Senior Superlatives. You know, those coveted senior titles like “Most likely to. . .” or “Best Hair/Eyes/Smile.” Well, though often a long-standing tradition in some yearbooks, we encourage you, as a staff, to discuss the relevance/necessity of these pages in your book. Often they are nothing more than shout outs to the popular students on campus, and just feed the criticism that yearbooks are only for the “elite few.” Also, if not handled with care, some catagories can turn out to be horribly ironic or prophetic–and wind up putting your yearbook in the news–and not in a good way. (ie: Most Likely to Cheat on a Test is later in life arrested for tax fraud)
However, we do recogonize the popularity of these pages, and therfore, want to offer some suggestions for making them appealing to all students by first and formost making the catagories current and relevant to your audience, and second, opening up the field to include a wider selection of students. If you must continue the tradition, how about changing the catagories to include some off the following list:
Most Likely To. . .
- Be the next American Idol
- Be the newest GLEE cast member
- Have an exhibit at MOMA (Museum of Modern Art)
- Be on SYTYCD (So You Think You Can Dance)
- Be your friend on Facebook
- Own a sports team
- Be a millinaire before age 30
- Come back as a teacher at Your High School
- Write a best seller
- Compete in the Olympics
- Open an art/dance/martial arts studio
- Be on Last Comic Standing/America’s Next Top Model/Top Chef/Man VS Food
- Host a radio talk show
As you can see, the possibilities are endsless, and can be taylored to what is popular on your campus. So, if you must include Senior Superlatives, we encourage you to remember the three “C’s”:
1. Be Concentious
Think through all the ramifications of your catagory and the possible effects on the winner. This should be a positive, fun experience for the readers and the winners, and should never be something that could come back to haunt anyone–including staff members!
2. Be Creative
The more creative the catagories, the more fun the pages will be to read, and the more likely you are to cover a wider range of students.
3. Be Current.
Choose catagories that are fun and represent the current trends of the year, making the superlatives a part of the historical record in a more complete way.