They’re everywhere – and yet invisible. An integral and fundamentally overlooked element of modern day life, the license plate recedes into the background, a stream of letters and numbers gone unread and unnoticed. A small rectangular plate adorns the car like vehicular jewelry, waiting for its inherent qualities to be unearthed by the casual passerby or spectator. 

Senior Stephanie Benner is this passerby. 

Since she could read, Benner has had an appreciation for the quirky and unique license plates that appear intermittently along highways and parking lots. She documents them via photography, and since mid-summer, has begun to post them to them to the world through her Instagram account “licensed.todrive”. 

Her criteria for those plates that make it to the internet is text-based; satirical.  

“If it’s something goofy or funny, something that you can see and everyone knows what it’s saying, and that’s not something you need to have a deeper understanding about [then I post it],” Benner said. “I’ve always liked looking out for interesting license plates… but then I just had so many pictures on my phone of all these license plates, I made an actual account for them, ” Benner said. 

Benner’s hobby, at first an outlet for her personal collection, has since invited the interest of others – some even contributing to her account by sending their own photos through Snapchat or Instagram DM.  

“It gives them something else to do,” Benner said. “I’ve had people tell me that looking for license plates helps them have fun when they’re driving.” 

Benner has over 180 pictures on her account, as well as many that she has yet to publish from her phone. Some of her greatest regrets come from those license plates she sees while driving, but is rendered unable to capture and is forced to watch as they drive away.  Most photographs come from her time in the passenger seat.  

Of those she’s managed to get her hands on, Benner’s favorite license plate reads: “UM MIAMI.”  

“Why’d they throw the UM In there? It’s one of those ones you don’t ever see,” Benner said. 

As Benner’s account continues to be fueled by follower submissions as well as her own pictures, license plates around Tampa – and perhaps the country – will finally get their day in the limelight.