TEN RETRO WEBSITES THAT RAISED ME ♡

 WHEN DID THE INTERNET STOP BEING FUN?

When was the last time we sat at our computers and actually, like, hung out? You know… did fun stuff? Took a personality quiz, played a Flash game (RIP), adopted a totally adorable yet equally terrifying virtual pet, or pirated that Avril Lavigne CD on LimeWire that nearly destroyed the family computer (sorry, Mom and Dad).

These days, our computers are mostly for checking emails, online shopping, binging Gilmore Girls on Netflix for the millionth time, listening to a YouTube video essay about the rise and fall of Quiznos (or whatever) as background noise while folding laundry, and endlessly scrolling through social media. The web has gone from a chaotic, maximalist, pop-up playground to… kind of boring, actually.

Well, maybe not boring… but visiting a website on a computer just doesn't hit like it used to. Back in my day (okay, ew, never let me say that again), there was a cool website for every niche under the sun. And as a kid of the 2000s, I was spoiled. Everything was colorful, funky, and full of personality. Nothing matched, and that was the point.

Now, every platform kind of blurs together. We post the same type of content in different fonts across different apps. It feels routine. The magic of logging on is lost.

My family’s computer room was my little sanctuary. I was “too young” for Myspace, according to my parents, so I had to get creative with the sites I visited. In the computer room, I spent hours online developing my internet addiction. Well, until I got temporarily banned after downloading dangerous MP3s on LimeWire. How this was somehow better than letting me have a Myspace, I will never know. So as punishment, I secretly watched Total Request Live on MTV in the basement (I wasn't really allowed to watch MTV either lol). I never claimed to be better than the iPad kids of today. I was worse.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: I miss the fun internet. Maybe that's the real reason I wanted to start a blog, on Blogspot, no less. I haven't really thought about this platform since my failed tenth-grade fashion blog attempt, which I abandoned the split-second I discovered Tumblr.

But honestly? There's something cool about this forgotten corner of the web. It's giving me that retro-internet high I've been chasing lately. Am I saying this because I'm a bit too broke to create a proper WordPress account with a custom domain right now? Maybeeeee. Am I going to make the best of it here?! Yeah...if I ever figure out how to format things properly. This website is surprisingly tricky to navigate.

So in honor of my first post, here are my Ten Retro Websites that Raised Me. Consider this an ode to the first generation of chronically online kids. Cheers.

MARYKATEASHLEY.COM

Are you even a millennial if you didn't have an Olsen twin obsession? Because I, for one, was OBSESSED.

Mary-Kate was for the cool kids who loved horses, sports, and rock music. Ashley was for the sweet tweens who practiced ballet, designed outfits, and dreamed of strolling through Paris. With their personas shaped through lovable on-screen characters, incredible early 2000s outfits that still hold up, and an endless amount of merch, there was truly something for everyone.

Getting their start on the 90s sitcom Full House, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen went on to completely dominate the tween scene. These girls had movies, TV shows, dolls, CDs, video games, fashion lines, and even a magazine at one point. It's no surprise they eventually dabbled in the online world too.

If you owned their VHS tapes or DVDs, you knew about this website. There was always a preview before the movie started, and they even had their own AOL keyword: MARYKATEANDASHLEY (IYKYK).

The site was the place to find all their latest movie news, fashion updates, and current obsessions. How else would I've known that Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde was Ashley’s favorite movie at one point? Where else would I've downloaded a screensaver of Abby and Maddy wearing those adorable mod-inspired dresses from Our Lips Are Sealed?

I explored other celeb sites here and there, but I always came back to check in with MK and Ash. Honestly, I consider Mary-Kate and Ashley some of the earliest adopters of the lifestyle brand concept before that was even a buzzword. Their site felt like an early form of social media. Soon after came Paris Hilton, the Kardashians, and the endless wave of influencers. If the Olsens hadn't done what they did, the pop culture landscape might look completely different today.

