The Kid 90 documentary premiered on Hulu on March 12, 2021. Soleil Moon Frye created and directed the project, which looks back on her life as a teenage actress in the 1990s. Soleil grew up on camera as Punky Brewster and spent her teen years hanging out with other young stars. She documented all of her experiences and saved them for years.
Drawing on Soleil's pieces of the past, Kid 90 paints the complex picture of a star coming of age in the 1990s. The filmmaker tells her story using tangible artifacts from her life. She also has intimate conversations with some of the people she was closest to in her teen years.
Soleil Moon Frye Documented Her Entire '90s Teenhood
The premise of Kid 90 is that Soleil Moon Frye videotaped her life as a teenager in the 1990s and kept all her diaries and voicemail messages. She's not the first to save such relics, but it's flooring that she took down everything and "locked it away for over 20 years," as she says. The actress told Jimmy Kimmel that what she recorded back then amounts to hundreds of hours of footage. The detail in which viewers see Soleil's young life is impeccable. Soleil shares in the film that everyone acted naturally, too: "Nobody was on all the time. They were just being themselves."
Soleil's Father Was An Actor & Was Involved In Civil Rights
As Soleil describes her parents, her mother is consistently depicted as the more present one. Still, Soleil shows respect for her father and seems to have some good memories of him. Virgil Frye was an actor and boxing champion who was actively involved in the Civil Rights movement. Soleil's fans may never have known these things about her father, or that he was friends with Marlon Brando and Paul Newman.
Many '90s Teen Stars Didn't Mind Soleil Filming Them
Soleil emphasizes that she and her group of friends "did so many of the things that teenagers did," but they just happened to grow up in Hollywood. Aside from their more serious forays into drugs, the stars are seen going to an amusement park together, having parties together, and doing other everyday things, like going to the mall.
It's fascinating to watch a time capsule of teenage life before social media. From Soleil's viewpoint, people could be themselves and live their lives differently in the pre-Internet age. Saved by the Bell's Mark-Paul Gosselaar recalls that he didn't mind being caught on Soleil's camera--it wasn't a cause for worry the way that a camera is now.
Teen Stardom Could Be Even More Intense Than Child Stardom
Soleil thinks about what she has read in her diaries and says, "...it was intense when I was young, but as a teenager, it was a whole other level of crazy." As teenage Soleil developed, men started treating her more like a woman than a thirteen-year-old. Mark-Paul Gosselaar responded with a story from his teen years on camera:
"I remember walking on the stage of Saved By the Bell and the director's saying, 'The minute you walk through these double doors leading onto the stage, you're no longer a child anymore. You're an adult, you have to act like an adult.' And you don't think much of it...but we all know what that meant is like, this is an adult business."
Soleil's Appearance Was Emphasized In Her Youth
In addition to living in the adult world of the film and television industry, Soleil breaks down more universal aspects of growing up. She shares the difficulties of developing at a fast pace physically and recalls that people teased her by calling her "Punky Boobster." A teenage Soleil's voice says, "I just want people to see me for the person I am inside." The comments and jokes about her appearance led the teen to undergo breast reduction surgery. After surgery, Soleil still felt that people were not taking her seriously.
The Videos Contain Painful Admissions Of Depression
Soleil sometimes let the camera roll in the background, but she also took opportunities to more actively learn from her friends. She would routinely ask people deeper questions about their philosophies on life, a question that produced some haunting answers. Andrew Dorff said, "Life can end at any moment. You've gotta live it to the fullest and try new things." In another video, Soleil spoke with Sean Caracena, who revealed that he thought seriously about suicide. Sean Caracena, Jonathan Brandis, and Justin Pierce were some of Soleil's close friends, and it is painful for her to look back on their struggles in the '90s that led them to take their lives.
The Topic Of Memory Can Be Complicated For Anyone
It is understandable that Soleil has a hard time revisiting certain parts of her life. She locked the memories up in a vault that she did not want to open for a long time. The actress has said in interviews about the documentary that she wondered if things happened the same way that she remembered them happening. Celebrities are so busy working and starting new chapters of their lives that it seems like it might be easy for them to resist nostalgia and put their memories behind them. As the actors featured in Kid 90 show, memories can be complicated for anyone. Some of the memories that Soleil shows her friends in the interviews cause them to smile or laugh, some make them cover their eyes, and others are far more somber.
Soleil Openly Discusses Past Trauma
One of the most painful scenes in the documentary is when viewers learn that Soleil was sexually assaulted as a teenager. She speaks openly about the experience, reads her diary entry about it, and reflects on how she tried to process the incident. The moment could be triggering for some viewers, but it seems that it was important to Soleil to discuss her past in its full complexity.
Leaving LA & Living In New York Brought A Sense Of Freedom
Soleil invites viewers into a new chapter as the film focuses on her move from Los Angeles to New York City. She left California to study acting in NYC and says that she "came into her own" through that experience. "For me as an artist, I felt like I was alive when I was in the rawness of it," Soleil adds.
The New York scenes focus on Soleil's friendship with Justin Pierce and his group of skateboarders. Footage of Soleil's modest apartment is also central, as the actress emphasizes that sleeping on a futon on the floor was emblematic of this happy time.
Being Behind The Camera Can Be Powerful
For Soleil Moon Frye, a life of acting on camera was balanced by a life behind her own camera. She took control of her narrative with diaries, then an audio recorder, then a video recorder. The filmmaker explains that being behind her own camera was powerful, and the footage shown presents a teenage woman with a sense of purpose and hope, even when life was difficult to handle.