HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS nationwide are grabbing the reins of life by carrying youngsters’s backpacks to high school — a pattern by which many say celebrates the top of their training by revisiting the start.
At Liberty Excessive College in Brentwood, seniors put on these character backpacks to savor the ultimate moments of their youth and determine themselves because the Class of 2025 by this full-circle second.
Loujain Habibi is a senior at Liberty Excessive College in Brentwood, and a member of Contra Costa Youth Journalism. (Courtesy CCYJ)
“I feel like it’s the nostalgia and the realization that it is my last year in school, so having a backpack that I would have probably worn my first year of school, too, just seems so right and funny, too,” mentioned Madison Sylvia.
Karen Cailotto, who teaches developmental psychology of kids at Liberty, talked about how seniors carrying youngsters’s backpacks is an instance of group identification. She describes it as, “Anything that we can do to help feel like we’re part of a group.”
The American Psychological Affiliation explains how individuals connect with their group by imitating and internalizing “the group’s actions, beliefs, standards, objectives, and so forth.” The figuring out facet of the backpacks influences twelfth graders to put on one.
“During my years at Liberty, I always saw the seniors wearing them so I knew I wanted to do it, too,” mentioned Sophia Gursky. “I also thought it was cool that it’s usually something only the seniors do.”
When Cailotto noticed twelfth graders carrying the backpacks, she questioned her college students in regards to the pattern.
“We just all decided that we were gonna wear children’s backpacks,” Cailotto mentioned they replied. “It just seemed cute and wholesome and unifying. I love seeing teens who are identifying with each other, Class of 2025.”
Rising up, however not too quick
Tiffany Clingshoff, mom of twins Chris and Carleigh, described her response to her youngsters deciding to put on a youngsters’s backpack for his or her senior 12 months.
“I laughed at first. I thought they were kidding. After letting it soak in that they were serious, I thought it was cute,” Clingshoff mentioned. “Kids grow up too fast and teenagers often take things too serious and are so worried about other people’s thoughts and opinions.”
(Picture illustration by Native Information Issues. Picture by way of CHEJ/Flickr, CC BY-SA)
The group mentality is a key issue, however teenagers themselves additionally say they wish to get pleasure from life to the fullest and expertise a “do me” angle … even when doing it with others. Nostalgia and the 2024-25 school-year pattern on TikTok additionally reignited the must-have “kiddie backpacks” adorned with the identical characters they beloved as children, like SpongeBob, Dora the Explorer, superheroes and Disney princesses.
“I started wearing a children’s backpack to school because I realized it would be the last year in (high) school and I figured I have to make the most of it,” Sylvia mentioned.
“I wanted to fully partake in senior activities because it is our last year,” Toby Chan mentioned. “When I was younger, I wasn’t allowed to have those kinds of bags so this is kind of making up for it.
“I have always loved Marvel, and Spider-Man was one of my first Marvel movies I had seen as a child,” added Chan about his alternative of backpack.
Practicality takes precedence
A ballot of Liberty seniors revealed that near half of them put on a youngsters’s backpack to high school. Of the 46 respondents, 45% put on, or generally put on, a youngsters’s backpack to high school. (CCSpin)
Regardless of the recognition amongst many college students throughout the nation, some have sensible causes for not being part of the present pattern.
“Recently, I switched to my regular black JanSport because the Powerpuff Girls one is really big. And since finals just happened, I didn’t need to bring many supplies, so I have been using my black one,” Gursky defined. “I plan to switch back after winter break and use my children’s one.”
“I think the students who wear those backpacks are fun,” Gigi Del Castillo mentioned. Nevertheless, she selected to choose out of carrying one, “because, honestly, I just didn’t have time to get one and I also feel like they wouldn’t fit all of the things I need for school.”
“You have the rest of your life to be a grown-up, so do all of the things in high school,” Cailotto added. “Be a part of a club, go to the dances, go to the games, enjoy being a kid.”
And for these Liberty college students, that additionally means carrying their kiddie backpacks with delight.
Loujain Habibi is a senior at Liberty Excessive College in Brentwood. This story initially appeared in CCSpin.
