We’re freaking out about the ‘Clarissa Explains It All’ sequel
Last Monday was the 24th anniversary of the first episode of Clarissa Explains It All, the Nickelodeon sitcom all 90s girls turned to for advice on life, love, and everything in between. It was one of our favorite shows of the decade (obviously), and Melissa Joan Hart’s Clarissa Darling — sassy, sarcastic, brilliant, and always dressed to the nines (or, at least, the 90s) — was the collective BFF of teens everywhere. And it was just announced Clarissa is coming back — in the form of a new YA novel!
According to Entertainment Weekly, Things I Can’t Explain (. . . get it?) follows an older Clarissa as she navigates her mid-20s and transitions from explaining adult problems to experiencing them. According to Mitchell Kriegman, the book’s author and Clarissa Explains It All creator, we’ll see “a re-imagining of Clarissa” that “resets her story” from the present day (and yes, Kriegman is aware the math doesn’t add up, but it’s fine). The novel will also answer some questions fans might have from the original TV series — including what happened to her bestie, Sam, and if her brother, Ferguson, ever became less of a little brother.
“The tween years, which Clarissa was pretty good at explaining, are long gone and she’s entered the world of new issues that are pretty unexplainable,” Kriegman tells Entertainment Weekly, “Those adult problems looked way simpler from a fourteen-year-old girl perspective. After all, fourteen-year-old girls know everything.”
It definitely sounds like it’s going to be serious business compared to Clarissa‘s normal fare, but we totally think our girl can handle it. Kriegman is keeping quiet on basically all the details (aside from the fact that modern-day Clarissa is a bit of a Luddite, with “a love of old things” — possibly tuning into our major nostalgia for the 90s), and we seriously can’t wait to get our hands on it and see what our girl hero has been up to. At the very least, Kriegman assures us that there will definitely be some of the old Clarissa we know and love in her adult counterpart.
“Who actually grows up anymore?” Kriegman said. “Or at least who doesn’t think that deep down inside their chewy center they aren’t still a kid?”
Things I Can’t Explain is set to come out November 2015 — so if you need us, we’ll be brushing up on our Clarissa trivia by binge-watching all five seasons.
