From the start of 2022, multiple, student-made Grandview accounts have been created and popularized. Some about bad parkers while others of people sleeping during the school day. Needless to say, these accounts are around to stay for a while.

One account, in particular, caught our attention. The Grandview Compliments. An account dedicated to taking anonymous submissions of compliments, posting them, and tagging the people complimented within them.

This account has been, by far, one of the most positive things in Grandview in a while. An account dedicated to spreading joy among the students of Grandview. It’s a nice break from the negativity on Instagram.

I wanted to get more info on this and who created it and why, so I reached out to do an interview. Here’s my interview with the creator of Grandview Compliments.

Q: Why did you make this account?

A: An account called DA compliments followed me and I wanted to market the idea to a bigger audience. I wanted to see what would happen.

Q: What happened when you created it?

A: I made the account and I was like, “ let’s see where this goes,” and after a couple days I was like, “oh man nothing is really happening,” but then all of the sudden I just get like 100 followers and a couple compliments.Then the next day I get another 100 followers. I’m like, “woah that was fast,” and then it kind of slowed down a bit, but then holy crap, February 8th came and I peaked or something. I was at 300 and then 360 and then I hit 400. By the end of that night I had 460 followers. You know, it’s crazy growth for an account you create on a whim like that. You don’t really expect it. It’s only been a week and it’s the third biggest (student created) Grandview [instagram] account. And I’m new here this year! Like, I barely know most of the people getting complimented.

Q: Did you want to get anything out of it?

A: I wasn’t really trying to originally. It was more of a test run at the beginning. Now, it’s just like I see people [saying] “oh my god that was so sweet” or something like that. People are really feeling happy and good about this. One of the things about today is there’s a lot of fake friends around. Sometimes it feels like you’re alone a lot of the time. This account lets people receive the compliment that there’s at least one person out there that likes them, respects them, loves them, or whatever. 

It makes me feel good because I’m making other people feel good. So it’s like a really good feeling chain of reactions.

Q: What do you think the best thing to come out of this is?

A: The happiness and the reactions that come out of this. Nothing like my clout or anything. I’m seeing some of the comments they put on my post and I’m like, “oh my god that’s awesome.” It makes you feel good on the inside when you make another person feel good. We don’t know what other people are going through and if you make them feel good it’s like a one-up for you.

Q: Why are you hiding your identity?

A: Cause I don’t think people would really expect someone like me. Not a lot of people know me. I act completely differently than I do on the account. I’ve given my identity away to like 10+ people now. It’s like who cares, you know, I don’t care if people find out if the account is me.