I was just casually laying in my bed in my college dorm room around midnight when I got a snap from one of my friends, "Shannon are you awake still?". I snapped her back and said I was, she then snapped me not even a minute later with one simple frightening message, "There are clowns on campus". I didn't know what to do. Of course like anyone with the internet I knew about the creepy clowns that have been roaming around luring children into the woods, carrying weapons, and even hurting people. I quickly slipped on my crocs and went out to the hall where my friends were. They then told me the situation that there was a clown spotted right by our dorm, literally right in front of it. Someone took a picture of it who sent it to my friend who then showed me, and let me tell you...it most definitely was not a friendly looking clown. I spent the night terrified and only got about 3 hours of sleep that night.

I don't know what exactly started the whole creepy clown trend but I have a few suspicions.

First, maybe someone or a group who was obsessed with famous serial killer John Wayne Gacy, aka "The Killer Clown", felt so compelled to dress up like a clown and start their own killer clown spree. This seems like the most logical explanation because the first reports of these creepy clowns explains that the clowns targeted young children and tried luring them into the woods.

Second, it could be a gang thing. I don't know much about gangs, but my guess could've been the start of a new one that wears clown costumes and terrorizes people.

Thirdly, some stupid teenagers decided it would be funny to dress up as clowns and scare the crap out of people, and created a internet trend to convince more people to do this.

Regardless of any of my predictions being true, I believe that it really needs to stop. The clowns have appeared on my college campus every night and I've seen few of them outside of my dorm. Recently someone on the campus Facebook page shared how severe her fear of clowns is, describing it as coulrophobia, which is the legit word used for clown phobia. She said that she is afraid to walk alone at night, and that if she came across a clown she could have a panic attack so severe she could end up in the hospital.

Another common thing I've seen posted around social media is that if someone sees a clown they will chase after it and attack it, even if the clown is just standing there.

With how dangerous the situation is becoming my best advice to everyone out there is to avoid dressing up as a clown unless you actually plan on joining the circus, and to those fearing clowns to always walk with a friend at night.