On Jan. 21, 2014, the first tweet appeared on the Bel Air Compliments Twitter page. The page has gained 543 followers since then, and is still growing. Students of Bel Air High School can submit compliments about each other, which they then screen and post. The popularity of the page has increased exponentially, so the Bellarion interviewed the student(s) behind the scenes of Bel Air Compliments.

Q. Why do you wish to remain anonymous?

A. We choose to remain anonymous because we want to make the page more about the content and positive message it is trying to convey rather than about who is running it.

Q. Will you give Bel Air High School any clues to who you are?

A. Sure! Here’s a clue: We are students at Bel Air High School.

Q. Why did you start this Twitter page?

A. We started this page because every day there are students who go through their daily routine feeling horrible about themselves, so we wanted to make something that they could pull up on their phones or computers to remind them how great they actually are. We wanted to use a medium that is far too often used for hateful messages and use it to promote positive self-image.

Q. How do you decide what compliments to post? Or do you post them all?

A. We post almost all of the compliments that get sent in. We try to post in the order they are received but if there are a lot about the same groups of people we save them and post those compliments later so everyone can feel appreciated, not just one group if students.  If the comment sent in is rude we obviously don’t post it.

Q. Have you ever submitted something yourself?

A. Yes we have posted something about ourselves. It’s really funny to tweet something submitted about us and on our real twitters pretend like we haven’t seen it before.

Q. How do you feel about the sarcastic compliments submitted?

A. Sadly sarcastic comments were expected, and we can’t always catch them all but I think we have so many actual real compliments it doesn’t matter.

Q. Do you think the page will last?

A. Well gosh we sure hope so! We love running the page and people love reading the compliments, so we firmly intend to stick around.

Maybe one day those working behind the Bel Air Compliments page will reveal themselves, but for now, it will be a mystery to the Students of Bel Air High School.