Celine Rezvani, staff writer

A Halloween costume contest put together by ASB is to take place this Friday, Oct. 31. Using the NOW app, students can upload photos of their Halloween costumes and enter to win a $25 American Express gift card.
Senior ASB President Daniel Newman feels this event is an opportunity to increase school spirit in an easy way.
“In the last three years I’ve been here, a lot of people have dressed up for Halloween,” Newman said. “We wanted to raise school spirit, and if they’re gonna dress up anyways, why not give them more incentive?”
The app being used to judge the contest, NOW, is designed to show what people are doing in a way unlike other social media outlets. Senior Justin Shegerian has interned at the app’s offices for three months, and sees its difference from other social media apps.
“It takes vanity away from other apps where you post pictures, like Instagram or Twitter, because you don’t need to worry about filters, likes and comments,” he said. “It’s just an easy way for people to see what you’re doing right now.”
Newman also thinks the nature of the app will encourage people to partake in the Halloween contest Friday.
“More people are going to participate because they don’t have to worry about getting likes or anything,” he said. “You just post your picture.”
Furthermore, he believes the app is useful because it eliminates cheating.
“It’s best to use this app because you can’t upload pictures from your camera roll to it, you’d have to take the picture in the application,” he said.
Shegerian envisions the app’s popularity among the student body even after the Halloween contest.
“I think it’s gonna be big,” he said. “I know about hundreds of kids at Beverly already use it, and I see it continue to grow and people are really loving it.”
Senior Trevor Bergher who has been a NOW intern for a year is working on increasing the app’s popularity at Beverly and beyond.
“My first job was to market to Beverly, and now we’re spreading it to Milken High School, Hamilton and Harvard Westlake,” he said. “It gains popularity quickly, just by word of mouth.”
To participate in the Halloween costume contest, one must download the NOW app in the App Store by searching “NOW is awesome”. Then, one should follow the Beverly account, @beverly, which will follow back. On Halloween, those who wish to be considered in the judging must post pictures in costume while at school.