The night Utah State’s Snapchat story went viral
It was the Wednesday of finals week when Spoiler Girl, also known as Lauren Coulter, ruined the ending of yet another film. She had earned her nickname by recklessly spoiling 90s movies on the Utah State Campus Story, a publicly available “Live Story” curated by Snapchat.
This time, Shrek was on the chopping block. She said it was the “greatest love story of the 21st century.” Something seemingly innocent took a turn for the ugly, however, and Spoiler Girl was to blame.
Spoiled movies were taking a toll on Aggies. Snapchats of tortured people began spilling in.
That’s when No Spoiler Boy, Erik Gray, rose to the occasion to save USU from Spoiler Girl. He said he was upset about the constant spoilers.
“As funny as it is, it doesn’t represent Utah State,” Erik said. “Our campus story should show stuff more Utah State.”
No Spoiler Boy was just rising to the occasion to save us all from Spoiler Girl’s tyranny.
“There’s a problem on our campus today,” No Spoiler Boy said. “Make our campus spoiler free!”
Erik went home for lunch and when he checked the Snapchat campus story again, the challenge had exploded over social media.
“What did I just start?” Erik asked.
Spoiler Girl said she called for an intervention.
“Come at me haters,” she said. “Let’s go.”
“This whole spoilers vs. non-spoilers thing should be the way that any mature adult handles anything: That’s with an epic silent dance battle in the library,” Jason Allred said in another snap posted to the story.
Just like that, USU became divided, some supporting Team Spoilers and others supporting Team No Spoilers.
That’s when the actual greatest love story of the 21st century began. And, contrary to popular belief, it all started with a snap.
Trevor Olsen, the former USUSA president submitted a Snapchat of his own. He said in in his submission he was studying for a final. He later said he wasn’t expecting anything initially from the Snapchat.
“But it was fun to see so many people from behind the snap story get excited about it,” he said.
That’s when a Mystery Car Girl snapped to wish him good luck on his test and pointed out Trevor’s good looks.
“I submitted several snaps that day, hoping one would get posted, and the one I sent to Trevor wishing him luck was the one they chose to post,” she said.
Before his test, Trevor asked out Mystery Car Girl.
“I just want to give out a shout out to the Mystery Car Girls for the motivation,” he said as he walked to his final. “Let’s meet up after to celebrate.”
Turns out, the Mystery Car Girl — whose name is Madison — was down for a date. They met up for the first time ever at Aggie Ice Cream.
Later at 9 p.m., hundreds of Aggies met in Merrill-Cazier Library for the dance off and for the Finals Week Howl and the Silent Dance Party. On the Wednesday of finals week each semester, USU students meet in the library at 10 p.m. to howl at the top of their lungs and relieve their stress. The howling is accompanied by a silent dance party which occurs just prior. Students plug in their headphones, turn on their jams and silently dance through the library.
This semester, it was spontaneously replaced by the Spoiler Girl dance-off.
Lauren said she was surprised by the number of people who showed up for the dance-off.
“I walked into the library doors and the noise was so loud and so crazy,” she said.
Dancers left it all on the dance floor, fighting for what they believed was right. Ultimately, Team Spoilers won the battle.
But the dance-off also brought USU — including Trevor and Madison — together.
Madison said it was a great way for her to connect with people she never would have met otherwise.
“It was just an awesome group of people I got to connect with in such an amazing way,” Madison said. “That’s definitely a memory I will take with me for the rest of my life from Utah State.”
The story, which was available only locally at first, received more than one million views after Snapchat made it nationally viewable.
The story can be seen below.