About
Starter packs, sometimes known as starter kits, are a series of multi-panel photo sets meant to illustrate the archetype of a celebrity, company or subculture through a recommended selection of fashion articles, multimedia and other consumer products, much similar to steal her look fashion guides.
Origin
The multi-panel image series on Twitter began to take off in late September 2014, when @ItsLadinaPlis tweeted a photoset consisting of three images showing a top knot bun hairstyle, oversized golden hoop rings and a madonna-style piercing.
Precursors
The term starter kit, defined as “a set of articles or equipment providing the essential items and instructions for taking up a particular activity or process for the first time,” have long been used in commercial and educational literature to describe manuals or instructional guides for beginners; for instance, during the 2014 Brazil World Cup, Twitter unveiled a special starter kit service as a crash-course on the specs of the 16 finalist teams in the tournament.
The earliest known use of the term “starter kit” in internet humor can be traced back to a LOLcat image macro featuring a box full of kittens and the caption reading “THANKYOUFORORDERINGTHECRAZYCATLADYSTARTERKIT” (shown below), which began circulating cute animal blogs and humor sites since as early as December 2011.
Spread
Beginning on November 12th, Twitter[16] ran wild with hundreds of photoset posts under the names “starter pack” and “starter kit,” with each receiving more than 5.4 million and 640,000 mentions over the course of a week, according to Topsy.[24]
On November 15th, the first Twitter account dedicated to curating starter kit memes was launched at @starterkits_[4], followed by @itsStarterKits[5] and @itsStarterPacks[15] on the next day. On November 17th, the meme was picked up by several viral media and entertainment news sites, including BuzzFeed[3], MTV[7], Hip Hop Wired[9] and The Atlantic[6], among others. On the following day, the single topic blog Starter-Packs was created on Tumblr.[22]
Notable Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1]Twitter – The ‘I date black guys’ starter pack
[2]Reddit – What’s a Starter Pack
[3]BuzzFeed – 23 Very Helpful “Starter Kits” For Life
[4]Twitter – @StarterKits_
[5]Twitter – @ItsStarterKits
[6]The Atlantic – The ‘World Cup Starter Kit’ and the Future of Twitter
[7]MTV– 12 Starter Pack Memes Worth Unpacking
[8]USA Today – 10 funny college starter pack tweets
[9]Hip Hop Wired – Starter Pack Memes Dominate Twitter Feeds [Photos]
[10]Bossip – Pure Comedy: Twitter Blows Up With Hilarious ‘Starter Kit’ Meme
[11]Reddit – Search Results for ‘Starter Kit’
[12]I Waste So Much Time – THECRAZYCATLADYSTARTERKIT.
[13]Daily Picks and Flicks – THANKYOUFORORDERINGTHECRAZYCATLADYSTARTERKIT
[14]Terribly Cute – Crazy Cat Lady Starter Kit
[15]Twitter – @ItsStarterPacks
[16]Twitter – Search Results for ‘Starter Pack’
[17]We Know Memes – Best Of The ‘Starter Pack’ Meme – 16 Pics
[18]Memecenter – Skrillex Starter Kit
[19]Memecenter – [RMX] Dubstep Starter Kit
[20]We Know Memes – College Girl Starter Kit
[21]Memecrunch – baltimore “bad bitch” starter kit
[22]Tumblr – Starter-Packs
[23]Memecenter – Search Results for ‘Starter Kit’
[24]Topsy – Tweets per day: starter kit and starter pack
[25]DesignYourTrust – The Hipster Starter Kit