“Vogue” has revealed what the mysterious acronym AWOK means

Vogue is the authority of all things fashion, but it’s not too snobby to play around. The magazine recently released a sticker pack for iPhone, filled with tons of adorably illustrated stickers to send to your friends in the group text, like an arm laden with shopping bags or a catwalk. But there was one very mysterious sticker, too: A dancing Post-it note with “AWOK” written on it — Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour’s “secret word.”

So what does AWOK mean, anyway?

It’s actually pretty simple. It’s the highest form of praise at Vogue — it means “Anna Wintour OK.” You see, in the Vogue offices, everything is meticulously curated to get each issue out, and Wintour oversees it all. Lest you think she’s too busy to be an actual editor, think again. She checks everything. And when she approves, she’ll slap a Post-it on the draft or proof pages with her “OK.”

Vogue writer Chioma Nnadi received her first “AWOK” after she submitted a draft article during her first few weeks in the office:

"It felt something like magic, and there it was: AWOK. This wasn’t just four letters scribbled in black ink; it was a sign that I wasn’t about to be fired (at least not in my first week). Seven years later, and I still have that piece of paper — now sun-bleached and dog-eared from age — pinned to my desk like a prize."

Can we just say that we’d totally do the same? Getting approval from Wintour is definitely a reason to do a happy dance.

Nnadi was lucky, though, because not everything gets the OK from Anna Wintour, as you can likely imagine. She writes that sometimes a draft can come back from her office “flagged with a Post-it that reads, ‘Keep trying,’ or ‘No,’ or, worst of all, ‘Boring.’” But the scariest note?

“SEE ME.”

We get chills just thinking about it. So if you download the stickers from the Vogue app and start using them, know that AWOK is the highest form of flattery. Don’t use it just to approve any ol’ brunch suggestion.