This was an event that happened among preteen girls around late 1997, 1998, and 1999. It's died down since then, but remains a big thing for girls connected to the internet. No one knows how it started. I believe it either started with my domain, another girl's domain featured in a computing magazine, or a domain registered by a group of trendy elite girls to form the teenage occult of pop music and trashy 1950s clipart.

I fail to mention in most discussion that most of the world was not aware of this sudden revolution probably because there was no true interaction with anyone over the age of 23 (a few college girls came here and there, hated the 13 year olds with cliché themes on their website, and then fled the scene.) It was popular to register names like "bluemoon.org" or "defenestration.net" *.com websites were scarce in this part.

Teenage boys sometimes came into the picture with their personal domains, but were not as affected. Domains would request applications from girls wishing to have their sites hosted on the domain, and were usually judged on layout and whether or not there was a journal included. Most sites I saw in my time of viewing contained all of the following:

  • bad teenage poetry
  • layouts themed around Ani Difranco and Courtney Love
  • misuse of Verdana (the font)in 8 point.
  • annoying usage of asterisks for emphasis.

    I was highly irritated when my domain was included in these collected lists of teen domains, considering that mine had "Weird IMs" (was a spinoff of Heckler.com's Absurd IMs) and vulgar stories, no poetry, no journal, no Ani Difranco.

    A couple of times, I found I was being used in a study by an anthropology major who had discovered this bleak misery. My case, as read in notes, was that I was not at all 12 years old, but really 25, solely based on what was observed by others around my age. This was a depressing part of online history that I am sad to share.

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