I ‘lived in 90s’ for a day glugging Reef & Sunny D, having a grunge makeover… and getting driven mad by a classic toy

IT was the decade of girl power, Britpop, alcopops and outrageous TV – so it’s no ­wonder the Nineties is having a huge resurgence.

From the revamped Gladiators lighting up TV schedules to Oasis singer Liam Gallagher teaming with Stone Roses guitarist John Squire to make a new album, there really is no getting away from the decade being back in fashion.

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Even hit drink Reef is returning to our shelves, while Gen Z is busy embracing low-rise jeans.

Nineties It Girl Denise Van Outen says: “I’m not surprised that all these trends are coming back.

"What’s not to love about the greatest decade of all time?”

But what would it be like to live back in that era for a day?

Hayley Minn — who was eight years old at the start of the Millennium — went back in time for 24 hours to see just how cool the decade would have been to live through as an adult.

Here’s how she got on:

"AS soon as I wake up in the ­Nineties, I realise my biggest fears have come true — I’m disconnected.

I would usually roll over and grab my iPhone for a scroll of Instagram, but the only way I’m getting on the internet today is through the dial-up modem.

Where my iPhone should be is a brick of a mobile phone.

At least I’m still contactable, I suppose.

I usually go to the gym in the morning, but weightlifting wasn’t as popular in the Nineties as it is now, ­especially for women.

Instead, I opt for an old Jazzercise class I find on YouTube (OK, so I have already succumbed to the internet, which didn’t really take off until the middle of the decade).

There is a smiling woman shouting exercises at me in time to cringy music, while wearing a very high leotard.

It turns out Jazzercise sounds a lot more fun than it is.

After working up an appetite, it is time for breakfast — and there is no better vintage meal than potato waffles washed down with a glass of fluorescent-orange Sunny Delight.

In the late Nineties, Sunny D was the third-most popular drink in the UK, after Coke and Pepsi.

But it all came crashing down when the manufacturer Procter & Gamble was hit by claims that the sugary drink had turned one poor child yellow.

I will just be having the one glass of Sunny D today!

When it comes to my outfit for the day, I only need look to Gen Z for inspiration — the oldest of whom weren’t even born until 1997.

Thanks to the likes of Kendall Jenner, slip dresses, crop tops, baggy jeans and cargo ­trousers are all back in fashion.

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However, I found my muffin top spilling over the waist of low-rise trousers, and my 5ft 1in frame is absolutely swamped in the bagginess of it all.

I’d rather be in double denim, B*Witched style, than this get-up.

On my walk I can feel a lot of young people staring at me

Meanwhile, on this year’s fashion catwalks a string of models were sporting Nineties grunge-inspired make- up with heavy eyeshadow — so I’ve opted for that too.

I also try out a two-tone lip look with a darker liner, originally made famous by the likes of Spice Girls star Geri Halliwell and Baywatch actress Pamela Anderson.

I finish off my face with the classic skinny eyebrow style from the decade and I’m good to go.

I head outside for a stroll along the Thames with my Spice Girls CD playing in my ­Walkman.

On my walk I can feel a lot of young people staring at me — probably because I am holding an ancient artefact.

It doesn’t help that I just realised I have got to the end of the album, and haven’t got another CD in my bag to swap it with.

A LOT MORE STARES

I’d better just listen to the whole thing all over again, I guess.

I suddenly hear this loud ringing and realise it is my brick phone — so I whip it out to a lot more stares.

My mum has phoned, asking why I haven’t been on WhatsApp (I forgot to tell her I’d be without social media for the day).

I head home and am ready to turn on my lava lamp, settle down in my inflatable chair and watch some good old-fashioned TV, while snacking on a pizza-flavoured Cheesestring — another Nineties “treat” back on the shelves.

Back in the day, if I wanted to watch Friends, I had to wait for Friday night to come around — but the entire ten series are now all on ­Netflix.

I’m getting bored without a phone to scroll through, so I get out my Tamagotchi,

And it is not the only classic show that has made a comeback.

Six million viewers watched Gladiators when it returned to BBC One earlier this year, 24 years after the original ITV series ended.

And Netflix is bringing back reruns of Sex And The City.

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I just wish there was a way for me to be able to watch Saved By The Bell or Sabrina The Teenage Witch.

I’m getting bored without a phone to scroll through, so I get out my Tamagotchi, remembering how fun they were when it took off in ’97.

I’m greeted with a little pet I have to play with and feed and, thanks to the instructions it comes with, it is easy to work out how to do this.

Once I’ve filled my Tamagotchi’s on-screen hearts, I’m ready for my Nineties movie marathon — and I don’t even have to leave the house for my local Blockbuster to pick up my chosen film on VHS, and then use a pen to rewind the tape.

As a cheat, I am going straight to Disney+ for Titanic and Fight Club, before heading to ITVX for Pulp Fiction.

But before Jack and Rose have even met, my Tamagotchi starts beeping loudly — and it won’t stop.

I look at it and it wants me to play with it and feed it again.

Were they always this needy?

I do the only sensible thing a parent would do in this situation and chuck it in the outside bin (still beeping loudly).

Still, I’m not quite sure the ­Nineties really is for me any more

I am not surprised these things went out of fashion.

I decide to head to a Nineties rave to cheer myself up, complete with glow sticks — and of course a couple of bottles of Reef, which has just come back into the shops.

I may have work in the morning but it was perfectly acceptable to turn up worse for wear back then, according to Denise Van Outen.

Still, I’m not quite sure the ­Nineties really is for me any more — now, where is my iPhone?"

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