Clarissa ended because its fans and its star grew up. Clarissa went to New York to intern at The Daily Post. Sam was the first man admitted to all-girl Bibbington College, somehow. In spite of that ill-fated CBS pilot, we’re left to just assume things turned out okay, and that Clarissa became every single thing that each of us wanted her to be. That’s probably for the best, at least for me.

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For better or for worse, I built a lot of my life on this kind of hybrid notion of my own identity and Clarissa’s. Looking back, I’m a little frightened of how much of my life reflects hers. I lived in New York, am a journalist, liked They Might Be Giants, and wore more stretchy headbands and novelty tights than I care to admit. Still, I don’t honestly think I consciously made decisions based on what Clarissa did or said. I admired her outfits, but I only wore the really loud stuff on the weekends, when I thought I could avoid social torment. I got involved in music and journalism because they were things I loved, not just because Clarissa liked the John without the glasses in They Might Be Giants, or wanted to be Jane Pauley.

That’s really the lasting impression I’m left with, watching this show as an adult. I don’t think I—or any Hart admirer—tried to become Clarissa. But all viewers—myself included—gravitated toward the show because we could find ourselves in her. And in that sense, that’s the show’s biggest success. Clarissa wasn’t a pop star, a superhero, or incredibly rich. She was an average girl living an average life, but in kind of an extraordinary way. Clarissa Explains It All left a nation of young women safe in the knowledge that things would work out just fine, as long as they stayed true to themselves—Doc Martens and all.

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In fact, it’s a message that holds more than 15 years later, and in that sense, Clarissa is a nostalgia-buster. The outfits look dated and the technology hasn’t held up, but I’d be proud to show this series to my future daughter, and I’d hope that maybe, just maybe, she could get some of the same lessons of self-determination and acceptance of individuality that I got out of it, all those years ago.