College girls carry their entire lives in their tote bags: snacks, lip gloss, chargers, notebooks, random receipts and things we forgot were even there. At the beginning of the semester, the bag is organized, minimal and aesthetic. By week four, it is basically a portable junk drawer.
Inside, you will usually find a mix of school supplies, protein bars and the occasional makeup item. Somewhere between running to class, grabbing coffee and studying for hours in the library, our tote bags slowly collect pieces of our daily lives.
Naturally, I had to investigate. What do college girls actually carry in their tote bags?
Bella’s Bag
My friend Bella carries what can only be described as a tote bag inside a tote bag. Inside the smaller bag, she keeps antibacterial wipes, hand sanitizer, a few pens with no pencil case and snacks, like Cheez-its, Oreos and peanuts. Priorities.
She also carries her iPad with a keyboard instead of a laptop. According to Bella, her iPad is her “school best friend” because it is lighter and easier to carry around campus.
Loose in the rest of her bag, you will find a small body spray, a few scrunchies, gum wrappers and a couple of rings. She told me that when she gets anxious, she sometimes takes off her jewelry and throws it into her bag without thinking about it…which explains the random rings living at the bottom of her tote.
Katherine’s Bag
Another friend I interviewed, Katherine, is a junior majoring in computer science. Her tote bag is packed with school essentials.
She carries both her laptop and her iPad along with chargers for both. She also keeps tampons, Hershey’s Kisses and a few old receipts from Wawa on University Avenue.
Katherine has a small Kate Spade wallet with her Gator ID, driver’s license and some loose cash.
She also carries two notebooks, a floral pencil case filled with pens and highlighters, her AirPods and a bag of Cheetos because every tote bag needs at least one emergency snack.
My Bag
My own tote bag is somewhere between organized and chaotic. I carry my laptop along with a small divider I ordered from Amazon that was definitely smaller than I expected, but still kind of helps.
I also have a few loose pens, my phone charger and my laptop charger. There is an e.l.f. lip gloss with a charm I made during a Galentine’s event, my AirPods, a small hair clip and a few scrunchies.
Somewhere in there is usually gum, my driver’s license and a small wallet with my ID and credit card.
By the end of the day, everything somehow ends up at the bottom of the bag anyway.
After looking through these bags, one thing became clear — a college girl’s tote bag is basically a survival kit.
It holds everything from school supplies to snacks to random items we threw in there during a stressful day and forgot about later.
They are rarely perfectly organized, and they definitely are not always aesthetic. But they are honest. They show what college life actually looks like. Busy schedules, long days on campus and the small things we carry around just to make it through the day.
So if your tote bag currently contains lip gloss, three chargers, random snacks and a receipt from two weeks ago, do not worry. You are doing college exactly right.