So looking back, it is no wonder I ended up picking marketing as my degree. I had the ultimate Y2K Twins to school me on the basics.

DEGREEGIRL.COM

Wait, a website about deodorant? You might be thinking, “Are you for real?” ... but stick with me.

In the 2000s, brands came up with some wildly creative ways to market to tweens. Bringing a product to the World Wide Web and literally turning it into an entire interactive world was some next-level branding. It still randomly inspires me to this day. One website that immediately comes to mind? Degree Girl: OMG! Yes, again, a whole website about deodorant.

Much like how American Girl’s The Care and Keeping of You book (that every single one of my childhood friends seemed to own) made puberty feel a little less terrifying, Degree took a similar approach, only with a digital pop-star twist. They recruited none other than Disney Channel teen queen Ashley Tisdale to be the face of the brand. She did it all: TV commercials, print ads, a concert sweepstakes, a mini-album full of 80s covers (for some reason), and of course, her very own interactive Flash website.

On the site, you could visit “Ashley’s Hollywood Loft,” decorate her living room, play mini-games, download free ringtones, and even watch her vlogs. It was gel-pen-coded, bubblegum-pop perfection and peak mid-2000s tween internet culture. And honestly, as someone who was pretty self-conscious about the whole puberty situation (then again, who wasn’t), this website made it all feel a little less awkward and a lot more fun.

Did I actually end up buying the deodorant, though? In all honesty, I don't think I did. I was more of a Teen Spirit Pink Crush girl. That didn't stop me from downloading the free mp3 of “Heaven Is a Place on Earth (Ashley’s Version)” and added it as my ringtone, though. 

SEVENTEEN.COM

One of my first stops when browsing the web after school was Seventeen.com. Yes, the website for the iconic Seventeen Magazine. It was basically my BuzzFeed before BuzzFeed, except it actually covered topics that mattered to me.

I started reading magazines pretty young (maybe around nine-ish?) when my mom bought me a copy of Seventeen during a family camping trip. She knew me well. She knew I wasn't exactly enjoying being stuck in a cabin with no electricity. Quite frankly, neither was she. So while everyone else was “roughing it,” my mom and I were out by the dock with Sun-In in our hair, reading our little magazines and soaking up the sun... Sheryl Crow style. We were early adapters of GLAMPING.

From that point on, I was a zine girl for life. J-14, Teen Vogue, CosmoGirl; I read them all. I still pick up a Cosmo every now and then for the thrill of it in the grocery store checkout line. But Seventeen was my holy grail. When I found out they had a website, it instantly became one of my daily check-ins every time I logged on.

I loved the book recommendation page, where I discovered The Clique and Gallagher Girls (absolutely unhinged series for middle schoolers, by the way), the personality quizzes like Which Starbucks Frappe Are You?, and the behind-the-scenes videos from Taylor Swift and Lauren Conrad’s cover shoots. I dreamed of the day I could say, “Hiiiiii, I’m Shelly and you’re behind the scenes of my Seventeen Magazine cover shooooooot.” A girl could dream, right?

And let's not forget the Seventeen Style Council. (Note to self: this deserves its own post.) It featured real girls from across the country giving accessible, fun fashion advice. Their layered tanks, flared jeans, and ballet flats were the blueprint for mall-girl cool. I specifically remember a video where the girls roamed around Kohls for the back-to-school shopping season. I can't find it anywhere now, but it lived rent-free in my head when summer time came to an end.. I took notes. I lived by their rules.

There was just something so cool about Seventeen online. As the oldest daughter and the only girl, it felt like having an older sister guide living on the internet. I loved the articles about school, friendship, relationships, and fashion from teens who felt aspirational yet still relatable to me. It felt like one of the first spaces on the internet made for the girl I was becoming.

GIRLSENSE.COM

If I think back to my all-time favorite 2000s tween website, GirlSense easily takes home the biggest, shiniest, sparkliest, first place trophy. This site was pure brilliance and I'm genuinely sad we can't access it anymore.

