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Magnetic wallpaper attracts teens

Du Bois teen dreams up locker decoration without the mess
Condensed article by Anya Sostek, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Like other girls, Sarah Buckel spent considerable energy each year decorating her school locker.

Like the others, she dreaded the possibility of being caught at the end of the school year with the gummy residue from decorative contact paper still clinging to the locker walls.

But unlike the other girls in Du Bois, Sarah's parents own a company, Magna Card that manufactures magnets. And unlike any other 16-year-old girl, Sarah came up with the idea for magnetic locker wallpaper -- she now has a patent and $1 million in sales to prove it.

"I'm really surprised that it would go that far," she said. "It still hasn't really sunk in."

For those unfamiliar with the role of the properly adorned locker in many modern middle schools, it is not something to be underestimated.

The addition of decorative paper, a mirror and magazine cutouts of teen heartthrobs can transform an ordinary locker into, as Sarah puts it, "your room at school. It's your own little place. It's almost like a competition, who has the best locker."
In 2006, at the end of Sarah's last year in middle school, she watched as a friend of hers had to stay after school on the last day, forced to scrape away the sticky residue of the contact paper from her locker before she could leave for the year.

Several months later, Sarah's parents Paul and Diana Buckel, bought Magna Card, which started out manufacturing business card magnets, but has broadened to other products, such as magnetic tape and dry-erase magnetic memo disks, posters, office accessories, batteries and desk top storage.

To decorate her new locker at Du Bois High School -- and avoid the sticky contact paper -- Sarah asked her parents if they could make some magnetic wallpaper for her.

"As soon as she told me, I thought that it was going to be great," said Mr. Buckel. "I just knew it was going to be something."

Sarah, who is interested in a career in graphic design helped create wallpaper patterns that she thought would appeal to High School and Middle school girls. She also kept.

The trend is to be more of an individual, whether that be with your backpack or decorating your locker, so a product like this offers guests an easy and affordable way to personalize their space at school.