These Pop Culture-Inspired Student IDs Are Proof That Teens Should Rule The World

Over the last few years, there's been a tradition at North Farmington High School in Farmington Hills, MI: On photo ID day, the graduating class goes nuts. For the Class of 2018, that resulted in #NFID18, a hashtag that swept Twitter mere days after its launch. But what is #NFID18, and how concerned should parents be? Are the teens in your life texting about #NFID18? Hopefully. It's actually brilliant.

The "wear a costume to your ID photo" tradition started at North Farmington some time ago. Today's seniors, who have watched it happen since their freshmen year, aren't sure when it began — they just know that it happens, and you have to be good at it. Their pop culture-inspired #NFID18 photos are, in one word, delightful. The effort, care, and attention to detail the North Farmington Senior Class put in to ID photo day is inspiring. For too many of us, caring about anything in high school was deemed uncool; just participating in a gym class could draw automatic scorn.

It's refreshing to see that teenagers can still be enthusiastic, and celebrate something as pure as #NFID18. The scope of pop culture references alone is breathtaking. It's difficult not to envy that level of fun. Especially when some of us are clearly about to sneeze in a photo from freshman year that was "good enough" for the photographer, and therefore, the yearbook. Anyway...

As these pop culture-inspired #NFID18 photos prove, the kids are more than just all right. Here are some of the best ID photos from #NFID18, as explained by the North Farmington geniuses who pulled them off.

1. Kelly Kapoor, 'The Office'

"I knew I wanted to be Kelly," North Farmington Senior Priya told Bustle, "I love her character, and Mindy Kaling, so much." The fact that they live in famously cold Michigan added to the fun, and "the funniest [Kelly] scene by far my friends and I could come up with was the jacket scene."

2. Numbuh 5, 'Code Name: Kids Next Door'

Nia went with Numbuh 5 from Code Name: Kids Next Door, a Cartoon Network deep-cut that took us a second to place. "I knew that it was a unique character," Nia said to Bustle, "So I trusted no one else would do it."

In addition to being difficult to copy, Numbuh 5 had an emotional significance for the high school senior. "I always loved Cree Summer as an actor, [and] especially as a voice actor. I appreciate the safe space and the inclusion she made for me as a young black girl, so when it came time to pick a character I had no doubt in my mind I would do a character voiced by Cree Summer." Plus, she added, Numbuh 5 was "more appropriate" for school than Summer's other work.

3. Cotton Candy Girl

Abby took a rational approach to her costume. "My cheeks are really big, and I'm only five feet tall," she wrote to Bustle, "So I decided to look up little girls that I could impersonate. The cotton candy one was just too funny."

4. Prince Akeem, 'Coming To America'

"It was a last minute decision!" Christopher told Bustle. "I was getting together stuff for a different costume, and I was in the store and thought, 'No, wait, this will be better.'" His mom helped out by making the "I <3 NY" sticker, and the photographer helped him with the pose "to get the best out of it."

5. Cher Horowitz, 'Clueless'

"Sadly, there was no Ty or Dionne," Shelby said, "I've watched Clueless so many times, and people tell me I look a lot like Cher [Alicia Silverstone], so I decided, why not?"

6. Tyler, The Creator, 'Loiter Squad'

One of the more niche references had to be Mackenzy's. For her ID photo, she picked Odd Future's Tyler, the Creator playing a version of Real Housewives of Atlanta star Kim Zolciak on Loiter Squad. "I was in the wig aisle at Party City and it just came to me," said Mackenzy, "The photographer couldn't stop laughing, which is why I'm making that face in the photo."

7. Velma, 'Scooby-Doo'

Velma was an obvious choice for Ali: "I loved Scooby-Doo as a kid, and I wanted to be able to recreate something that meant so much to me when I was little." How did she pull off the outrageous outfit? "I got the sweater from Ebay, the wig from Amazon, and the glasses from H&M. We've just been so shocked at the attention it's getting," she added. "This has been a tradition for a few years now, so to be the class that makes the school's tradition kind of famous feels pretty special."

8. & 9. Brotherly Love

In true boy fashion, Andrew states that he and his twin brother "didn't have any idea about what we were going to do until the night before." As as last-minute idea, they thought, "Why not cross pictures and do something funny with it?" The loving chokehold was meant to show "the relationship between brothers, especially twin brothers." They took the pictures immediately after each other. Andrew isn't sure how long the tradition has gone on for, but estimates it's only been about five or six years.

10. Dora, 'Dora The Explorer'

"I picked my costume because my friends always joke around, and say I look like Dora the Explorer," Natalie told Bustle, and the look was surprisingly easy to recreate. The senior "threw on a pink shirt and purple backpack from my friend's younger sister, used some fake bangs, and it turned out great."

Fortunately, she said, "The photographer was the best! He let us retake them if it wasn't what we wanted, and he was really into the whole idea." Better still, Natalie's parents genuinely thought it was funny, and "they were familiar with the tradition because most of my relatives went North Farmington High." Wait, does anyone know how long this has actually been a tradition?

11. Hermione Granger, 'Harry Potter'

"I decided to do Hermione because a lot of people have told me that I look like Emma Watson, but specifically Hermione," Mara clarified in a wonderfully Hermione way. Her parents helped her pull together the costume pieces, though her mom is "shocked" to see her daughter go viral.

12 & 13. Maddie Fitzpatrick & London Tipton, 'The Suite Life Of Zack & Cody'

Going as Maddie and London was a no-brainer for these two. "We're best friends," explained Margaret, "So, we decided to be one of the most iconic best friends, from our favorite childhood show!"

14. Steve Urkel, 'Family Matters'

"My friends have always told me that I looked like Steve Urkel, so I just decided to do it for fun," joked Carson, "I was not expecting all the love." Family Matters went off the air three years before Carson was born.

15. & 16. Pam Beesly & Jim Halpert, 'The Office'

Real-life couple Delaney and Tallon took a few weeks to plan their Office look. "We both really love the show, said Delaney, "And initially, we were going to do something else with the props, but decided to just go generic with it." They kept it simple, she elaborates, "so more people would understand it." Tallon printed his mug's logo off of the internet, and Delaney borrowed an office phone from her Broadcast teacher.

17. Lavender, 'Matilda'

"I was with a study group one night a few months ago," Bri said, "We, of course, got very distracted, and at one point I tried on a pair of glasses." Where the glasses came from, we're not sure, but "my friend shouted, 'You look like the girl from Matilda!' After that, I had my mind set on dressing up as Lavender." There was no Matilda lookalike for this year's IDs, but Bri says there's always the chance someone echoes her next year.

18. Katy Perry, "Last Friday Night"

"Luckily, I found an outfit that looked very similar to hers, and made my hair and lipstick crazy," Patil explained to Bustle. "The headgear was kind of tricky to figure out, but with the help of friends, we managed to make one out of pipe cleaners and tin foil." She doesn't give the senior class full credit, however, as "It's all thanks to our principal and administration that we were able to pull this off." That's definitely an A+ for Patil.

Congratulations to the North Farmington High School Class of 2018 on a successful viral meme. As for the rest of NF — good luck topping this one next year.