Bright stickers reading “ur so beautiful” have been popping up around campus in the past three weeks. They’re currently posted in eleven places, including the crossing post by Main Street, on a storm gate in the Great Lawn, on a door in the Oliver Wendell Holmes Library, and in the elevator in Paresky Commons.
These stickers were made by a student as a personal project. Because they want the work to speak for itself, the student wishes to remain anonymous. They hope that their work will make students smile.
“I hope it’s just these little moments within people’s day, where they can see the message and just know that they are so beautiful. It’s so much more than just a beauty standard– it’s just that everything within yourself is beauty and it’s extraordinary. ..People, especially here on campus, forget that, and so having that little moment and reading those three words [is nice]. If you smile, or if anyone reads it and feels anything– I just want to make that change in somebody’s day.”
They got the idea from watching the music video for Grace Vanderwaal’s song “Ur So Beautiful.”
They said, “I actually saw a Grace Vanderwaal music video, and in one of the shots, it’s her putting a sticker on a trash can that says ‘Ur so beautiful.’ I was just thinking, ‘That is so awesome, and I could do that.’”
The artist then went to the Makerspace in the library, where they began creating the stickers.
“In the makerspace, there’s a system in which you put in the vinyl and cut out the paper. It’s kind of complicated when you put them on, but I just make them in the makerspace. [Claudia] Wessner, [Makerspace Coordinator and Lead Experience Designer], will always help you if you have any projects.”
Piper Drew ’20 has appreciated seeing the stickers around campus.
“The first one I saw was on the door of Morse, and honestly I wasn’t having a great day…It warmed my heart, so I took a photo and posted it on my snapchat story, because if it made me happy it might make someone else happy. I know it’s a little thing, but random small acts of kindness—I always talk about doing those, because if it doesn’t inconvenience you that much, then why not do it just to make other people happy?” said Drew.
Drew said that while the posting stickers in public places may be considered vandalism, they peel off easily if someone wanted to remove them, and that the message of the stickers makes the project okay.
“It is technically vandalism, but they all peel off and cause no damage. [The student is] not painting on anything, and—I pulled at one of them…. It would’ve come right off. That’s why I think it’s okay, there’s no permanent damage being done, and it’ll probably make somebody happy,” said Drew.
The artist has also enjoyed hearing other people’s reactions to their project.
“I’ve had some people ask me about it, and I don’t confirm or deny it, because I want to remain elusive with it. [When people] don’t know it’s me, they’ll say, ‘I see these stickers everywhere!’ and it makes me really happy to know that people are noticing them.”
