What were the biggest challenges you faced growing up in the 1990s? Irish Country Living asks Ciara King.

“Getting the lad that you fancied to fancy you back – not much has changed really. There were much the same challenges as now; wanting people to like you, wanting to do well in your Leaving Cert, wanting your life to start beyond the small town you grew up in,” responds the co-host of 2FM’s Chris and Ciara, who goes between speaking animatedly, as she does on the radio, and thoughtfully, like now.

She believes teenagers in 2017 face much the same challenges as she did in the ’90s; boys, books and bras, except there is one major added pressure in the present day – social media.

“When we went to the debs, we had disposable cameras that we would drop into the local pharmacy and collect our photos two days later. Bebo was kind of around, Facebook was kicking off when we went to college, but none of us really knew about these, because it was all so new. No one really knew the dangers of it,” she says.

“A lot of people are talking into their devices but not talking to the person across from them. That is a massive worry. I am not surprised that levels of anxiety have risen and the occurrence of panic attacks. I am not a doctor, I am not a psychologist, but there has to be a correlation between that and the use of Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. There are so many ways to contact a person, but there are so many ways to ignore a person as well.

“That is why I am so glad I did not grow up with a smartphone. I bought my first phone when I was 18 years of age, I was going into sixth year. I actually talk about getting my first phone in the diary and waiting for someone to text back. Now it is so instant because you can see if they have read the message or not.”

Ciara’s Diary

Ciara has turned a popular part of her radio show, where she reads extracts from her teenage diary, into a book – Ciara’s Diary 1999-2002: Sense of Shiftability.

Like the radio segment, the book is light-hearted, funny and packed with nostalgic ’90s pop-culture references. The book ends when Ciara finishes her Leaving Cert, around the same time Roy Keane leaves Saipan.

Growing up in Connemara, Ciara says she could not fault her childhood. She explains that anyone who knows her will laugh at the part of the book where she says Connemara is beautiful, but boring, as they will know how proud she truly is of her home. Now living in Dublin, Ciara still loves returning to Connemara and says she really appreciates it when she visits.

Indeed, it transpires that Ciara was something of a trailblazer in her native village of Roundstone, where she was the first girl ever to serve at mass.

“I was the first altar girl in the village, that’s actually true, my cousin and I. Obviously we were brought up with a lot of Catholic guilt and that kind of hung over us. A lot of the diary is actually questioning that, but in a funny way I hope. There is one entry where I make a list of how to make mass cool again and it is absolutely ridiculous. Hopefully people will see the funny side of it,” she says.

Nostalgia

Part of the popularity of Ciara’s Diary as a radio segment can be attributed to its relatability.

Teenagers today identify with it because they are at one age with Ciara in the diary and those who grew up in the era can relate to the ’90s references, which include Dr Quinn Medicine Woman, Mark McCabe’s Manic 2000 and Ricky Martin’s Livin’ La Vida Loca, along with other common practices of the time.

“I remember on a Saturday night my aunt and my uncle used to go to mass, come down to our house afterwards and watch Winning Streak. I used to make them tea. My aunt, uncle, mum, dad, granduncle and I would all be sitting there watching Mike Murphy on Winning Steak. We would always pick one contestant that we wanted to win.”

From humble beginnings watching Mike Murphy in a sitting room in Connemara, Ciara’s Dairy has grown into a book that is now much anticipated by fans across the country. It promises readers a nostalgic trip down memory lane, paved with combat trousers, platforms shoes, TLC’s No Scrubs, and calling friends off the house phone. CL

Ciara’s Diary will be released in bookshops nationwide on 8 September.