80’s stickers are so much more than radical (might we say totally tubular?!). Looking back at them can take you on an amazing, nostalgic, 80s journey - complete with feathered hair, side ponytails, and jelly shoes.
Let’s stroll down good ‘ole memory lane for a hot minute. Yep, we’re talkin’ all of the Duran Duran, Michael Jackson, and Cyndi Lauper vibes. Rocking out on the radio to a dreamy song, just waiting for the DJ to tell you the artist so you can go buy the cassette.
What about the slap bracelets, leg warmers, and mixtapes! Oh, and the boom boxes and phone books. And the toys! Cabbage patch dolls, My Little Pony, and of course, THE STICKERS! Stickers were one of the most popular 80s toys (those strawberry shortcake character scratch and sniffs that actually smelled like strawberry shortcake!).
So. Much. Fun.
Remember building your
sticker collections?! With your collection book and your
sticker club friends, each negotiating the best trade (ahem, fighting over the sparkliest stickers). Savoring the sweetest smelling ones! (Seriously though, how did they smell SO GOOD?!) And guess what? The
cute sticker love lives on!
We know we’re not the only ones whose hearts skip a beat when they think back, so in this post, we’ll take a look at all the 80’s pop culture in our world today, why stickers were so big back then, and why everyone should be sticker crazy again these days. No-brainer alert! Read on!
Why are we obsessed with the 1980s?
Okay, but why has everyone gone crazy for the 80s? The 80’s rage actually emerged about 20 years after the fact. It seeped its way into modern pop culture cracks from movie reboots and TV to fab fashion and music. Uhm, wowza! But how, what, why?
Musicians like Bruno Mars and The Killers play a super role in bringing back those beloved 80s beats(thanks, Bruno). In fact, you could probably whip out your best Molly Ringwald moves to the tunes of Blinded by the Light by The Weeknd. You could even go as far as saying The Weeknd sounds pretty similar to Michael Jackson ( just maybe not as good!).
And it’s no surprise 1980’s
Spotify music streams have nearly tripled over the past few years. How could you resist such a solid beat? And those synthesizers? We certainly can’t!
The Hollywood scene has picked up on that neon 80s glam, too. Classic movie reboots like The Karate Kid and The A-Team carried this cool decade back into the big picture, while TV shows like Stranger Things, Cobra Kai and That 80s Show brought it right back into our living rooms. And did you see the latest Smurfs movie? Talk about a blast from the past! Smurfette all the way!
Even though the 80s used to be remembered as the butt of a bad mullet joke (and even mullets are coming back too nowadays, BTW), the world is starting to see it as a time when incredible art was made.
The self-expression was on fire! Its colorful reign lives on in the modern day. The skinny jean trend? 80s. Power suits? 80s. Scrunchies? 80’s! Obviously, we can’t forget that the last president of the U.S. was a notable icon of all the 80s excess.
And you know what? It’s safe to say that the 80s nostalgia won’t be going away anytime soon.
Vulture says "The ‘80s has become both a nostalgia rabbit hole and cultural mirror. We’ll likely be jumping down it and gazing backward into it for a long, long time. " Radical!
Most Popular 80’s Toy: Stickers
Picture this: you’re back in your childhood home on, like, a random Tuesday after school. You got off the bus, threw down your school bag, grabbed a Squirt and some sour cream and onion chips, and ran upstairs to open up the best toy ever: your
sticker book! You’re thumbing through the pages of your unfinished sticker album, carefully running your fingers over your favorites: strawberry shortcake and other
scratch and sniff stickers, sparkly
rainbow stickers, smurf stickers, and maybe even a page of stickers you peeled off of fruit to add to your collection!
You can’t freaking wait to go to your best friend’s birthday party on the weekend, because you KNOW you’ll get a fresh, new sheet of stickers in your goodie bag. You’ve already planned exactly which page you’ll stick it to! Stickers books from the 80s were SO IN - and it bonded our generation with this shared nostalgia around anything sticky!
