A new pair of Tommy Hilfiger jeans, a fresh haircut and a Trapper Keeper. What more do you need to start off the school year on the right foot? Kate Walsh, Derek Hough, Sonja Morgan and more celebs reminisced about their best – and worst – back-to-school memories. Watch the exclusive video above to see whose mom packed her sardines for lunch, and who got sent home for her too-small tube top!
Kate Walsh, Actress
“The best back to school memory was when I was going to my freshman year of high school in Tucson, Arizona. I had my outfit planned for my first day and I had just moved from California and so I was wearing my OP shorts, a Hawaiian shirt, Birkenstocks. And I felt real cool. I was like, move over Tucsonans, a Cali girl is in your midst. Worst memory was probably going into second grade with a terrible shag haircut.”
Austen Kroll, ‘Southern Charm’
“There was this pair of painter jeans that I got from Tommy Hilfiger, and I laid it out on my bed. A new outfit, and I sit down in class and this pretty girl sits next to me. I’m in sixth grade and I’m like, ‘Where are your jeans from?’ Just so that she would ask me. I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, these? These are Tommy Hilfiger. All good.’”
Nate Berkus, Interior Designer
“My best back-to-school memory was when I had this fixation with pre-packaged meat for some reason and my mother agreed to let me have a pack, a cellophane packet of meat in my lunch bag. I think it was like third grade. I would not eat that if someone’s holding a gun to my head today. But in third grade, it was excellent. My worst back to school memory was riding my bicycle to the fancy ladies’ hair salon that was a mile from the house that I grew up in and instructing the person there how exactly I wanted my haircut, which was basically clipped all here with just a huge clump of hair right in the front. Not vastly different than my haircut today, but I looked like Woody Woodpecker.”
Craig Conover, ‘Southern Charm’
“I liked organizing my Trapper Keeper. I was a nerd. I’m OCD about that stuff. And the little box that you kept all your supplies in, I was a big binder guy.”
Sonja Morgan, ‘Real Housewives of New York City’
“My worst back-to-school story is my mom packed my favorite lunch, which was sardines and chocolate pudding, and it just doesn’t smell good, doesn’t look good. And I came home and I’m like, ‘Mom, none of my friends like me.’ I had the worst paper bag lunch ever.”
Frankie Grande, Actor
“I would buy different colored binders and different colored papers and organizers and 10 million Pilot pens, every single color of a Pilot pen that you could possibly have. And I would just, I mean, spend hundreds of dollars on unnecessary things that I never used the entire school year. But I really love shopping at Office Depot. It’s my favorite place… But White-Out! Oh my God. White-Out was the best! I had the White-Out pens. I had the White-Out paper things. Never whited out anything in my life, never! Just crossed it out, but I had so much White-Out.”
Taye Diggs, Actor
“Well before I went to School of the Arts, when I was at a regular public school, I got, I used to get punked and bullied. I remember this one time, we were on the baseball field and I was at bat, and one of the most popular kids at school was pitching and as he was pitching the ball, he screamed at the top of his lungs, ‘Nerd!’”
Jojo Fletcher, ‘Bachelorette’
“I remember when I had my first day in high school, I thought I was so cool. I had my Hollister jeans on. I had a little tube top that I wasn’t supposed to wear. I got sent home actually, because I couldn’t wear it. But I was feeling myself.”
Jordan Rodgers, ‘Bachelorette’
“My family moved to Oregon. We got to our new house the night before school started. Woke up the next morning, went to school and I was in first grade, and when school was over, mom forgot to pick me up and I walked home.”
