writing
-
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
-
🎞️ 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
-
💚 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
-
✨ 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
-
💄 Bratz: The Girls With a Passion for Fashion (and Chaos)
Picture it: the year is 2001. The air smells faintly of Impulse body spray and pink glitter lip gloss. Somewhere in a toy aisle, four dolls with huge eyes, chunky boots, and more attitude than your average Year 9 girl gang have just dropped — and the world is about to change. Their names? Cloe, Read more
-
The Terrifying Side of Old YouTube (Why Did We Do This to Ourselves?)
Before TikTok and slick algorithms, YouTube was a chaotic playground of random uploads, low-res videos, and “you’ve just gotta see this” links passed around at school. But hiding among the cute animal clips and early vlogs was a darker side — the creepy, unsettling, or downright jump-scare-y videos we couldn’t resist clicking… even though we’d Read more
-
Forgotten Dance Crazes We All Did (and Secretly Still Remember)
There was a time when no school disco, birthday party, or family wedding was safe. The DJ only had to press play on that beat, and suddenly the floor was full of kids (and a few enthusiastic aunties) busting out the exact same routine. Simpler times. Cheesy times. Legendary times. Let’s dust off a few Read more
-
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
-
💌 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
-
🎃 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
Asten Does Nostalgia 