This fall, as the seniors entered their final year, they came up with a fun, nostalgic idea as a send-off to their senior year: child-like backpacks. The trend, made popular in 2021-2022 by the user @tamialanaeeon TikTok, and the trend blew up from there as a way for seniors to connect with their younger selves and make the year more memorable.

Seniors Payton Corgan, Sadie Passante, Riley Febbroriello, Avery Vece, Abby Stack, and Karla Duque decided to buy senior backpacks. While they were not the first, many of their peers participated as well, some only using it for the first day, some using it all year. Vece and Stack brought up the idea to her friends after seeing it on TikTok, and the others quickly agreed to participate.

Senior Abby Stack still uses her backpack two months into the year, and loves the idea of it. “My friend group wanted to do it because this is really the last year we were kids, and it’s a trend everyone does.”

Stack says that they wanted to feel like kids one last time before they graduated. Stack chose her backpack, a backpack filled with sequins and colorful stripes, with a pink base, because it was super fun and childish, perfect for the trend. She finds that this backpack is just as practical as a North Face backpack she would usually buy for an upcoming school year.

Senior Payton Corgan, a student who participated in the trend, said, “We’ve been talking about it for a while, just because it is nostalgic and cute.” Corgan and her friend group wanted a fun backpack for senior year, not something they thought boring.

Growing up with three older sisters, Corgan took the opportunity with this backpack as a way to feel nostalgic. Her backpack is pink and purple with sparkles, glitter and princesses like Ariel, Cinderella, Moana, Rapunzel, Tianna, and Jasmine cover the front pocket. Corgan bought the backpack at Target.

Corgan’s mom never let her have a cartoon backpack growing up because she wanted her to have something more long term, that she wouldn’t grow out of in a year. She thought that her mom was being reasonable, but still wanted to have a cute backpack for senior year. “We watched princess movies all the time. So, it was kind of nostalgic for me,” said Corgan.

Despite the theme of the bag, Corgan feels that the backpack is still practical, and she is able to hold all of her academic materials. “If you get a big enough one where it’s the same size, then you’re fine,” Corgan added.

Some students, however, did not feel the same, and had to switch backpacks and chose practical over the trend. Senior Sadie Passante found trouble with her backpack. Passante’s backpack was a small pink backpack she wanted to keep, but it proved difficult. “The only memories I have with it is bringing it to the first day of school and taking pictures with all my friends, with all of them on,” said Passante.

However, Passante soon realized her backpack was not practical at all, “I stopped wearing it because it was too small and only had two pockets,” said Passante. This made the backpack unable to fit all of her notebooks and school supplies needed for her senior year.

“I stopped wearing it because it was too small and only had two pockets,” said Passante.

However, it was still a very cute idea and was nostalgic, said Passante. “It took us back to when we were little, and was kind of sentimental as it made me nostalgic of all the time that had passed,” said Passante.

Senior Riley Febbroriello also participated in the kid-like backpack trend. While Febbroriello has no specific memory behind her backpack, she wanted one that was practical to use and that was not too expensive. “My biggest fear was that it was going to be too small, but it ended up working,” said Febbroriello.

Since the backpack is being donated after use, she didn’t want to spend too much money on a one time use bag. “I also didn’t know if I was going to use it all year,” added Febbroriello. She wanted a backpack that was not kid sized, but was childlike and childish, in a good way.

Febbroriello’s backpack is pink with a lot of small unicorns on it, with pockets on the side that fits everything that she needs. She is able to fit her water bottle in the backpack, along with the assorted notebooks and a chromebook used for her classes daily.

Since the backpacks will not be used by the seniors next year, they all agreed that the backpacks shouldn’t just go to waste, and that they should find a way to give back.

After the school year, the seniors are planning to wash and donate the bags to incoming Joel School students. They want to give back to the Clinton school system and community and put the backpacks to good use as a way to help out the younger generation and new students to school.

“I think it would be a good idea to donate the backpacks because we will never use them again, so we might as well give back to the upcoming generation, so their parents don’t have to go out and buy something else on top of the other expenses,” closed Febbroriello.