Here in NYC, we’ve had a strangely warm winter. For the most part, it’s been pretty great. Who could complain about sunshine and temperatures in the 50s and 60s during winter? But there is one sad part – no snow. And even worse, there’s rain. Few things are more depressing than cold winter rain. The best we get is “wintry mix,” which is basically slush that melts into giant puddles. But I hear that some of you lucky ducklings in other parts of the country are getting lots of snow, and maybe even have a snow day to look forward to. So here are 8 ways for you to celebrate your snow day like an 8 year old – and just know that everyone else is very, very jealous.

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Garnet is a student at Columbia University in New York City. She is “that person” who starts dancing at a party when everyone else is standing around, and if there were a Facebook stalking Olympics, she would be a gold medalist. She also loves cheesy 90s music, and almost died of happiness when Vanilla Ice retweeted her. Once. Follow her on Twitter @garnethenderson.

Every year older brings new privileges. The obvious perks are voting, drinking, growing boobs and losing our curfews.  However, with these new privileges consequently comes the loss of old privileges. There were many things we took for granted as kids that cause us to look back on our carefree lives and think “I wish I was a kid again.” The obvious childish perks that have left our daily schedules are things like homework and nap time, but here are six more things that we once had as kids but wish we had now. Read More »

Maybe it’s because I’m graduating soon or maybe because I’ve been watching too many Dawson’s Creek reruns or maybe it’s because I spend too much time around my younger cousins, but lately I’ve been feeling a bit nostalgic. And not in the “oh remember freshman year-that was so much fun” sort of way. But in the “oh, remember back before cell phones and DVRs and the second rise of skinny jeans” sort of way. And speaking of way back when, remember when we wore scrunchies in our hair and waited for Friday night because that’s when TGIF was on? Remember when all we wanted to do was stay home from school to play with our favorite toys?

10. Beanie Babies.  It had to get a mentioned. I mean, what girl didn’t have a Beanie Baby (or 40) back in the day? With their little TY tags that told you their name and had a little rhyme about them. They had everything from turkeys to bears to penguins to French poodles. And I wanted them all….and still have ‘em all.

9. Tamagotchi. Not only did our generation pave the way for obsession with electronic toys, but we also learned responsibility as well. Our Tamagotchi’s and nano babies and all those other electronic pets had to be fed and played with and taken care of on a regular basis. It was like we did the whole “pretend this egg is a baby” thing years in advance.

8. Easy Bake Oven. Easily the childhood toy with the biggest reward. Because after we went through the very difficult process of baking and decorating our cupcakes and our cookies we were able to eat them. Raw dough. Mmm. Delicious. Read More »

When you’re little you always hear “Wait till you’re older” from piercing your ears to getting your first pair of heels to sending your very first sext. However, once you hit adolescence, it seems like you’re constantly told to “act your age” or that you’re “too old for” something. Just because you’re in college doesn’t mean you can’t bask in things from the past, K?

Here are ten things you are definitely never too old for:

1. Glitter: Although you got away with wearing glittery lip gloss and questionable glittery eye shadows as a preteen, it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a little glitz and glam now. Seriously, if Lady Gaga and Katy Perry can rock glitter on a daily basis, so can you. Not sure how to pull off glitter without looking like a five-year-old that got a little too crazy at the arts and crafts table? Add a glittery top coat to your nail polish or go for a subtle glitzy shimmer in your eyeshadow. Want to be a little over the top? Go for the gold in a metallic glittery shirt. Worst case scenario is that you look like a Claire’s employee. Best case: you look hot.

2. Pigtails: Preschoolers aren’t the only ones that can rock this look. While you probably don’t want to be known as “pigtail girl” around campus, going out with pigtails could be a fun and flirty alternative to your everyday hair. You probably had your pig tails pulled up high, so for a more-adult approach to this look that you’re never too old for — sport them lower. Also, pigtails work incredibly well when you’re working out.

3. Licking the bowl of batter: You know you did it when you were younger. Your mom baked a cake and you couldn’t keep your little hands out of the chocolately goodness. Go ahead — dip your finger in the mix. Or, just dig in with a spoon. Or don’t even cook the batter and just go after the cookie dough. You’re definitely not too old to enjoy any kind of sweets — baked or not. Go ahead, no one’s looking!

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When I was a little kid, I had a lot of great ideas. I think everyone does. Sometimes we’d get to see these ideas come full circle, and learn a valuable lesson. Like why you don’t swing from chandeliers, or why you aren’t supposed to convert an old refrigerator into a ‘fort.’ Most of the time, however, these ideas had to stay in our heads, because our (evil) parents wouldn’t let us try them out.

But one of the good things about growing up is you get to try some of these crazy ideas out. Especially if you kept them all in a notebook, like me.

I was never allowed to eat sugary cereals as a kid. In retrospect I don’t really resent it because that’s probably why I don’t need medicine to focus, but at the time I thought it was total bullsh*t. Whenever I was at a friend’s I would sample all the different sugary cereals like I was some desperate 11 year old Shaker who didn’t understand electricity. One vivid memory is when I first got to try Cookie Crisp. It was disgusting. It tasted like Sand Dollar Crisp. I was so disappointed. The ad promised cookies for breakfast! That dog!

Speaking of cookies, one of my favorite types when I was little was Teddy Grahams. I loved these because you could eat handfuls of them and that felt great. Of course I’d never have access to the entire box, so I’d usually be eatin’ my grahams out of a plastic baggy at lunch time. Well, one such lunchtime I was thinking about my cereal experience while nibblin’ on some grahams and couldn’t figure out why a company didn’t make a cereal that did taste like cookies. It seemed so easy…just pour cookies into milk. Just then, it hit me. Teddy Graham Cereal. Booya. Read More »

Perhaps it’s just a matter of timing. Like it or not, I am now of an age where my cherished childhood memories have come up for recycling. Movie adaptations of books are nothing new, but what began as a trickle in my teens has risen to a flood in my 20s, and time has not softened the blow of seeing these stories re-vamped for the 21st Century. On the contrary, as I cling to these last vestiges of my rapidly receding childhood, these new ‘improved’ versions become that much more personal.

Here is the dilemma: I am torn between excitement for a chance to revisit an old favorite and terror that what I see will be a poor substitution for what I knew and loved. Worse still is the certainty that whatever image I see will replace what I imagined a child, and I will find myself unable to recall it as it once was. Read More »