When I was in middle school, there wasn’t really a process for letting a boy know you liked him. Maybe you hung around his locker or invited him to sit with you at lunch, staking your claim was fairly subtle. And in high school, the boys would make the move, giving you their hoodie or an extra football jersey; wearing an article of clothing that very obviously wasn’t yours to school was the ultimate display of coupledom. This generation’s tween girls, though, are calling back old traditions, but instead of mixtapes and letterman jackets, they’re giving away a different ‘90s talisman.
Mothers everywhere have been trying to figure out why scrunchies have been appearing in or vanishing from their homes, and mom Emily Covington finally figured it out:
“Are you tired of wasting money on hair scrunchies? Feel like you're buying them every week? Wondering why your daughter can't keep up with them?” Covington wrote in a Facebook post. “Well let me let you in on a little secret...They are being found in the dryer of every boy mom's home.”
“Apparently it's cool to give your scrunchie to someone you think is cute,” she continued.
She made the discovery after finding that her son had amassed at least six different scrunchies. Now, my question is: Does one gal out there have that much affection for him, or is he studly enough to have six separate admirers?!
Parents in the comments went wild -- apparently lots of them were finding scrunchies around the house with none being the wiser of the romantic implications behind them.“Girl, yes!!! Colt came home with four on his arm. I told him to give them back 😂😂,” one mom wrote.
“Oh my goodness!! I thought I had girls sneaking over or something...they are everywhere!” another said.
The hoodie tradition is still alive and well, though, according to this mom: “Omg our girl came home with her boyfriend’s hoodie today and out of the blue said, ‘I want to get some scrunchies!’ 😳Now I know why! 😂”
Maybe today’s pre-pubescent lovers are taking new-age rom-coms at face value. If you’ll remember, Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo) wore Lara Jean (Lana Condor)’s scrunchie to a party in order to show their classmates that they were an item in Netflix’s “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.”
It worked out for them, so perhaps the tweens are onto something.