By: Priya Merchia
Fairly recently, the bathrooms of Oliver Ames were introduced to “Stall Talk,” a mysterious newspaper with the creative concept of being predominantly hung in bathroom stalls. The paper itself included the emails of the three students who started the paper. Caroline Berteletti, Lauren Berardi, and Cara Lustig. We decided we would get the backstory of “Stall Talk” from the creators themselves.
When asked where the idea and motivation for Stall talk came from Caroline Berteletti responded “At Cheer camp this past summer, we went to Emmanuel college and they had something similar called the “Stall Street Journal”. We all found it entertaining and new so we decided to bring it to OA.” Cara and Lauren added that it would instigate “a good laugh” and “put a smile on someone’s face during the day.”
In terms of getting content, Caroline said they “randomly select certain announcements from the Daily Announcement email everybody gets.” Lauren included that she uses “Pinterest to find quotes and and jokes that [she] thinks will be good for it that week.” Cara added that “kids who joined stall talk and voice their ideas are also sources..”
For the future Cara said she sees “it growing immensely and becoming a serious club that people want to join. With the turnout already better than [they] expected [she] hope it keeps thriving.” Lauren also said they “see new faces every week. [she is] positive that [their] club will continue to grow in the future!” Caroline additionally addressed that “it’s a huge commitment to do each week, but positive feedback makes it worth the while.”
When asked if they would continue the club in their years to come they all enthusiastically responded. Caroline said “I’ll give it my best to be able to!,” Cara said “Heck ya!” and Lauren agreed saying “Of Course!”
In addressing the reaction they expected from the students and faculty of OA, Caroline said she “expecting both positive and negative reactions which happens when anything new is introduced.” In agreement Cara added that they “have supporters and non supporters but in general people enjoy it which I expected.” Along the same lines Lauren said “We have people who love it and at the same time don’t really care for it but there are so many more supporters for it than haters which I am very glad about!”
Lastly, when asked about their style and design of the paper, Caroline said “We just tried to do a typical newspaper setting with columns but with more exciting fonts and we use the app pic collage to make the newspaper itself.”
Stall talk has certainly received quite the buzz, and we wish them the best of luck for the future.