Created by the same team behind the early-2000s kids’ site Kidonet, GirlSense was the ultimate spin-off for anyone obsessed with fashion, design, entrepreneurship, and (let’s be honest) a little bit of marketing. The concept was genius. You could design your own fashion label, create clothes with an in-site editor, build an immersive storefront, craft a brand logo, and even run ad banners to promote your virtual business.

The wild part? Membership was totally free. And despite how advanced it was for its time, GirlSense does NOT get talked about nearly enough. Real brands like Mudd, Claire’s, Rampage, and Lulus collabed with the site to create e-boutiques where you could buy virtual clothing using in-game currency earned by selling your own creations or playing mini-games. I even remember the Jonas Brothers having an e-boutique at one point. I was so stoked to get a digital version of the exact baby-pink baseball hat (with their original logo!!) I bought at their concert merch table way back when. Speaking of which, I want that hat back. Note to self: search Depop + Poshmark high and low for that hat. If anyone has a link, hit me up!

Just like Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen first opened my eyes to marketing, GirlSense cemented my love for it. It made creativity and commerce feel fun and imaginative way before “side hustle culture” existed. We did it purely for the joy of creating.

The site sadly shut down in 2012 due to lack of revenue, but I've always respected that the creators chose to close it rather than charge membership fees. It stayed free and open to everyone until the very end. Afterward, most users moved on to Stardoll or Polyvore, but for me, GirlSense was the blueprint.

POLYVORE.COM

If GirlSense was my go-to tween fashion playground, Polyvore became my teenage (and honestly early adult) obsession. While I dabbled with Stardoll and other fashion site platforms, Polyvore was the site that completely took over my free time. I was active there from middle school all the way through college, which is kind of insane to think about. And honestly, I would still be using it today if it had not shut down after being acquired by Ssense, a fashion e-commerce site for designer pieces. Hmm…now that Ssense is reportedly filing for bankruptcy, is there any chance of Polyvore making a comeback? It's only fair.

Launched in 2007, Polyvore was kind of like Pinterest Meets Canva, but better. So much better. You could collect images and products from across the internet like fashion, art, photography, interior design, and collage them into “sets.” Each set could have a title, music, and even a little blog-style description. It was a space where people could share their interests, moods, and personal aesthetics long before “moodboards” became the term for it.

It was also surprisingly social. There were groups and clubs to join based on style niche, fanfic writing, roleplaying, pop culture, designers, and just plain friendships. I still keep in touch with friends I made on that site. Looking back, Polyvore feels like my own personal time capsule. It captured every version of my style from my early-teens to my early-twenties. If it still existed, I would have a perfect archive of every single aesthetic era I lived through: my Jonas Brothers fanfic phase, my 2010s London hipster era, my full-on colorful late 90s revival phase, just to name a few. Now all that remains are old pins floating around on Pinterest.

My favorite era, though, was when I first joined, back when everyone was making those mid-to-late 2000s mall sets. Popular items in these set's included Abercrombie graphic tees, cami layering, Ugg boots, frappes, digital cameras, Bath and Body Works lotions, and Vera Bradley quilted bags… basically, the classic “let's get some starrrrrrrbies after school” look. You can almost smell the fried, flat ironed, overly sprayed hair from the photo above. Memories. When Taylor Swift said, “meet me behind the mall,” in August, this is what I imagine her showing up in. I made dozens of sets like that. And the wild part? Those exact trends are back again. Maybe some would say it's cringe (ew, never let me say that again either), but I am always willing to embrace my inner mall girl. Polyvore sets over Ssense moodboards, any day.

YAHOOANSWERS.COM

My very first email was on Yahoo, and the username? Let’s just say it contained the words lemonade, hippie, and pink. I had absolutely no business having an email account at that age. There was no one to email anyway. But with access to Yahoo came a little built-in feature called Yahoo Answers. As an extremely nosey person, I was intrigued. 

The concept was simple: post a question, submit it to a category, and anyone (literally anyone) with a Yahoo account could respond with...varying degrees of helpfulness.

