- Oh!

- 2008.

- I was in eighth grade. Ew.

- I was a young 20 year old.

Dead, dead, dead, broke.

- I was newly gay.

- My glory days in the fast paced New York city.

- Do I remember 2008?

- The world was good.

- Let's go back to 2008.

(upbeat music)

- I think Single Ladies, the song,

forced people that weren't ready for marriage into marriage.

- Single Ladies by Beyonce.

I think I listened to that song for four years straight.

- Everyone thought they were Beyonce.

Everyone and their mom thought they were Beyonce.

They put the black little leotard on,

they had the ring and they were like mmm.

- This became the move for everything.

♪ All my single ladies. ♪

♪ All my single ladies. ♪

- Me and my best friend at the time, Riley,

were in my basement watching Single Ladies video

on repeat to try to learn the dance.

- If you didn't know the dance moves

you better get the hell off the floor

because there were about 20 other gay guys

and girls that knew every single move.

(Humming "Single Ladies" by Beyonce)

- Head throw.

- That really is the power of the Beyonce, right?

- Beyonce, you are an icon.

You stay an icon in everything you do.

It's breathtaking. Live for you, love you.

Ah.

- These are my Crocs.

- Crocs: my father's favorite shoe brand.

- Oh God. I hate Crocs.

- I think they're stupid.

I think they are a waste of a shoe.

- I'm going to have to admit that I wore Crocs.

- There are certain things in life

that I'm just like somebody just gave up on fashion.

Somebody just gave up on the way that they look.

- I wore them to my internship. I wore them to school.

- If you didn't want to be in the in crowd,

you'd buy some Crocs.

- I would have like a nice red dress.

And then on my feet were Crocs.

- Croc is disgusting.

I thought it was disgusting, then.

I kinda think it's disgusting now.

If you're not an essential worker.

("Low" by Flo Rida ft. T-Pain plays)

- Apple bottom. - Jeans.

- Boots. - With the fur.

- Yes! I remember Flo Rida.

It took me a long time to actually realize

The Flo Rida was a bougie way to say Florida.

- I didn't know what Apple bottom jeans were.

I still don't.

- You know, apple bottom figure.

Celebrating a big, nice ass.

- I mean, look, everybody wanted the apple bottom jeans.

- I was very familiar with boots with the fur

because I owned a lot of uggs.

- Flo Rida is from Florida.

It's like 90 degrees.

Why would you be wearing boots with the fur?

Maybe that's one reason why everybody was looking at her.

- This song was, you know,

an anthem for every frat party I went to.

- Everybody was literally dropping low

and it was not, like, it wasn't sexy at all.

- I always feel like songs

that gives you directions do well.

And like it goes low, low, low.

So everybody had to get.

- Low, low, low, low, low, maybe not.

(electric guitar music plays)

- Myspace. Everyone was so in love with it.

It was like a step up from Friendster.

- Don't tell my parents

'cause I don't even thing they know this still to this day.

But in 2008 I had a Myspace.

- I did have a Myspace,

but I'm a daughter of Haitian parents

so I was not allowed to put my profile picture up.

I was not allowed to have any photos of myself.

- You can send people messages in front of everyone.

There was no direct messages.

Everyone who would be all in your business.

And we loved it.

- Myspace was like the beginning of my digital career.

Like I literally would take self portraits,

which was what we call them at a time.

- I was so hung up on getting the right song,

the right background,

making sure that I was like that girl on Myspace.

- One of my pictures, or whatever picture you put on there,

it was a quote from Lauren Conrad

(laughs)

that said like boys are like purses

you just have to find the right one.

- So I would like photoshop my photos

and not morphing myself or changing anything about myself,

but changing my backgrounds

and changing like where I was

and making these cool collages.

And then young kids in LA,

other kids like other queer Latino kids in LA

would be like you're that Curly kid

with the weird collages on Myspace.

And I would be like, oh my God.

- I mean, I remember staying up all night on the internet

just figuring out the coding

to have the music play on my profile.

- Myspace, I guess, was the birth

of Tinder, Facebook, Instagram, all in one.

And actually the birth of Spotify.

- I used Myspace for music.

I used Myspace to show my bullies that I had friends.

