Kidcore: A Visual Guide For This Nostalgic Trend

This blog post is all about Kidcore aesthetic.

Kidcore really creates a colorful mood and a youthful vibe. An arrangement of popping colors and things you used to remember. It is a growing trend among millennials and younger generations. It’s inviting content is what made it so popular on Instagram, TikTok and Tumblr.

But what exactly is Kidcore and how do You know if it goes with your personal aesthetic? Is there an age limit? And more importantly, how do you apply this aesthetic to your images or your social media feed?

If you are new to the world of aesthetics, you may want to know the characteristics and why it is so popular. We will take you through every aspect of this wistful theme.

In this blog post we will review the Kidcore phenomenon and all of its elements. We will go over Kidcore aesthetic, outfits, wallpapers, controversies, similarities to other aesthetics and so much more. All while providing you the best Kidcore images (with credits) on the internet.

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What is Kidcore?

Kidcore is an aesthetic (or theme) composed of bright colors and 90’s kid culture. Kid core combines neon, primary and pastel colors with concepts like toys, beads, cartoons and stickers. It is sort of a childish theme and it overlaps with other similar aesthetics. The goal of kidcore is to bring the feeling of nostalgia to people in their 20s and 30s.

Characteristics Of Kidcore

Images for this aesthetic include bright colors, toys, signage, candy and cartoons that all fit the 90’s theme. For example, toys like Tamagotchi or Giga Pets. For candy, imagine those candy necklaces and for cartoons, we immediately think of Care Bears and My Little Pony.

To get you going with this aesthetic here are some key items that you will see in an image that is representative of Kidcore. Now, let’s take a stroll down memory lane.

Popular Kidcore Aesthetic Items

Beanie Babies

Beanie Babies have a culture all on it’s own. There are some very serious Beanie Baby collectors out there so why wouldn’t this be a popular component of Kidcore? With all of the animals, different designs, and some of them being valuable, they make an awesome staple for this aesthetic.

Cartoons

Cartoons from the 90s and 80s appear in a lot of kidcore aesthetic for example The Powerpuff Girls, Sailor Moon and Care Bear are popular. They all have bright colors and scenery that take you back to the Saturday morning line up of your childhood.

Stickers

You may want to take out some of your old sticker books (if you saved some) form your child hood and have a look. If you grew up in the 90s,you sticker book will likely be 100% Kidcore aesthetic. Gold star if you remember scratch and sniff stickers.

Beads

Beads are a whole vibe by itself. This is what we meant by Kidcore overlapping with other aesthetics. Colorful beads are also popular in Indie kid and Indie aesthetic. Kidcore beads are often defines asthe colorful block beads with letters on them. Yeah, the ones we used to make bracelete’s with our crush’s name or saying like “whatever” or “as if.”

Lisafrank

If you grew up in the prime of the 90s, you know that every little girl had to have Lisa Frank backpack, stationary and school supplies. There are countless characters and there are still folders, notebooks and art kits available.

Lisa Frank has been a very contentious brand over the years, but there is no denying their fun and nostalgic designs.

Takashi Murakami

This is a popular part of the Kidcore aesthetic. Not the artist himself, but his designs from the early 2000s like the smiley face flower and other colorful artwork. In some kidcore aesthetic images you will find this nostalgic flower

Kidcore outfits

Kidcore styles uses a lot of bright colors oversized denim, animal prints, cartoon themed apparel and other fashion trends from the 90s and early 2000s.

Since this is a child like aesthetic, you will find that people have cutesy style and silhouette. Accessories include rainbows, glitter, smiley faces and butterflies. It includes all of the bright colors of the rainbow and other neon colors.

Some popular kidcore patterns are argyle, cheetah prints, rainbow stripes and rhinestones. For women the most popular tops are definitely crop tops and oversized graphic tees are a close second. For bottoms, denim are the most popular. Like mom jeans, bell bottoms and other wide leg pants.

Bottoms also include midi skirts wide leg pants and shorts. One pieces include overalls (mostly denim) long or short and patterned dresses. Outerwear include knit cardigans both long and cropped.

Shoes are primarily sneakers more specifically the Nikes Air Force ones and Converse Chuck Taylor’s and the Vans from that time. Most of the shoes are styled with some type of colored accent.

Head accessories include bucket hats, bandanas, butterfly hair clips also in neon colors. Bags include mini backpacks and animal print handbags that have really long or really short straps. Belts a really thin and a popular item used for a belt is a shoe lace.

On Instagram Kidcore are very colorful images with high contrast.

Kidcore Wallpaper

This is an example of a Care Bears wallpaper.

Collage of colorful images is perfect for this theme.

An electronic memory of video games and the earlier days of the internet.

Look at the contrast on these fruit loops.

Controversy of Kidcore

Kidcore has not come to popularity without it’s controversy. The theme is centered around childish things and images look like a child’s playroom. It seems targets a younger crowd. The problem is it also attracts people who grew up the the 90s and early 2000s, who are now adults.

Combining these two could be a little predatory in nature. For example, an adult posting Kidcore aesthetic on their social media could attract a lot of child followers, which is inappropriate.

Kidcore Filter

Here is how you could get a Kidcore or Indie Kid filter on you iPhone using the VSCO app. Upload your picture to the app. The formula is Exposure: -2.2 Contrast: -4.5 Shadows: +3.5 Highlights: +7.4 Saturation: +3.9 Shapen: +3.6. The look at the vibrant colors of your picture.

Conclusion

We want to hear from you! Did this post help you learn about Kidcore? Did the images take you back to your childhood. Is there something we forgot to say about this aesthetic? Please tell us in the comments.