marykateandashley.com

In the late 90s, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen launched one of the most epic websites of all time: marykateandashley.com. For today's episode, because of a wonderful tool called The Wayback Machine, we were able to travel back in time to visit this website in all its glory.

In typical They Thought I Was You fashion (or shall we say "fash"), we thought we could cover every iteration of this iconic website throughout the years, from its launch until it went defunct in the 00s, in just one episode. Then, we landed on a snapshot of the site from August 22nd, 2000, with almost all of its graphics still in tact and a ton of links still clickable, and we realized there is waaaay too much to talk about in one single episode. So today, we spend the entire episode unpacking this one moment in time-- this precious summer of 2000 before Mary-Kate and Ashley entered high school-- and how it was reflected on Mary-Kate and Ashley's website.

There is so much more here than we expected -- fashion tips, fitness advice, chat rooms, calendars, ecards, web-based emails from Mary-Kate and Ashley themselves, CLICKBOARDS (?!), a newspaper simulator, an entire virtual magazine dedicated to their dolls -- the list quite literally goes on and on. We click through as much as we physically and emotionally are able to, and unpack how precious and bizarre the early internet was.

So weave in some beads & ribbons to highlight your hair, put on your Mary Janes and get that summer denim halter top out from the back of your closet, because we're visiting August 22nd, 2000, and it is one wild ride.

Click through the website we visit here and watch the full video version of this podcast by subscribing to our Patreon here.

Find us on Social Media!
Instagram: @theythoughtiwasyou
TikTok: @theythoughtiwasyou
Becca: @beccaroth
Lani: @laniharms

Did we miss your favorite part of Mary-Kate and Ashley's website? Email us at: theythoughtiwasyou@gmail.com

Support the show