To this day, I can't tell you why I, an eleven-year-old with hardly any life experience yet, felt the need to hang out on a Q&A site full of adults. But there I was, offering my tween “wisdom” to people posting about serious topics like finances or divorce or whatever. Someone could be pouring their heart out and I would be in the comments like, “Whatever happens, it will be okay :).” Honestly, I kind of stand by that advice.

My favorite section, though, was the Baby Names Q&A, weirdly. I LOVED helping strangers name their hypothetical children. If someone asked, “What is a whimsical middle name for Stevie (girl name)?” I would happily suggest Bloom, Quinn, or Leigh, hoping that somewhere out there, a baby might carry a name I helped choose. If that's your name, I'm really sorry.

I also wandered into the Fashion and Beauty Q&A section a lot, which is literally how I first discovered Polyvore. So while Yahoo Answers was pure, unfiltered chaos, it accidentally changed the course of my digital life.

If Reddit is the internet’s shut-in younger brother, Yahoo Answers was its oversharing older sister. It was full of stupid questions, terrible advice, and absolute nonsense.

When it shut down in 2021, I saw a tweet comparing it to the modern-day equivalent of the burning of the Library of Alexandria. Dramatic, much? Yeah...But they kind of had a point. Any form of lost media hurts my feelings. Even if it means losing yahoo answers. 

WWW.RADIODISNEY.COM

When my family finally got a digital cable box (shoutout to Mediacom), out of all the new channels we suddenly had access to, the one I was most excited about wasn't a channel… It was Radio Disney.

For years, I begged my mom to get satellite radio in the car, and every time she would say, “No, we really don’t need that.” So when I found out Radio Disney came with our TV cable package, it felt like a massive win. I could finally blast my bubblegum pop songs straight from my little bedroom box TV.

In the 2000s, Radio Disney was the place for pop-obsessed tweens like me. It was where you heard niche teen pop groups no one else knew unless you were in a very specific demographic. Dream Street, Play, Jump5, A*Teens… the gang’s all here. I listened while doing homework, cleaning my room, or dancing around with friends during sleepovers.

But before I had Radio Disney on TV, my only access was through the Radio Disney website. And honestly, it was way more immersive than you would expect for the time. Kinda. You could sometimes listen live if it you were lucky enough to pick up reception, watch low-quality music videos before YouTube even existed ( the Us Against The World by Play video went multi-platinum in my household), message the DJs, request songs, vote on new music, read the charting songs for that week, check pop culture news, and browse artist bios and sample their full discographies.

For a CD-loving kid like me, that last part was everything. I would write down every CD that I thought sounded interesting on RadioDisney.com and take my little handwritten wishlist to FYE at the mall.

The Radio Disney website was the perfect bridge between tween culture and the early interactive internet. It was my first taste of music fandom. Before streaming, before Spotify playlists, before For You Pages, there was this cool little space where kids could connect with music that felt like it was just for them.

WWW.NEOPETS.COM

Neopets was one of those websites I first heard about from other kids on the bus ride home. They would be talking about it nonstop and even showing off drawings of their pets. From context clues, I tried to piece it together. Okay, so like Pokémon? Digimon? What the heck is a Kacheek? The FOMO was kicking in, so naturally I had to make an account and see what all the hype was about.

During this era, digital pet sites were on the verge of exploding, with Club Penguin and Webkinz right around the corner. Neopets kicked off the trend in a big way. It wasn't long before I signed up, adopted my very first pet (a baby pink Bruce, to be exact), and instantly became obsessed. I even went as far as buying a plushie, an adorable lime green limited edition CYBUNNY, from Limited Too.

But Neopets was more than just adopting a cute creature. It was a whole world. Restaurants, banks, shops, post offices, and everything else turned into little Flash-game adventures where you could play, shop, and explore. It was basically a ten-story mall of endless possibilities. Heavy emphasis on mall, because you needed currency. Thankfully it wasn't real money (to our parents’ relief), but in-game Neopoints you could earn by playing games, running a shop, or selling items.

