Swifties and STEM

Does hopping on a trend work? Well maybe it does when it’s more than a trend, but rather a movement! Maybe, just maybe, we can reach new heights by standing on the shoulders of giants.

The article In My STEM Era: e.l.f. Cosmetics and Purdue Craft a Makerspace discusses the e.l.f. Cosmetics and Purdue collaborative pop-up that was created at the Indianapolis Circle Centre Mall with the aim of encouraging young women and girls to pursue STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). This installation was designed to coincide with Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. Clever? I think so. After briefly mentioning the recent controversy with DEI, that e.l.f. Cosmetics seems to be thoroughly ignoring, the article goes on to dive into the design of the pop-up.

The installation included activities such as making friendship bracelets written in binary code, digitally designing custom photo backgrounds for social media, making galaxy in a bottle keychains, straw rocket launching experiences and seeing the 2024 Indy 500 car driven by Katherine Legge (the only female driver to ever compete in the race). In addition to these, there were showings of Purdue’s short film “Boilers to Mars”. Although details of the film were not in the article, I decided to watch the film for myself. In my opinion it was a really lovely piece about engineering, biology, exploration and women’s role in impacting the future of humanity. While the installation sounds pretty well-rounded in terms of a focus on STEM, as a biology nerd myself I was a little disappointed that there were no biology-focused hands-on activities since so many other aspects of STEM were touched upon.

Now you may be saying to yourself that this sounds like a great installation about STEM but what does this have to do with Taylor Swift? Other than making friendship bracelets the Swifty aspects were primarily atmospheric, such as having giant friendship bracelets hanging overhead, or lyrics popping up on brand messages, or the recreation of the moss covered piano. Of course, it also helped that this pop-up was only a 10-minute walk from the performance stadium.

So, I’ve given you a bit of a sneak peek into my thoughts about this but if we get into the nitty gritty of it…I love it! Although I’m not sure it was amazing marketing for e.l.f. (beyond sparking a bit of interest in chemistry which of course, as much as it is not typically thought about, is very necessary for the makeup industry) I think it did a great job of marketing Purdue. Nothing compares to hands-on experiences and the fact that these girls were able to take home items such as the friendship bracelets and key chains means it wasn’t just a fun experience, but that every time they look at these items they will be reminded of this experience and hopefully remember enjoying a STEM experience with their friends from Purdue. I’m a huge cheerleader for bringing STEM to youth and igniting a passion for exploration and innovation, and hopping on the back of something that’s already very popular seems like a smart way to do it if you ask me. I’m not exactly a Swifty but I can appreciate the masses of people who are. So, if this pop-up got even a small fraction of Swifties interested in STEM then I think they did a pretty good job. If you’re going to make a pop-up why hope the audience comes to you when you can bring the pop-up to your target audience?     

I'll admit it gets my brain buzzing. What else could they have added? Do you have any ideas? Do you remember what sparked your passion in a subject? Let's just say I'm willing to bet it was an experience, not a slogan.