If You Grew Up In the '90s, You Wanted To Be These Girls

If You Grew Up In the '90s, You Wanted To Be These Girls

It's Tiffani Amber Thiesen (aka Kelly Kapowski)'s 40th birthday today, and WE'RE SO EXCITED.

kelly

From her first days on "Saved By The Bell," Kapowski was a pioneer in her field (the field of wearing the coolest stuff, that is). She was the first of many fashionable '90s TV and film characters, who followed in her lead on the road to achieving iconic style. No one perfected the look quite like Kelly, but in honor of her birthday, the influence she had on some of our favorite characters and of course #TBT, check out this timeline of a few characters that came pretty close.

1990: Brenda, Kelly and Donna

90210

The ladies of "Beverly Hills 90210" may be slightly more famous than our beloved Kapowski, but technically, they came second: The show started one year after "Saved By The Bell." The only thing they had on Kelly was that trifecta of cropped shirts, tight dresses and, of course, scrunchies.

1991: DJ Tanner

dj

No '90s-centric list is complete without a good old Donna Jo reference. DJ Tanner had it all: the bangs, the high-waisted denim, the BANGS. Oh, and that super cool red lips phone we all wished we had on our nightstands.

1993: Hilary Banks

hilary banks

You loved to hate Hil, but you could never deny her pizazz. Her hats alone are enough to put her on this list. Once Hilary landed a job as a weather girl in season 3, she rocked those wonderfully 90's, boxy suit jackets like a pro.

1994: Gia Mahan

gia

"Full House" gets two shout-outs on this list because, well, it's "Full House." Better known to anyone who watched the show as Stephanie's badass sidekick, Gia had the whole grungy-but-girly thing down to a science.

1994: Six

six

More hats for the win. Blossom may have been the star of the show, but Six had the spunk. Plus, her name was Six. Plus, she got to make out with Joey Lawrence. Whoa.

1995: Cher Horowitz

cher

Of course, Cher Horowitz changed the whole game with her fully plaid ensembles and fuzzy pink pen. The fact that we all would still kill for that revolving closet really speaks volumes about Cher's role in our style evolution.

1996: Phoebe Buffay

phoebe

Hear us out: Phoebe's style was a bit eccentric, we know. But did you know that she was wearing hands full of midi rings way before we even had a name for the oddly-placed jewelry? That's right.

Were they influenced by Kelly, too?

Jennifer Aniston, 1990

Awkward/Amazing '90s Style

Want more? Be sure to check out HuffPost Style on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram at @HuffPostStyle.

Popular in the Community

Close

HuffPost Shopping’s Best Finds

MORE IN LIFE