Forget the days of old-fashioned meet-cutes or looking for love on popular dating apps like Tinder — the new place to find romance seems to be on college Snapchat stories.
It’s the ultimate romance for the social media age: Girl crushes on boy at library. She declares her feelings on Snapchat. He snaps back! Their love is foiled by missed connections. They finally meet. Love conquers all! It’s an epic Snapchat love story that actually happened at the University of Wisconsin-Madison last week. Who said fairytales don’t exist?
It all began when Abby, a senior at University of Wisconsin, spied a Vikings fan on UW’s campus Snap Story, and posted a video, saying, “To the guy wearing the Vikings jersey on the UW Snap Story, I’m seriously in love with you. Find me.” That guy is Reed, a fellow senior.
He then posted his own snap, asking her to meet him at a building on campus. She didn’t see the snap until it was too late to meet him, but snapped back. Eventually the two lovers were able to arrange a meet-up at a local bar, but even then, they nearly missed each other. By the time Reed showed up, Abby had already left.
She snuck in through a back entrance to get back into the bar. At around 1:30am, they were finally at the same place at the same time, and met each other with a long hug—all recorded on Snapchat, of course.
My favorite part of the story is the way that the pair’s fellow Snapchat-loving peers got involved and trailed the real-life romance as it was taking place. Students posted their own snaps, cheering the couple on. One girl said in a video, “Sitting here refreshing my Snapchat every 30 seconds just to see updates from Vikings Fan and Memorial Library Girl. Hope you guys meet up tonight!”
“If this Vikings dude does not go up and get this girl at The KK, he is dumb as hell,” one male student said in a snap. “I mean, this girl put up on Snapchat that she is in love with you, and you’re not gonna go get her?”
Madison Malone Kircher at NY Mag spoke with Abby and Reed after their Snapchat meet-cute went viral. “I don’t regret what I snapped, because everybody is saying how bold and funny it was, but it definitely made me look a little desperate,” Abby commented. “But I don’t care, because obviously now I’m here.” When she recorded her initial video, she wasn’t expecting the story to go viral. “I didn’t think my snap would even get posted,” she said. “I hadn’t found the right lighting, or taken my hair down, or taken my glasses off. I just opened my phone and recorded my snap in one try.”
"After finally meeting at the bar and hugging, it was, um, pretty emotional", Reed said. Abby gave Reed her number, and he walked her home. They told NY Mag that they’ve hung out almost every day since then, though they are not currently dating. Thus far, they’ve been dealing with a lot of attention from media and students who followed their Snapchat story and they will start going on dates once things die down.
So there's still hope for hopeless romantics like me, right? Mystery Girl and Vikings Fan forever!
