InkBlog

• High schoolers are renting goats to take prom pictures in a nod to the acronym "greatest of all time."
• An Atlanta goat rental company told Insider it planned to furnish livestock for 100 photoshoots this year. 
• Viewers on TikTok are bemused by the bizarre trend, while others are calling it "tacky."

Forget corsages and boutonnières; this year's hottest prom accessory is actual livestock.

High schoolers on TikTok have been renting out real-life goats for viral photoshoots as a nod to the popular acronym "greatest of all time." Many commenters are bemused by this strange new trend, but others call some viral pictures and videos "tacky."

In a video with 1.8 million views, for instance, the creator @duhh.itskera stands in a parking lot decked in a sparkly blue prom gown while a goat tugs at her on a purple leash. 

Another creator, @nukkgirl, shared behind-the-scenes footage of her prom photoshoot on railroad tracks with orange smoke that matches her dress billowing in the background while she's seen posing with her date and a goat.

"My whole concept ate the fuck down," she said in her video. "I had a goat and a chain leash with a bow tie."

@Steezyjayhh joked in a TikTok video with 341,000 views that he was bringing a goat as his prom date. "Who do you even contact to get a goat?" one commenter queried.

Enter Amanda Hudgins, the owner of Get Your Goat Rentals, an Atlanta-based grazing company whose core business involves renting goat herds to chew through overgrown vegetation as an eco-friendly alternative to chemical sprays. 

In February, given the ubiquity of the "goat" acronym, the company sensed a business opportunity during the slower winter months. Hudgins told Insider that the company began offering "Goat Grams" for Valentine's Day, or a 30-minute visit priced at $75 to take pictures and cuddle with the animals. 

It turned out to be a stealthy success. And in March, the company was hired for its first prom photoshoot, trekking to downtown Atlanta with a goat named Paddy for a high school senior named Trevian White.

"Now we're getting calls from all over the south," Hudgins said. "It's just really gone crazy."

To date, Get Your Goat has done 20 prom photoshoots with goats, Hudgins said, and she expects to have conducted 100 by the end of the school year. The company currently owns a herd of over 100 goats, and customers can have their pick based on size and coloring. 

Prom photoshoots involving goats on TikTok appear to date back to 2022, but White's mother, Nadiya Acree, told Insider she was unaware of the trend previously. When she spotted the trend recently, she knew it was the perfect addition to complement her son's personality.

"I always call [Trevian] the goat because he's always great at everything that he does," she said. "Even if he procrastinates at it, once he does it, he's just great."

In addition to Paddy, White's photoshoot comprised a rented Lamborghini and red carpet. It took place at the Mercedez-Benz Stadium in downtown Atlanta, on the rooftop of an adjacent building to where White's prom was being held. Acree declined to disclose the cost of the endeavor.  

White said that while he knew about the shoot, the goat was a thrilling, last-minute surprise. 

"My mom has always been a single parent my whole life. I watched her grind so hard to make something out of nothing," he told Insider, adding he shares her predilection for thinking outside of the box.

"I told my mom I'm trying to go to graduation in a helicopter," he joked.

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