Millennial aunt asks niece what she’s wearing to prom—unprepared for reply

A millennial aunt who asked her niece what she was wearing to prom wasn’t prepared for the nostalgic answer that followed. 

Ali Hormann, from Minnesota, shared a screenshot of her 15-year-old niece’s text-message reply in a post on Threads: “It’s from this old movie, Ten Things I Hate About You,” with a photo of Julia Stiles’ formal updo from the iconic 1999 rom-com. 

Hormann, who owns a photography business and goes by @alihormanncreative on Threads, told Newsweek that the entire exchange began as a favor.  

Her longtime friend Courtney Ferguson, a legacy stylist and educator with Juut Salons in the Twin Cities, had asked Hormann to poll Gen Z teens about current prom and formal dance hair trends ahead of an upcoming class on formal up‑dos. 

“When my 15-year-old niece…sent me the photo of Julia Stiles, I laughed so hard, I scared my cat,” Hormann said.  

While she immediately recognized the movie, she couldn’t resist teasing her niece over text, joking that she hoped the explanation was because Hormann was “too young to know the movie”—not old enough to have watched it nearly a hundred times. 

“We had a good laugh about it over text,” Hormann added. Her niece said she loved the elegance of the style and had even tried to recreate it for a recent homecoming dance, though she found it too complicated to pull off on her own.  

Hormann responded with a millennial reality check, noting that early 2000s formal hair relied heavily on an “uncomfortable number of bobby pins.” 

While her youngest niece was drawn to classic, structured glamour, Hormann said her two older nieces had a different perspective, pointing out that highly formal updos have largely fallen out of favor in recent years. 

Hormann’s post went viral on Threads, clocking up over 16,000 likes. Many commenters shared photos of their own prom hairstyles from two decades ago—or even wedding looks inspired by the same era. 

“To be fair, 10 Things I Hate About You to a high schooler today is similar to what Grease would have been for an average millennial. So…yeah, old movie!” one user wrote.  

“Last year my then 14 year old niece went to her first prom. Afterward she told me the DJ played a lot of ‘oldies.’ I asked her to elaborate. Rihanna. Rihanna was the oldies,” another added.  

A third commented: “I told my 19 year old hair stylist I had her exact outfit (wide legged, low rise pink pants and a collared 3/4 sleeve shirt) in 1999 and she looked absolutely horrified.” 

The online reaction took Hormann by surprise: “Honestly, it was a perfect trip down memory lane because I have always loved 10 Things I Hate About You and I hope that cool prom hair makes a comeback, along with good romcoms.”