Since March of 2020, an Instagram account known as FHC Student Community (@fhc_student_community) has been spreading positivity online. The account, run by an FHC student, accepts and anonymously posts submitted compliments about members of the school population.

The goal, according to the account’s owner, is to help bring our student body together.

“It really just came from a place of needing positivity in my own life, and figuring that if I needed it, other people probably needed it too,” the student, who prefers to remain anonymous, said. “Putting good out into the world really gave me something positive to focus on, and it made me feel better about myself and the world in general.”

They cited the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic as a catalyst to the realization that our school needed unity.

“It was kind of a way for us to bond together from our homes when we couldn’t be together at school, too, to create that community online,” the student said. “I wanted it to spread positivity in general, of course, but because of the circumstances we were all [facing], I felt like it became even more important. I wanted people to know they weren’t alone.”

The student says the account was inspired by a similar account run by students at Francis Howell High School.

“Their Instagram [account] started sometime last year, and I heard about it from some friends that go there,” the student said. “I saw how happy it made them to get a compliment, and it made me really like the idea and want to make that happen at FHC.”

The idea was expanded beyond just posting anonymous compliments, and the account evolved into a way to just spread positivity.

“This account does more stuff on our stories, like posting uplifting messages or posts, and asking students how they are feeling with question boxes and polls and such,” the student said.

The student has also used the account to promote certain causes at FHC, namely English teacher Mrs. LaRue’s class wishlist.

“Mrs. LaRue… had posted on her Instagram that she made an Amazon wishlist for her classroom of things that she needed for the year,” the student said. “Since we’re really big on helping our school community, and it would help not just her, but all of the students in her classes, we posted about it on our story and put the link in our bio to help her out and support her.”

The account has also promoted causes in the FHC community that don’t directly relate to school itself, such as when a former student raised money for racial justice.

“We’ve also done something similar to support other efforts in the community, like when an FHC student was selling art he had made and donating proceeds to charity,” the student said. “In the future, there might be other causes that we support, too.”

An important component in the account’s ability to spread positivity is the anonymity at its heart: no one knows who sends in the submissions, and no one knows who posts them, either.

“I chose to stay anonymous because, honestly, this account is really not about me,” the student said. “It’s about all of us coming together and being kind and doing something to encourage others and make our community stronger.”

Besides taking the focus off any one individual, anonymity also puts students more at ease to submit compliments they might not give publicly.

“It feels really nice to do something good without others knowing, which is part of the reason I decided to keep submissions anonymous also,” the student said. “So people can just do something nice for the heck of it without praise or judgment.”

They assured that the account will continue to spread positivity for as long as possible.

“I am not a senior this year, so the account will be run by me for a while still,” the student said. “I haven’t really decided exactly what will happen when I graduate yet, but I do know that I don’t want this account to die just because the person who started it is gone. I feel like the impact it has on our school community is really important, so I’d love to… pass the account on to someone in one of the grades below me to continue the mission of spreading kindness.”