10 School Supplies Every Kid Wanted in the '90s

School supply lists have gotten pretty strict in recent years. Students are often only allowed to bring the basic school supplies, and some teachers specify the brands they'll accept in their classrooms. Understandably, schools don't want to deal with items getting stolen or being too distracting, but it's sad that kids today don't get to have all the fun we had in the '90s.

Back-to-school shopping was an exciting time in the '90s, not just for new clothes, but also for the school supplies aisle. So many of us can trace our obsession with new notebooks, pens, and pencils back to those shopping trips as kids. The bright colors and fun gimmicks had us clamoring for the school supplies in a way that kids today will never understand.

These are the 10 school supplies that every kid wanted in the '90s:

1. Trapper Keeper
2. Lisa Frank
3. Mead Five Star Notebooks
4. SpaceMaker
5. Yikes! Pencils
6. Push-Up Pencils
7. Milky Gel Pens
8. Mr. Sketch Scented Markers
9. Scratch 'N Sniff Stickers
10. Stamp Markers

Trapper Keeper

If you ever had one of these things, you might still be able to recall the scratchy Velcro sound that came with each opening of the Trapper Keeper binder. The reason they fell out of style could honestly be because the noise got on teachers' nerves. But they were the coolest way to carry all your homework and papers. You were really lucky if you got one with a pattern or art rather than a solid color, but you could always decorate it with stickers if you did have a plain one.

Lisa Frank

Even the most minimalist millennial was once in love with Lisa Frank products. These notebooks, folders, binders, and more were covered with bright and loud designs. Rainbow, tie-dye, iridescent, and holographic patterns and colors combined with pictures of cute animals made Lisa Frank school supplies all the rage. Our younger selves would be appalled by all the "millennial gray" of the modern era and would want to rectify that with a giant Lisa Frank sticker collage.

Mead Five Star Notebooks

Moms in the '90s just did not understand why we needed a Five Star spiral notebook. They were more expensive than buying several of the smaller, cheaper notebooks. But a Five Star notebook was so much cooler because it was like a binder already filled with paper. They looked sleek and academic, had pockets in the covers, and were thick enough for multiple subjects. Any kid who was serious about writing notes had to have a Five Star notebook.

SpaceMaker

When it came to pencil boxes, SpaceMaker was the best. The durable, hard plastic protected your pencils and crayons from breaking when they were tossed into your backpack or desk. They came in all different colors and had a handy indent in the lid, which was perfect for making bookmarks out of glue (if you know, you know). The bumps on the top also provided a tactile fidget toy for those of us who really could have used a fidget cube back in the day.

Yikes! Pencils

Many '90s kids wouldn't be caught dead with a plain No. 2 pencil. Not when Yikes! pencils existed. These pencils were brightly colored with funky patterns, and the wood was dyed so that when you sharpened them, the pencil shavings were fun colors too. Yikes! came out with erasers, pencil grips, and a pencil sharpener that were all crazy shapes, colors, or both. They weren't the most ergonomic of writing tools, but they were cool, and that's all that mattered.

Push-Up Pencils

Another product of the '90s that prioritized form over function was push-up pencils. They were cute and fun to use—until you lost one of the pencil pieces. Then, they became frustratingly useless. It was also a problem if you lost the cap, since it held the eraser. But many '90s kids also collected specially shaped erasers, so you could always use one of those. They just tended not to work well. Still, these push-up pencils looked great in your pencil box.

Milky Gel Pens

Gel pens were a huge trend in the '90s, and the Milky brand could be found everywhere. The pens came in a variety of colors, with some packs being all bright and flashy while others were made up of pretty pastels. These pens were used for notes to friends, doodles, and, when you got bored in class, drawing on your hands and arms. Who needed actual jewelry when you could draw on bracelets and rings with your Milky Gel Pens?

Mr. Sketch Scented Markers

Mr. Sketch scented markers taught us that there were two types of kids: the ones who could not get enough of the fruity, though slightly chemical smells, and those who had been taught that they would get high from sniffing any type of marker and so stayed away—until, of course, a classmate held the toasted marshmallow marker under their nose. How did they get them to smell so good? And, bonus points to Mr. Sketch for making an easy way for colorblind kids to differentiate between their markers.

Scratch 'N Sniff Stickers

Why were brands of the '90s so focused on scented things? It's like they wanted us to never forget our school days by linking our memories and our olfactory sense. One look at the Scratch 'N Sniff stickers and suddenly you might feel like you just aced your math test and were rewarded with a faint smell of chocolate. You worked hard to earn one of these scented status symbols from the teacher, and were devastated if you ever got the onion sticker instead of the yummier smells.

Stamp Markers

Long before texting culture gave us emojis, '90s kids had Crayola Stamp Markers. We used them on everything: notes, quizzes, our desks, our bodies, etc. The '90s were all about color, vibrancy, and expression for kids, and these stamps helped us add those things to an otherwise boring school day. And they were washable, so it wasn't like we'd vandalized school equipment permanently. We all cleaned our desks at the end of the year anyway, so what was the harm, right?

Read More: