Character Studies is an INDY series about familiar faces around the Triangle—and the stories you may not know about them.
Maddie Jennette was walking through Gardner Hall at North Carolina State University (NCSU) when she noticed a collection of student projects enclosed within a glass display. There was a canvas with three painted flowers. A piece illustrating the yellowing leaves of a plant. And a stuffed weasel.
The creature was slightly smushed between corkboard and a glass panel. Silver pins under its belly raised its rear slightly into the air. Beady eyes stared out at Jennette as she asked herself a very reasonable question: Why is there a taxidermied weasel in there?
She didn’t mull over rationale. Instead, she snapped a picture, opened Instagram, and hit post.
Jennette never uncovered the weasel’s origin story, but that didn’t stop her from making it the insignia for her Instagram page, @exploring.ncsu. She created the account days after graduating with a computer science degree from NCSU in May 2023 to catalog her discoveries across campus.
When Jennette started the account, she was anonymous—partially because she thought it would be funny, and partially so people would focus on her discoveries instead of her appearance. It stayed that way until October 2025, when she ranked buildings at an in-person event on campus and posted a photo of herself: “EXPLORING.NCSU FACE REVEAL,” the caption read. But that was the only time she shared her face in a post, so Jennette says she still sees comments from people she knows who don’t realize it’s her behind the account.
“It’s still funny that I have my face on my profile, but people still aren’t aware it’s me,” she said.
By now, all of Jennette’s close friends know about the passion project. They aren’t the only ones keeping up with her adventures, though—@exploring.ncsu has amassed over 2,100 followers.
NCSU’s libraries catalog the university’s history, but most of the archives focus on centuries past instead of more recent changes. The university, like any college campus, is an incredibly transient space; it looks different every year, just like its students do.
“There are so many things on campus, even just my freshman year—that was 2018, so it wasn’t even that long ago—that I know for a fact existed, but I can’t find photo evidence of them anywhere on the internet, and it drives me insane,” Jennette said. “I just wanted to archive campus as I remember it.”
I just wanted to archive campus as I remember it
maddie jennette
So when Jennette isn’t working at a bookstore and a screenprinting studio in Raleigh, she’s exploring her alma mater to find and photograph lesser-known spots, unique art projects, and campus oddities.
Her discoveries—including handmade, $1,000 lamps shaped like seashells in the David Clark Laboratories, a peaceful sitting area nestled in a corner of Leazar Hall, and an enormous lump of cotton behind Weaver Labs—are all uploaded to @exploring.ncsu, often accompanied by tidbits about the campus’s history.
In a 2025 post about “the strangest bathroom on campus,” Jennette detailed the renovation of a two-stall restroom in Broughton Hall, its walls repainted and the 1980s-era tampon dispenser removed.
“Whaaaat it was so awesome before,” one follower commented. “i used to come in before my class where i had no friends and just sit in peace,” another shared.
When @exploring.ncsu hit 500 followers in January 2024, Jennette set out to rank every academic building on campus. NCSU lists a total of 1,132 campus buildings—an unfeasible number. Jennette decided she would only rank buildings that hold classes. No residence halls. No libraries. Not the Talley Student Union, either. Every student knows those spots; Jennette was more interested in exploring the lesser-explored.
“A dream job of mine would be working facilities at N.C. State, so I can go, literally, into any building, anytime I want,” she said.
It took Jennette nearly two years to complete the project: A ranking of 44 buildings, tier-list style, based on three factors: architecture and design, spaces to study or gather, and “explorability.” When construction on NCSU’s new Integrative Sciences Building concludes this fall, Jennette said she will add it to the list.
After finishing the project, Jennette said she expected @exploring.ncsu to “flop” into obscurity. Instead, the account kept gaining momentum. When she reached 1,000 followers, she created Why I Explore, a short zine about how the account came into existence and why she keeps posting.
After handwriting the text, collaging images together, and stamping her beloved taxidermied weasel on its front cover, Jennette and her partner distributed the zine across campus with live updates on @exploring.ncsu’s Instagram story. People began messaging her as they hunted for copies.
“It felt like a culmination of everything,” Jennette said.
Jennette still distributes copies of her zine across campus, along with advertising the account through colorful fliers (“your new favorite instagram account,” they cryptically read, followed by a photo of the taxidermied weasel). Some followers send her their own findings. One records her frequent audio messages that always begin with some variety of the phrase “Hello, niche internet microcelebrity.”
There’s always something changing on campus, so @exploring.ncsu will keep ensuring the little things are remembered. Jennette said she wants to make more zines. She might venture into the realm of short-form Reels or longer YouTube videos. That will have to be later, though—she doesn’t make any money from the account, and her work schedule slows her down.
“It’s amazing I have any time for this Instagram at all,” she said. “But it’s just so fun.”
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