When we visited a new place, and hit the gift shop– stickers were always THE thing we went looking for. And, of course, those stickers on our homework in elementary school were like a badge of honor. They forever symbolized our sense of accomplishment. We just can’t forget that childhood pride, bringing a perfectly stickered paper home!
It’s moments like THESE that we just can’t move on from stickers. They stir up excitement and possibility just waiting to happen...
The best news? We can STILL trade them with our friends. We can STILL add to our collections. We can STILL dreamily page through our sticker books getting lost in
fuzzy stickers and sparkles. We can STILL get that butterflies-in-our-stomachs excitement every time we see them.
These days, stickers have actually influenced a new visual communication trend, AKA the emoji! Thanks to
millennials and GenZers digital stickers are everywhere (although stickers aren’t just for these generations of course, they’re for everyone)! People of alllllll ages find it easier to communicate through images. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words :)
Communicating with stickers has been a decades-long trend for a reason. It’s an amazingly expressive part of society’s communication transformation over the years. It can only go up from here. Who knew stickers could have such a profound impact on our life and health??
Bring Sticker Power Back
An entire generation of us who enjoyed all of the 80s iconic toys, fashion, music, and movies are now middle-aged (pssst, middle-aged is totally the new black!). We’ve been showing our children all of our treasured pop culture possessions that reigned over our own childhoods for years, and we now have a bit more in our bank accounts to spend on things that make us happy… which is why so many of us have totally leaned back in to STICKERS!
Getting older isn’t exactly easy. In fact adulting is HARD, and we could all use more reasons to be happy these days. The secret to doing it? Connect to your inner child! Remember what it’s like to be a kid again - rekindle that young, delighted spirit. Reconnect with the “little you” and be more curious, creative, and playful. Doing so is a form of self-love. It’s all about embracing the sticker love!
We’re not the only ones who think so.
Psychology Today affirms that your "inner child is real.” In a related article, they suggest that connecting with your inner child helps us identify some of the reasons for our adult fears and patterns. When we begin to work through them, then the magic of transforming a bad day into a good day begins!
Therapists are also recommending stickers and other analog hobbies as a cure for burnout, disenchantment, and overwhelm for people of ALL ages. With this in mind we’re here to cheer you on! Unleash your inner child, run around, scratch and sniff, and be inspired by your 80s stickers self.
Where can you use stickers? Put them all over your
daily planner, greeting cards, wall calendar, bullet journal, cookbooks,
laptop, rent checks, everywhere! A sticker obsession is the best kind of obsession. Is there anything else that costs less than $5 that can bring you as much joy in one go (coffee aside!)? Definitely not. Make the 1980s stickers rain :)
Start a Sticker Book Collection
80s stickers can absolutely belong in your adult world. Here’s your assignment: start a sticker book collection (okay, this might just be the best assignment you’ve ever had)!
Reconnecting with your inner child is not only scientifically proven to be healthy, but it’s also so incredibly fun! How could reliving the 80s sticker craze NOT be totally awesome? You basically get to take your favorite childhood past time, break your piggy bank, and invest in your sticker love in the here and now. With stickers, the possibilities are endless.
Eighties-up your life! Make it a personal goal to start a collection like your sticker albums from the 80s, and get your family and friends to help. Start a sticker swap. Host a virtual sticker club meet up! Take yourself on a sticker shopping spree. The good news? There’s no wrong way to reignite those feelings around your old vintage sticker book. Just grab some stickers and STICK!
Here’s an
awesome 80s sheet featuring caboodles, trapper keepers, and stylish, “vintage” phones. And these
80s accessories stickers have all the roller skates and cassette tapes you need to take your collection back there again. You’ll hear Olivia Newton-John’s song “Let’s Get Physical” with these
totally 80s exercisers and boom boxes. We’ll stop there, but could go on and on!
Buy stickers for yourself, your kids, or anyone who needs a little Pipsticks sunshine in their day! Yayyyyy for sticker love and bringing the sticker craze BACK to pass on to the next generation! We’re right here with you rocking out to Whitney Houston and channeling all of the vintage 80s stickers fun. Regardless of the decade, let’s stick together...
