Our Stickers, Ourselves
UW students express their personalities via laptop decorations.
Laptops showcase students’ likes and quirks and obsessions. Jeff Miller
Some students choose to express themselves through their clothes; others through their music and makeup, haircuts and hobbies. But an easy way to get a grasp on Badgers’ personalities — their likes and quirks and obsessions — is to look at their laptop cases.
A trend among college students is covering their laptops with stickers. The cases become canvases of creativity, tailored to their owners. And with each sticker comes a story.
Taylor Smith ’24 laughs while describing a sticker picturing a beaver named Beave, who was taken in by a woman and later became TikTok famous. Beave was eventually released back into the wild but lives on as merch — hence the sticker on Smith’s laptop. “My favorite goofy one,” she says.
A sticker for the NCAA golf championships signifies an accomplishment that Smith was especially proud of.
“I got to go on a work trip to the championships,” she says. “It was the first time I traveled with the men’s golf team, and it was really cool for me to have a lot of responsibility when it came to social media and reporting on the team.”
Serena Wang x’26’s favorite sticker, which says “#stayhydrated,” represents her passion for Formula 1 racing. It’s an inside reference to a driver’s comment from the Red Bull team.
Marin Rosen x’26 has a sticker of a cake with her sorority’s name on it. It was a gift from someone at a different school who became a good friend.
Rosen has no use for a laptop without stickers. “It’s just another part of my life that I can personalize and make colorful.”
Published in the Fall 2024 issue
Comments
No comments posted yet.