- I put really dark eyeliner all around my eye

and took a photo like this.

- I was your typical.

- And then of course there's the notorious top 8.

- If you weren't in someone's top friends

you had beef because it was just like are we really friends?

Like, I'm confused.

- The crème de la crème of (laughs)

of your friend group, essentially.

- I was having a fit

anytime I wasn't on someone's top friends.

I would call them up like so I don't understand

we're best friends in real life.

So, like, why am I not one of your top friends?

I don't understand.

- Actually, my feelings were hurt, honestly.

Like if I didn't see myself in a top three

of one of my friends the friendship was over.

Why are we even friends?

Why are we even talking?

Why would you even put that out for the world to see

that we're not even that close of friends?

- This is going to shock everyone,

but I did not use Myspace.

I thought I was above Myspace

because at the time I had Facebook.

(upbeat music)

- In 2008 it felt like everyone had an iPhone

except for me.

- I've never owned an iPhone.

I never bought into the hype.

- I wanted one so badly.

- And everybody wanted to be a touchscreen hoe.

I mean, the Blackberry was slowly dying out

and she was a moment in history.

- I was a Sidekick kid.

It was like a (imitates a ringing noise).

I was one of those kids.

- But I pushed mine up too times and the screen came off.

So I would just have two parts of a phone

and it would still ring and buzz when I had texts.

- Listen, when the iPhone came out

I think I had a Razor, a pink Razor phone.

- In 2008, that was when the flip phone was dying out.

But guess who had it?

This guy.

And guess who was getting no love because of it?

This guy.

- I remember not knowing how to use the iPhone.

Even when they took the button away from iPhone

I was like how do I use this thing now?

- I thought iPhones were going to be a fad.

I thought they would disappear

and look at us in 2020.

Till this day I miss the Sidekick.

I think Sidekicks need to make a comeback.

I think Sidekicks are like, I don't know what it is,

but I'm a Sidekick kid for life. Forever.

(Acoustic guitar music)

- Love Story by Taylor Swift!

- I remember crying to that song.

I mean, I don't know how many breakups I've had,

but I know I had one in eighth grade.

I know I had one when I was 13.

And I remember being in my bed, writing in my diary,

like Romeo, take me.

- I was caught up in the fairytale romance.

That's peak Taylor Swift hair.

- I remember Taylor Swift's hair

kind of like defied logic

because it was so curly

and the bangs were so straight.

- I mean, she has great hair now,

but peak Taylor Swift hair was the long curls.

- She was gorgeous.

I was like she's just a walking Barbie doll with a guitar.

So how could you not like her?

- She was just so young and dreamy eyed

and just wanted to be cool and have a bae

and just live her best life.

- [Ade] Obama versus McCain.

- It was a big race.

It was someone who was black like me running for president.

- Oh my God, 2008.

When politics made sense.

- I knew that the candidate was black

and I said that's it that's my president.

- I mean, I followed the race for Obama's sake.

- I got to see him speak. It was amazing.

There was so much exciting and hope.

- He was, like, fresh. He was new.

I've never looked at a president and been like okay.

- We all were just so excited.

Like here he was this beautiful man, Obama.

Not only was he super charming,

but he was smart and that voice.

And then finally somebody who looked like,

as a POC person, somebody who looked like us

and our friends and the people

that we surround ourselves with.

- I remember when Obama won the election

and me and my sister ran outside in the middle of the night

and screamed yes.

And we screamed at the top of our lungs.

- I'm drowning in a bog right now

and I'm like my hands reaching up.

And I'm just trying to reach to 2008.

And remember what that felt like.

What'd it feel like

to be excited about Obama?

- I think that seeing Obama

was really important for a lot of different communities

because it suddenly made it seem like

oh maybe you can be the president of the United States.

Maybe you can work your way up to something like this.

- 2008 was the greatest year of all

if you don't think about the recession.

- 2008 was the best year ever because Barack Obama.

- I would totally live 2008 again.

- 2008 was an exhausting year, but a hopeful year.

- Compared to today, 2008 made sense.

- I don't know if I'd live 2008 again.

It was fine, it had its time. I've moved on.

(laughs)

(upbeat music)