Some of my favorite memories included the hamburger-shaped diner where you could order pixelated fries and a shake. Another cute one was the Petpet shop, where you could adopt a mini-pet for your, well, pet. I also loved The Rainbow Pool, where you could customize your Neopet and change its color. 

But the biggest thing I remember? How it kind of radicalized me. There was the Omelet Volcano, where you could get free omelets every day to feed your pets. The Soup Kitchen Faerie gave food to anyone who wasn't financially stable. The Money Tree redistributed wealth in real time. They really wanted to make sure your pets did not go hungry, which is a surprisingly progressive take for a site full of virtual puffballs. Neopets eventually dipped into the crypto and NFT world years later, which is NOT so progressive, but that's another story for another day.

Unfortunately, if you ever abandoned your account, your Neopets would start to starve. And since I lost my password over a decade ago, let us just say I try not to think about the state of my baby pink BRUCE. Especially since Neopets is one of the only sites on this list that is still up and running…

MYSCENE.COMIt wouldn't be an official 2000s website list without the original it-girl corner of the internet.

Back then, there was a full-on doll revival happening. Bratz had entered the chat. For the first time ever, Barbie actually had competition. Mattel fired back, making the doll line cool once again. Now, do not get me wrong, I will always have a soft spot for Bratz. But if we are talking about websites, the Bratz site could NEVER hold a candle to what Mattel was doing online.

There were so many fun doll sites to explore under the Mattel umbrella: Barbie, Polly Pocket, Diva Starz, and What’s Her Face were all staples of my early Flash-game era. But the queens, the divas, the icons, the legends of that early-2000s doll comeback were, in my humble opinion, the MyScene dolls.

No shade to Bratz (especially considering MyScene was created to compete with them), but the new Mattel line website was next-level cool. By this point, I was slightly starting to “outgrow” my doll phase, but MyScene perfectly targeted the slightly older tween crowd. I took notice. I remember wanting Barbie from the Style Swap collections so badly. Those dolls looked so chic.

I think that is why MyScene worked so well. The whole vibe was cool, older-sister energy meets Carrie Bradshaw’s city adventures. It felt slightly boho, slightly Y2K, and totally aspirational. It felt like an age-appropriate, tween-friendly version of Sex and the City, 13 Going On 30, Uptown Girls or any other NYC-based romcom from the early aughts. Genius, honestly.

Set in New York City, Barbie and her friends Madison, Chelsea, and Nolee were living the dream. They were shopping, riding the subway, going clubbing (I was never sure if they were supposed to be in high school or college), dating cute boys, and generally being the coolest humans imaginable to a seven-year-old.

The website itself was ahead of its time. It had weekly interactive webisodes where you could “catch up” with the girls, plus tons of Flash games. My favorites were the nail salon makeovers, boutique shopping dress up, room decorating, and of course, the Ultimate Makeover Game.

Honestly, this was my first real introduction to the internet, and it did not disappoint. I had very high expectations for my own teenage years after spending hours in the virtual world of MyScene.com. Spoiler alert: as a shy small town computer nerd with a failed fashion blog who played clarinet in my high school marching band who never really went out… it played out EXACTLY how I always imagined it would. Dream's do come true. 

DISNEYCHANNEL.COM

And finally, the cream of the crop: DisneyChannel.com. The Lizzie McGuire dress-up game. Cute. The Hannah Montana Paparazzi Camera Game. Fun. The That’s So Raven fortune-teller game. Wonderful. I could write an entire retrospective about the cultural impact that website had on us, but why bother? Who cares? We all know why we were there.

That sandwich game. The “Omg! It's already 3:00 a.m. and I am still playing this sandwich game”, sandwich game. The Lilo & Stitch Sandwich Stacker raised an entire generation of chronically online kids.
That's it. That's my list. ♡

WHAT WEBSITE RAISED YOU?

Written By Shelly Ray | Gel Pen Club