Humans of Harriton, a spin-off of Humans of New York, is a Facebook page displaying the many characters of Harriton High School. Through a photo and a quote, some interviewees express heartfelt experiences while some deliver witty jokes. Sarah Alfred-Levow, Ibby Maruca, Kit Meiler, and Ali Zamsky are the administrators of the page this year. We sat down with seniors Alfred-Levow and Zamsky to discuss how HOH came to be and how it works.

Harriton Banner: I know about Humans of New York, but how did you come up with the idea for Humans of Harriton?

Sarah Alfred-Levow: We are actually not the original creators of Humans of Harriton.

Ali Zamsky: Two years ago, my friend Maura [Henderson, class of 2015] was telling me how she wanted to create a Humans of Harriton Facebook page, but she didn’t have a camera and enough people to help out. I had just gotten my camera, and I wanted to do it, so that’s how it began.

HB: So how did other people get involved?

AZ: I asked around to see who was interested, and they were the ones who wanted to join.

SA-L:  Then we became a team of editors for the page and we really enjoy doing it.

HB: How do you come up with the questions?

AZ: Sometimes we just start talking and use voice memos to go through and choose an interesting part. We will also sometimes ask them if there is a quote they want to say.

HB: How do you choose the people?

SA-L: We made a list, actually, over the summer, because we were trying to plan who we could interview this year. Although other times it can be totally impromptu.

AZ: Yeah, other times we are just like, “Hey, you could be a cool person to interview,” and we ask them some questions.

HB: Does it take up a lot of time?

SA-L: No, it really doesn’t. It’s just that you have to edit, because people are like, “Um…  um… um…”  and we don’t like putting that in there. Also, you have to make sure that the pictures are suitable for posting. Overall, we want the page to look good.

AZ: Yeah, actually last year the page wasn’t as productive as this year. It wasn’t a good page because I feel like there weren’t enough people working on it, so it was really hard to post a lot. Before this year started, someone who runs another Facebook page –

SA-L: I think it is called Real Harriton Memes.

AZ: Yeah, we don’t know who it is, but someone runs that account. Basically, they wrote this long post on our wall slamming us on how it wasn’t a good Facebook page and we never posted enough. I remember reading it late at night and freaking out. It was really mean.

SA-L: Yeah, but a lot of people stood up for us.

AZ: Yeah they did, which was really nice, but I remember reading it and also remembering that what the person wrote was sort of true. So this year, I’m always nervous that people won’t like the page, or that the picture will be bad, and the quote will be weird. So I always check it with the other editors asking them if they think it is okay. But I think that now I am a lot more cautious of everything this year because I really want it to be as good as it can be.

HB: What’s your favorite part of doing the page?

SA-L: I like the fact that you get to see your peers in a totally different way. You get to kind of see how they would creatively answer something that’s not like you are just  talking to them in everyday conversation. You get to see a different side of them.

HB: What about you, Ali?

AZ: Well, as an editor of the page, we obviously get notifications when people like the post, but we also get to see how many people the post has reached. Teachers, students, parents of students, and people I have no idea who they are get to look at it. Overall, it can add up and get to the thousands.

Become one of the thousands and check them out at facebook.com/humansofharriton.