Guilty Pleasures sure beat Innocent Miseries

I have a guilty pleasure and it is this: television shows about spoiled rich teenagers.

90210, The OC, Gossip Girl. I can't explain it really. I like to watch for fashion ideas, but I also really care about the characters. OK, that may be overstating it a bit. I get sucked into their lives and I like to watch. And that's the whole point of a guilty pleasure, isn't it? That I know it's crap and I like to watch anyway?

I actually never watched 90210 when it was in primetime. I either thought I was just old enough to poo-poo it, or I had a small baby and wasn't watching a lot of TV at the time. Either way, I've more than made up for it in syndication. I'm pretty sure I've seen every single episode by now thanks to FX and SoapNet. And can I just say, the fashion choices in the first several season are prittt-teeee adventurous. Baby doll dresses with combat boots were actually some of their more conservative outfits.

Nice vest, Vanilla Ice.

Now, The OC - that was really a good show. (The first season was, anyway.) That was a show that the three of us could agree on and watch as a family. It had smart writing, more pop culture references than you could shake a Star Wars light saber at, and Christmukkuh. Oh, how we loved Christmukkuh in our interfaith household! It was brilliant! If The OC had been on when I was a teenager, I TOTALLY would have had posters of Seth Cohen on my wall.

Seth is feeling a little smug because he has Jesus AND Moses on his side.

The fashion was high, but not very daring. (Except for that stupid hat Marissa wore that one time with the green bow. That wasn't just daring, that was suicidal.) You wouldn't get a lot of style inspiration watching The OC unless you were wondering which Chanel handbag would be hot this season.

Marissa Cooper gives new meaning to the word "bowhead."

The OC didn't last as long as 90210 (only four seasons) but you could argue that it burned brighter and therefore burned out faster. When Brenda and Dylan had sex for the first time, it caused a huge uproar that high school students were having sex on TV. It was shocking and the cause of many media debates. On the flip side, kids were smoking, drinking and having sex in hot tubs in the pilot episode of The OC. Whooosh! Like dry paper, baby.

Now we've got Gossip Girl, where private high school teens meet at Upper East Side hotels for cocktails. The fashion is stylish but classic, with pretty party dresses, headbands and not a bare midriff in sight. Finally, style icons with classic elegance rather than their ass hanging out.

The girls of St. Jude's discuss how tights, headbands and colorful jackets can make their uniforms more stylish.

To further illustrate my point, here is what the swimsuits looked like on 90210:



And here's what they look like on Gossip Girl:


The storylines are typically teen-soap but the fashion is always a ratings success. Light-colored dresses with dark tights were a popular look on the show this winter, one that I really liked and adopted for myself.

This is how Upper East Side teens dress for brunch. On the menu is cheating with a side of blackmail.

GG has its work cut out for it, going up against HIMYM (which admittedly, that show is awe...wait for it...some.) But I'm telling ya, it's the most stylish show you're not watching.