Growing Up in the 90s: Throwback to 1996

Updated October 2026.

In 1996 the Spice Girls were everywhere, and I was ten years old. I knew every word of Wannabe. I did not know that the country around me was slowly getting back on its feet.

This is a throwback to that year, and to the place that made me: a loud family, a very small band and a black cat called Mikko.

Finland in the mid 90s

In 1995 Finland won its first ever Ice Hockey World Championship gold. The whole country went mad. I watched the final, but I didn’t understand why the adults were so emotional about it.

Later I got it. Only a year earlier, unemployment in Finland had been close to 18 percent. The recession had hit hard, and the gold felt like proof that we could still win something. The same year Finland joined the EU, which felt like opening the front door after a long, quiet winter.

Not everything went to plan, though. Finnish director Renny Harlin’s Cutthroat Island came out the same year and earned a Guinness World Record as the biggest box office flop of all time. You can’t win them all.

Kontula: a place of contrasts

I was born in Kontula in East Helsinki and lived there until I was 11. It’s a love hate neighbourhood. Everyone has an opinion about it, but few people actually visit.

Kontula was built quickly in the 1960s and 70s to fix a housing shortage, and the 90s recession hit it hard. Many families struggled. But there was a real sense of community. We knew our neighbours, had coffee in each other’s kitchens and chatted in the stairwell. I’ve never felt that kind of belonging anywhere else.

What I remember fondly:

• The we spirit. The local football team FC Kontu was a source of pride, and so was Jokerit. Seeing Otakar Janecky and Petri Varis play was a big deal.
• Candy kiosks. Back in the days of the markka, I spent my coins on UFOs, liquorice stripes and pink foam mushrooms.
• Video rentals. I could spend hours in the rental shop at the Kontula shopping centre, reading the back of every box.
• Playing outside. All the kids were out until dinner. Skipping ropes were the big thing.
• Mikko the cat. Our black cat destroyed our leather sofas. I considered him my friend. He did not return the feeling. Mikko is also a very ordinary Finnish man’s name, which made the chaos even funnier. Maybe that’s why I became a dog person.

Back then I wanted to be an archaeologist. I loved history, and I still do. I borrowed piles of history books from the library and read about how people lived in other times and places. The Silk Road documentaries left a lasting mark on me.

Two friends with nothing in common

My best friend lived just around the corner. She is still like a sister to me, and I’m lucky to be an aunt to her first child.

We were total opposites. She loved Star Wars and cars, and I couldn’t stand either. She was a tomboy and I was a princess. I drew and painted, and she had zero interest in art. She thinks before she acts. I usually act first. Over the years the sharp corners have softened.

We did share two things: horror films and The Great Giana Sisters on her Commodore 64. That was enough.

A loud, bohemian family

My parents were arty, bookish and far from the typical Finn. They were loud, opinionated and brutally honest. Every year we watched Eurovision together, and it was the highlight of my year.

My dad was an engineer, but the least engineer like person you could imagine. His real passions were opera, yoga, Indian culture, history and philosophy, and he loved a good debate. My parents were opposites in many ways, but that bohemian spirit rubbed off on me. From a young age I understood that the world isn’t black and white, and that people shouldn’t be put into boxes.

The soundtrack: Bon Jovi, then the Chili Peppers

Like every Finnish kid, I read Suosikki magazine and collected the Kulta Turbo compilations. My walls were covered in posters, mostly Bon Jovi. Livin’ on a Prayer, Always and Runaway were my first true love. That was the start of a lifelong love affair with rock. I wish I could hear them for the first time again.

Then came ABBA, Scorpions, Toto, Dire Straits and Bruce Springsteen. But the big one was Red Hot Chili Peppers. Californication came out when I was 13, and the funky sound blew my mind. For many people RHCP is a love hate band. For me, they are the band I grew up with. I wrote more about them in my Red Hot Chili Peppers top 20.

Leevi and the Leavings is another band that takes me straight back to my childhood. Melancholic, sarcastic and very Finnish, the kind of band that almost doesn’t translate.

Films were just as big. Toy Story, GoldenEye, Independence Day and Mission: Impossible were on repeat at home, together with a lot of horror. By 15 I had seen The Shining, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream and Jaws. After Jaws I refused to swim in Finnish lakes for a few summers. Yes, Finnish lakes. Where there are no sharks.

That love for film never went away. These days you can find it in my top 100 films and in The Sopranos vs The Wire.

Things that would never happen today

• Kids could watch any horror film, however terrifying.
• Hanging out in Kontula and Itäkeskus on your own was completely normal.
• Parents sent their kids to scout camp in the middle of the forest, with no phones, led by 16 year olds. And everyone came back.

Munkkivuori: scouts, piano and one legendary gig

When I was 11, we moved to Munkkivuori in West Helsinki. I started piano lessons and joined the scouts.

I loved scouting. Long hikes with a heavy backpack in every possible weather, orienteering, tying knots, cooking on a Trangia and long talks around the campfire. Only later did I realise how much it teaches you about teamwork and getting by without luxuries. One day I’d love to go family scouting with my goddaughter.

Around the same time I played keyboards in a girls’ band. Sometimes I was promoted to drummer, but as I was not very good, the real drummer quickly took her seat back after her holiday. Our greatest, and only, gig was at the Munkkivuori shopping centre. The audience was our mums and a few random pensioners. It was brilliant.

Later my mum and I moved to Munkkiniemi, the area where my dad grew up. Munkka has its own local pride too: the basketball team Torpan Pojat.

What Kontula taught me

I have always rooted for the underdog. Except when Finland plays hockey.

I think Kontula made me who I am. Because of where I come from, I have always rooted for the underdog and admired people who work hard and make it on their own, especially those who were dealt a difficult hand. Those are still my values.

I have also always been a generalist. I say yes more often than no, and I want to know a little about a lot. That’s where this blog’s name comes from: a made up female version of jack of all trades. If you want the longer version, read why I blog.

How about you? Which year shaped you, and what was playing on the radio?