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Though she was born and raised in Indianapolis, Bonnie Marcelo never paid much attention to the Greatest Spectacle in Racing.
Marcelo, 23, grew up on the south side and attended the Herron School of Art and Design at Indiana University Indianapolis (formerly Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis). The Indianapolis 500 stayed in her periphery until her capstone project for her degree in visual communication design, when she created an Instagram page about IndyCar.
Once she dove into the sport and got to know the drivers, she was hooked.
Marcel is @girlswhogrid a content creator whose Instagram page is dedicated to decoding IndyCar and motorsports for the casual fan and giving the sport a cute, bright makeover. In the lead-up to the 110th running of the Indy 500 on May 24, Marcelo’s been active at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, posting from the track and interacting with drivers and other motorsports creators.
Marcelo sat down with IndyStar to talk about the upcoming Indy 500, how the racing world can become more accessible and her winning wishes for her favorite driver in the field.
Question: How did you get into IndyCar?
Answer: I had a capstone project my senior year of college, and I decided to do a project on making IndyCar more welcoming for women and minorities. It kind of snowballed from there. I just followed the rest of the IndyCar season to finish my project, and then once I was done, I kind of felt an obligation to keep going for my, like, 100 followers that I’d gotten.
You grew up in Indy. What were your impressions of the 500? And did those change after you started posting about it?
I knew of the Indy 500, but I didn’t really care too much. It wasn’t a super big deal for me. My parents would take us to the Indy 500 parade, and we’d go and see all the different floats, but it wasn’t something I was interested in.
After the pandemic happened, I told my parents we need to experience more of Indianapolis and what happens around here. I was like, “The Indy 500 is so close to us, and we’ve never seen it.” It was also because of Pato O’Ward, who’s a Mexican IndyCar driver from the same hometown as my parents. My dad was like, “We need to go to the practice and support him and see this Mexican driver in the Indy 500.”
Your page’s aesthetic is super bright and fun, and you post a lot of explainers about IndyCar and motorsports. Is making racing accessible important to you?
One of the main reasons why I post is wanting to make the space feel more welcoming and inclusive. Before I started my page, everything felt like it was a boys’ club. It was all for men. The designs and the graphics and everything that they put out was for male fans. I didn’t feel like it was welcoming at all for women. I wanted to make content for basically myself and other women who are also just like me.
As someone who’s Gen Z, you grew up with social media. Did that make it easier to start creating content?
I saw it as a possibility. This is something people do all the time. It’s not something where I’m reaching for something that’s never happened before. I’m already very chronically online, so it’s easy to make those posts.
(My page is) a very young, Gen Z type of vibe. I always talk about different drivers in ways where if an older person heard me, they’d be like, “What are you talking about?” It’s OK, it’s not for you. The people who get it, get it.
What makes IndyCar so exciting? Why is it so fun to be involved?
It’s the adrenaline that rushes through you when you’re watching these cars, especially when you’re there in person and you hear them go by and see how fast they’re going. It’s the high-stakes pressure of it all that makes it so exciting and makes you want to watch, especially the 500. Anything can happen. People can crash. Pit strategies can fail and it can completely change the outcome of the race. If you start with the 500, you kind of want to see where these drivers go. It’s like, “What are the storylines for the rest of the season? How does it all pan out to the championship?” It all matters.
For me, it’s the drama of it all. It’s like watching a TV show.
What can the racing world do to open motorsports to more people?
Everyone says, “We need one regular person to do an Olympic sport so we know how it’s actually supposed to work.” I feel the same way about IndyCar and motorsports. We need one regular person to read whatever explanation that you wrote, and if they don’t understand what you’re talking about, you need to write it again.
IndyCar came out with its qualifying explanation post, and I wanted to create a post explaining it too. I re-read it 30 times. I was like, “What are you trying to say to me right now?” If I don’t get it, people are not going to get it.
What are you most looking forward to at this year’s 500?
Seeing Pato O’Ward win. I’m putting that out there in the universe. He’s going to be the one who wins, even though the chances are looking a little different than they were at the beginning of the month.
I’m just excited to see what happens. Everyone puts in their predictions and who they think is going to win. By the end, you have no idea what happened. Ten cars have crashed. Drivers are climbing out of their race cars and slamming their helmets on the ground. You never know what’s going to happen, and for me, that’s the most exciting part of it all.
What do you hope followers take away from your page?
I want people to see IndyCar and motorsports as a possible sport they can get into. I want people to walk away and feel like it is for them. They can be interested in this and welcomed even if they don’t know anything. I want them to feel like it’s OK to come in without any knowledge.
Fast facts: Who is @girlswhogrid?
Name: Bonnie Marcelo
Age: 22
Hometown: Indianapolis
Content: IndyCar, motorsports
Favorite Indy spots: Amelia’s, Parlor Public House, Tomorrow Bookstore.
Three local creators he recommends: Nicole Hernandez (@nicolexindy), Noelia Miller (@indymomlife), Kelly Marcelo (@kellmarcel).
Advice to potential influencers: “If you want to do social media, the biggest thing is you just have to do it. The hardest part is to put that first video out, that first piece of content out. It’s going to be scary, but if you wait until everything is absolutely perfect about your life or your content, you’re never going to post.”
Contact IndyStar Pop Culture Reporter Heather Bushman at hbushman@indystar.com. Follow her on X @hmb_1013.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Bonnie Marcelo is making IndyCar cute, fun and for the girls
Reporting by Heather Bushman, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
