Let's not bury the lead:
THAT IS FIFTEEN* YEAR OLD RYAN REYNOLDS BEING TOTES ADORBZ.
Back in the very early 90s, Nickelodeon tried an experiment, their first teen soap. Fifteen. At 1 and 5. Fifteen. At 1 and 5. Those ads were frigging omnipresent. I tried it, but to 11 year old me, it was hella boring. No idea that one of the hottest guys ever was hiding in polite Canadian obscurity.
The way Katie tells it, she was in my camp on Fifteen, but older sister Colleen had it on all the time. It was actually her mom who recognized him, and it may have actually been the first time he was recognized in public. This is taken at Nickelodeon Studios, part of Universal Studios Orlando, back in the days when they actually filmed things there (see the employee security badge on his hip?). And look, even took his hat off for the picture, isn't that nice?
I just love that the sister who probably would have been a total spaz wasn't even with them. Poor Colleen.
Oh, and that disinterested little boy on the left? That's Molly.
CLIPS!
UPDATE: Katie says:
We didn’t get autographs. Just a few quick photos and that was it. It was all pretty quick. No one else recognized him and he went back inside the studios. I wonder if we made his day? I bet we did. I remember that he was buying a t-shirt, but not sure if it was a Ren & Stimpy one.
It’s weird that I still remember most of that encounter. I remember him being really touched. I remember him being really nice. And I remember his voice, a little different from his voice now, but still the same. He was adorable.
*Estimate based on Katie thinking it's from 1991.