That silly, mischievous, chaotic little fox with Read more
Asten Does Nostalgia 