Michelle Trachtenberg Starred In A Kids TV Cult Classic That Made Us All A Little Weirder

The 1990s were honestly a pretty idyllic time to be a kid. Social media didn’t exist yet, so we were still relatively cut off from the horrors of the world (outside of what we learned from our parents or maybe a clip on the nightly news), leaving kids to just be kids. It was also the time when kids were first getting to really see themselves represented in the media — not just on parent-approved things like “The Mickey Mouse Club” but also the subversive, silly side of things on Nickelodeon. Nickelodeon was truly tailored for its young audience, with shows like the perfectly scary “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” and the silly and gross sketch series “All That” taking what kids wanted seriously. And one of the very best shows on Nickelodeon was “The Adventures of Pete & Pete.”

“The Adventures of Pete & Pete” followed brothers Big Pete (Michael C. Maronna) and Little Pete (Danny Tamberelli) as they navigated growing up in their fictional northeastern American suburb of Wellsville. The series seemed to exist just outside of our own reality, as there were some slightly strange things like preteen Big Pete having a tattoo on his arm and their mother having a metal plate in her head that could pick up radio signals. The characters themselves were also really unique, and that included Little Pete’s best friend, Nona, played by the late Michelle Trachtenberg. Nona and Pete’s friendship was something really special and important, showing young audiences that gender didn’t have to play a role in a relationship — and, perhaps even more importantly, that good friends always supported each other’s weirdness.

I’ll be transparent: Trachtenberg was only two years older than me, so I felt a deep kinship with Nona when I first saw “The Adventures of Pete & Pete” as a young child. I never really felt like a girl (something I’ve written about before in the context of “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine”) and had a hard time fitting in, and most of my closest friends were boys. When Nona first appeared on the Season 2 premiere of “Pete & Pete,” she felt like a kindred spirit — an oddball who enjoyed wearing a cast because of the way it felt and who didn’t really seem to care what anyone else thought about that. She really “let her freak flag fly” and encouraged both Petes to do the same. (She also drew Petunia on her cast to be more like Big Pete, and what kid can’t relate to seeing tattoos and thinking they’re the coolest?)

Trachtenberg would go on to play Harriet in Nickelodeon’s “Harriet the Spy,” another slightly unconventional female role that helped girls realize they could be themselves and be successful, but it was her time as Nona that first really meant something to a whole lot of Millennials. As part of the amazingly strange crew on “The Adventures of Pete & Pete,” she helped kids embrace who they were and get curious about the big, weird world. She also helped Little Pete become a more complex character, since his other best friend, Artie, was probably a figment of his imagination. The best part is that even though she developed crushes on Little Pete (a totally normal thing!), their friendship always stayed platonic. After spending my early childhood only seeing women and girls as potential love interests for male leads, it was really refreshing that Nona and Little Pete were just best friends.

There were a lot of great shows that embraced the active, wild imaginations of child audiences in the 1990s, but nothing tapped into the actual experience of growing up quite like “Pete & Pete.” While the bizarre happenings in Wellsville are presented as totally normal, it really captures the feeling of being a kid and trying to understand the strangeness of the real world. The characters’ problems are treated seriously even when they’re ridiculous, and it felt like the show understood me, the kid watching, in a way nothing else did. The punk and grunge rock aesthetics and guest stars didn’t hurt, either, making “Pete & Pete” feel a little edgier and cooler than your average kids show. After all, Nona’s dad was played by none other than punk legend (and “Star Trek” veteran) Iggy Pop, and the show featured lots of punk, grunge, and alt-rock, influencing an entire generation’s musical tastes … or at least the tastes of anyone who was watching “Pete & Pete.”

Trachtenberg had an impressive career and was on some of the biggest shows of the past few decades, including “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Gilmore Girls,” but she’ll always be little Nona the neighbor to me. Thanks for reminding us all that being weird is actually super cool.