This is what being featured on 10Worthy is really like

Almost everyone on campus has heard of 10Worthy.com. Better known by their former name of Big 10 Tens, the site features beautiful girls from all the Big 10 football schools on their heavily-viewed Instagram page.

With a staggering 53,900 followers, each picture gets hundreds and often times thousands of likes. The pictures range from selfies to tailgating pictures to formal photos, but all of them have the same linking qualities: the girls in them are stunning, and they all go to some of the most talked-about universities in the country.

Penn State is no stranger to the Instagram page. Girls from our school are featured pretty frequently, but with the caption only containing their school, Instagram name, and occasionally their sorority, we asked a few of those recently featured how they felt about the shoutout.

Jacklyn Hanson has been featured on 10Worthy many times

“I was okay with it,” a senior said. “They asked for permission to use my photo and I gave it to them. Had they not asked permission, I wouldn’t have been okay with that.”

“It gets you a lot of followers and a lot of attention,” another girl commented.

Steph Uliks, a sophomore who studies International Politics at Penn State, said she was honored.

“The women featured on their site are all beautiful and intelligent women who really are more than meets the eye,” she enthused. “My first time on 10Worthy, someone had nominated me, but I was so flattered that someone thought of me that way!”

We reached out to co-founder of Momentum Media, LLC, Steven Gazibara who declined to comment.

Though permission is usually asked when 10Worthy uses girls’ photos, not everyone was as excited at the idea of being “10Worthy.” Ideas on what the site stands for as a whole ranges from school spirit to blatant sexualization of women.

A senior Broadcast Journalism major who was featured said, “Honestly, I think sites like 10Worthy are all about objectifying women. Obviously you don’t know if these girls are smart or nice or have character, all we’re seeing are her tits and her nice ass.”

She went on to say how 10Worthy is actually one of the more tame sites when it comes to the sexualization of female university students.

“I don’t really think 10Worthy is a positive site, and it’s so hypocritical because it feels nice to get the attention from it, but then again it’s attention based only on your looks which is pretty messed up if you think about it.”

A junior Public Relations major who had also been featured said: “I think the site and Instagram are a good way for different schools to bond and communicate, but I think because it’s over the internet there’s unnecessary rude comments and the girls are objectified. It’s a positive site but I think it’s getting out of hand.”

Students who have not been featured seem to think along the same lines.

“I think the site stands for men’s oversexualization of smart women,” said Actuarial Science major Jenna Pershin.

Junior Biology major Melinda Peabody said: “It’s just hot girls and seeing which schools have the hottest girls.”

“It’s not necessarily positive because I think that it influences girls our age to try to conform to these norms, which is impossible and creates insecurities in women,” said Christy, a Sociology major.

However, Christy and Melinda Peabody said that it would be flattering to be featured on the Instagram page.

“I believe 10Worthy is a positive site,” Steph remarked. “I think it stands for school spirit above anything else. Big 10 spirit is unlike that of any other conference. Whether you’re the first to attend a Big 10 school or every generation before you has, your school holds a special place in your heart.”

She said: “I think 10Worthy builds on that and encourages people to have even more pride for their school. 10Worthy lets us all have a healthy competition with each other, whether it’s students/student life, fundraising, sports, or greek life!”

Emily Chertow, a writer for the website of 10worthy.com and a sophomore majoring in Broadcast Journalism, thinks the site is a good representation of greek life and the social life in college in general.

“I think 10Worthy is interesting as the website often publishes many girls in bikinis and minimum clothing which, hey, girl power! but as a writer for them that’s not what I wanted to contribute,” she said.

“As a writer, I ask specifically that no pictures in my articles include Greek letters or girls in scandalous outfits because that is not the message I want to send out. That is not who I am and that’s not how I want Penn State to be seen.

“I chose to be a contributing writer for 10Worthy because I have a passion in journalism and a love for writing especially seeing as my major is Broadcast Journalism. I know college students really used to click on 10Worthy articles and I figured the more I can get my name out there with some really awesome articles, the better. I wanted to write articles that all students could relate to no matter what they were involved in.”

10Worthy is not alone in this field. There are plenty of sites with a similar formula of hot girls and college related articles. The question is, are they degrading to females who attend state schools or are they just a harmless celebration of beautiful and intelligent women and a promoter of friendly competition between rivals?