POP Canberra’s secret crush submissions have broken the internet and we’re here for every detail
Posted on
When we published a story first thing Monday morning that encouraged Canberrans to spill their secret crushes to POP Canberra for the chance to win a dinner with that crush, no one was quite prepared for what was to come – least of all POP Canberra Founder Gabe Trew.
As the morning went on, POP’s email and Instagram inboxes were flooded with an eye-popping array of horny anonymous submissions, sweet confessions and some incredibly profound and personal stories.
As the competition was to connect people with their crushes and see if the feelings were mutual, Gabe began to publish submissions anonymously to POP’s Instagram Stories, creating an addictively sweet (and often hilarious) workday distraction. I’m sure HerCanberra wasn’t the only office glued to their phones, not so silently hoping that one of us would be the next crush named (spoiler alert: no one ever did).
Did Gabe expect this to go so completely viral? No. But he’s here for it.
“I never thought it would snowball like it has and become quite so big,” laughs Gabe
“It was just a little fun lovefest for Valentine’s Day, but I think it’s struck a deeper chord with people – they feel like they have a safe space to share what they’re thinking. I think everyone just wants to be loved, at the end of the day.”
Gabe adds that while he has always wanted to use POP as a way for the community to share their stories, he never realised creating a POP ‘confessional’ would be the way to do it.
“I always had the intention and the idea to help people share their stories and the secrets they feel they can’t tell people they know. I always thought it would be great to have POP help people live their truths.”
Operations Manager Christa White and POP Canberra Founder Gabe Trew. Photography: Pew Pew Studio.
While the confessions started out sweet and light hearted (“you had the most beautiful curly hair, biggest smile and captivating presence…” “to the man that catches the tram every morning at 8.45 am from MacArthur…”) there was soon a healthy dose of horny missives (“He’s probably half my age…he needs a cougar in his life”) and even some rather spicy stories allegedly involving public figures and infidelity.
And soon – the crushes started responding. Not only did people recognise friends in people’s descriptions but people recognised themselves and began to write in, with Gabe playing cupid and connecting willing parties with each other.
“We currently have eight couples we’ve set up, where people have been recognised from crush submissions and have gotten in touch to say they’d be happy to go on a date with the person.”
“One of the sweetest stories so far was a guy who wanted to tell his childhood friend that he’d developed feelings for her over his lifetime and wondered whether she felt the same. I wrote letter for him and shared it on Instagram stories, which he sent to her. She said she felt the exact same way and was ready to catch up for a milkshake. It’s just so cool, that this was the avenue for them to actually connect after all those years.”
By Tuesday, POP had more than 800 confession emails and 2000 Instagram DMs, with each Instagram Story quickly clocking 19,000+ views. There were even a few crush confessions for Gabe himself (and no, he can’t win his own competition).
The love has clearly rubbed off on Canberra business owners, who have leapt to offer their services should there be a POP wedding from these match-ups, with photographers, accommodation owners, graphic designers, celebrants, painters and more promising to donate their services.
While it’s clear that the confessions have captured Canberra’s attention, some special moments have shone bright amongst the chaos, including someone who wrote in to tell Gabe that he and his partner met at POP while browsing gin four years ago, going on to gift each other POP items over the years for special occasions. Tragically, the author’s partner was killed by a drunk driver last year. In the final line of his email he wrote:
“At his funeral I placed POP cards and memorabilia, so he could take our love place with him. Thank you for building something that changes lives. I’m so much luckier than almost anyone I know – because I took a chance and had the best fairy-tale you can imagine as a reward. Love always wins, and it lasts forever”
Gabe was deeply moved by the email.
“It’s such a testament to never knowing what effect you will have on people’s lives,” he says.
While you’re still able to submit your crushes to POP’s email and Instagram until 9 am tomorrow, Thursday 15 February, Gabe says it’s unlikely all confessions will be able to be shared to POP’s Instagram Stories before then, but assures me that all crushes will be shared at some point – if they’re safe to be published, of course.
For Gabe, it’s all about continuing to create that safe space for people to feel connected and share – on Valentine’s Day or any day – and he encourages Canberrans to keep an eye out for future projects with a similarly soft centre (watch this space).
“I hope Canberra takes away an understanding that everyone wants to be loved and deserves to be loved – and that means all kinds of love. I hope it also shows that everyone has a story and everyone has something unique to share. I guess that means we’re not actually all that different. It means we’re all in this together, and maybe that means we can all be there for one another too.”
