By Kay Christopherson
(DECATUR, Ga.)–Agnes Scott’s unofficial, student-run crush page, @anon.asc.crushes, has become a campus legend of sorts to some, a pseudo-Craigslist to others, and a campus staple to all—to the point of its personification in last fall’s Junior Production (alongside the more notorious and now-defunct Agnes Scott tea page). By its name, you would think that its purpose was pretty straightforward: a digital place for Agnes Scott students to anonymously profess their crushes. In their bio, you can click on a link and are led to a Google Form, where you can profess your feelings and consent to your confession being shared. And, yes, the page is littered with crushes—on roommates, on friends, and on campus strangers that they’ve only shared glances with; the latest post reads, “I forgot about my crush from last semester but now I see them everyday and talk to them and [it’s] all coming back tenfold. I love you so much <3.” It seems this cloak of anonymity makes students more comfortable saying things online that they wouldn’t dare say out loud.
This page is also used for…everything else. It’s used for questions about student resources and events. You’ll find complaints about facilities. There’s praise for the black bean burgers at Evans dining hall. It’s even used as a lost-and-found. “WHOEVER BRINGS BACK THE CHILI ON WEDNESDAYS I WILL LOVE YOU,” one submission says. Personally, I’ve gotten my nails done and sold my air fryer, all thanks to a page that was originally meant for anonymous confessions of adoration.
The founder of the crush page is as anonymous as the confessions that they publish everyday, and they plan to stay that way. So as to not reveal their identity, I talked to them over Instagram DMs. When asked about revealing their identity at some point, they said, “Personally, I’m taking it to the grave.” They started the page in September of 2021, and it did not take long at all to take off. “I got a huge flood right in the beginning,” they said. “It was interesting because there were two [accounts], actually […] and we had very different vibes. [The other account] got more of the wholesome sweet stuff while I got a lot of the spicier, more explicit things.”
They don’t remember the name of this other account, but the alternate crush page eventually stopped posting and was deleted.
The explicit nature of the page started to die down as they began to set clear boundaries about what they weren’t willing to post. “I was really cautious to start moderating because I’ve been in online communities that died because of overmoderation, but between me personally being uncomfortable with that, and basically everyone else also not liking it, I started putting more rules in place about what I was willing to post.”
What do they think of the page expanding beyond just crushes? “Mixed feelings,” they said. “I do wish there were more actual crush submissions. On the other [hand], that’s not terribly sustainable.”
Indeed, many niche student-run pages have died out. @theonyxrevue, an Onion-esque page full of parody headlines about Agnes Scott, hasn’t posted since fall of last year. The aforementioned tea page was taken down after a plethora of controversies. @agnesaffirmations hasn’t posted since 2021. But @anon.asc.crushes is still sticking around. “I’m fine acting as a message board,” they said, “because, as far as I can tell, I’m the largest page willing to post that stuff.”
As much as students may miss the page being solely for crushes, maybe its expansion to non-crush related posts is the only way that it’ll stay afloat. Where else can you confess your feelings to your best friend and pine after strangers and sell your air fryer, all in one place?
Quotes have been edited for clarity.
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