Stanley cups are tearing apart middle schools

• The Stanley Quencher has become a status symbol for middle schoolers.
• The $45 cup was a popular holiday gift for tweens — and now back at school, it's creating rifts.

I'm not sure it's hyperbole to say that Stanley cups — the colorful 40-ounce water vessels — are tearing apart the fabric of our society.

There were near-riots to get limited-edition colors of the Stanleys at Target, and people snapped up a Stanley-Starbucks collab cup and resold them at sky-high prices.

Now, Stanleys have come for our nation's children.

The Cut reports that Stanleys have become the new status symbols for middle school girls. Julia Reinstein talked to teachers, parents, and kids who told about how Stanley mania is wreaking havoc on schools:

The Stanley company has been making insulated cups for 100 years, but their 40-ounce straw Quencher cup blew up in the last few years thanks to a blog called The Buy Guide. The cup became a hallmark of the TikTok "clean girl" aesthetic.

The Stanley may have reached its peak popularity this holiday season when it seemed to be the most common gift that Gen Z talked about wanting and receiving for Christmas.

But Casey Lewis, who reports on youth consumer trends, warned that the fact that younger Gen Zers were getting the cup might mean the Stanley trend has peaked.

Basically, once middle schoolers have it, the teens and college kids will move on to something new. (Probably the Owala Cup.)

Lewis's prediction seems spot-on: The cup is now the hot item for middle school girls — a demographic not exactly known for kind behavior if you deviate from the norm.

God forbid you have a Stanley "dupe."

Reinstein reports: