I’ve been thinking of some essay topics for my common/coalition apps and one of the things I decided to write about is my broken chicken toy with its “unlaid” eggs. (The essay is not centred around the chicken, but rather what I learned from that incident, how it affected my morals, how it influenced my goals, how it inspired me to start my project and influenced why I took my current extracurriculars).
Will it stand out?
It depends on how you write it. The point is rarely the topic, but what you do with it. The essay is about showing something about yourself which isn’t easy to see from the facts that you present in the rest of your application.
That broken toy chicken seems to be something that you have thought about and to which you assigned different meanings. It’s personal and can show something about who you are. Is it a good topic? In my opinion, it is. Will it stand out? It all depends on what you write and how you write it.
However, remember the basic rule: Show, don’t Tell.
It will definitely stand out, I don’t think college admissions would get that topic very often. Make sure you right it well and edit it with help from multiple people. 
@MWolf @xmasberry I will be careful with the way I write the essay and I’ll make sure to edit it multiple times over the summer. Thank you guys so much.
@Rod251 This is a great question – we recently covered this topic in a College Confidential article, which you can find here:https://insights.collegeconfidential.com/common-application-essay-make-strong-start