It’s difficult to truly wrap your head around life changing so much in just about 10 years, but if you ask anyone who was in elementary or middle school in the late 2000s, they will tell you that around 2008-2011 was an era of its own, and one that flawlessly set the stage for Nickelodeon’s iCarly to reign.
While tweens and young teens of the modern day are nose-deep in TikTok trends, and obsessing over influencer culture and beauty gurus, life as an adolescent was just simpler before the 2010s were in full swing. Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok weren’t even a thought yet, and Twitter was just beginning to attract younger, more hip users. During those years, Twitter, once a platform inhabited by tech-minded people looking to share ideas or innovation, became a place where a 12-year-old could hear directly from their favorite TV star or singer.
At the time, this concept alone was mind-blowing; celebrities were suddenly able to connect with fans with the click of a button, and television and the internet were no longer the only ways for consumers to keep up-to-date or be entertained. The stars of iCarly were catapulted to superstardom in the sweet spot of social media’s scope, where interest was piqued by celebrities’ newfound accessibility, but there wasn’t yet so much content that fans got bogged down. Being able to get a look into Miranda Cosgrove’s life through the occasional photo that she took or words that she typed made her feel real. We loved the show even more because we weren’t just fans of iCarly, we were fans of Miranda’s, Jennette’s, Nathan’s, and Jerry’s because we felt like we knew them. Forget TV and magazine interviews, the stars of our new favorite show opened up their Twitter accounts and let us in!
Couple the rise of social media in the iCarly era with the unique tween culture of the time period, and it’s easy to see why the show defined kid’s entertainment for nearly 5 years. In some ways, kids then seemed younger somehow; “cool” was Sillybandz, not Hydroflasks, and no one really cared much for makeup or fashion outside of Converse, layering, and graphic tees. The epitome of humor was “random dancing” on iCarly — a far cry from the dark humor that seems to trend on Instagram and TikTok these days. The show mixed together everything that our generation loved at the time on an entertaining, brightly-colored show that was relatable to kids and teens alike.
Now, nearly 14 years since iCarly first hit the air, it’s making its big return in a revival on Paramount+. Original stars Miranda Cosgrove, Nathan Kress, and Jerry Trainor are reprising their roles as Carly, Freddie, and Spencer in the reboot, which has also added actress Laci Mosley as Harper, Carly’s roommate and best friend, and Jaidyn Triplett, Freddie’s stepdaughter Millicent. Listen in on our conversation with Jaidyn, who shares behind-the-scenes stories from the show’s set, and describes how the iCarly reboot invigorates the show we grew up with and thrusts the characters into the modern era.
