“Humans of New Trier,” a Facebook page that has recently flooded many New Trier students’ newsfeeds, is doing its best to document people of the New Trier community.
This blog consists of pictures of staff and students at New Trier, accompanied by a caption providing a glimpse into their lives. Run by senior Bella Tanaka, this blog was inspired by Brandon Stanton, who started Humans of New York (HONY) in 2010.
Stanton takes pictures of random people on the streets of New York City and asks them questions. Stanton’s Facebook page currently has over nine million “likes”, and has inspired people everywhere to create their own ‘Humans of” pages.
“At the start of the school year, I saw that my friend in California liked his high school’s ‘Humans of’ page, and thought that was really cool that someone had done that for their high school,” said Tanaka
According to Tanaka, she picks her interviews at random.
“I just walk around the school. Sometimes the people are alone or in a group of friends. I’m trying to photograph people who I don’t know that well or have never met. It is more exciting to talk to strangers,” said Tanaka.
Not everyone feels comfortable with being photographed said Tanaka, but most people find it to be an exciting opportunity.
Many of the questions Tanaka asks are directly copied from questions Stanton uses in Humans of New York, but she also makes up her own follow-up questions depending on each individual’s answer. The questions range from “what’s the best part of being an advisor?” to “what’s your biggest goal in life?”
“I don’t expect everyone to open up to me, but some people do and it’s great. I try to make the whole process as comfortable as possible. I never want to force anyone to share something they don’t want to,” explained Tanaka.
Some of the people who stood out to Tanaka were a couple of boys who said that they were all afraid of spiders, and a faculty member who talked about his concerns of how the world views his mixed raced child.
Sophomore Joe Akason was asked about the last time he laughed hard, and his response was “watching Modern Family.”
Akason said, “I did not know about the page until I was asked the questions. I was fine with being asked the question because it was much more general than personal. It just caught me off guard, so I didn’t really know what to say.”
Akason was a fan of the page. “I think the page shows what students think about on a variety of topics, and it shows them while they are at school and unprepared,” said Akason.
Although Tanaka just recently began her Humans of New Trier project, she has no quantifiable expectations. “In my opinion, it doesn’t have to have thousands of likes to be successful. I started this project to learn about my peers,” said Tanaka.
Tanaka’s goal is not to try and relate to each person she interviews, but rather she hopes to absorb their stories and share them with others.
Tanaka currently runs the Facebook page alone, but some people have offered to help. She plans to continue the photo page until she graduates and she hopes it will continue to be popular until then.
Facebook’s new Humans of New Trier