Adolescent celebrity obsessions and adults

[laohaire]

1) Did you have any celebrity obsessions as an adolescent?

2) Was there just one celebrity who you followed throughout adolescence, or did you move from one celebrity to another?

3) Were you into rock stars, movie stars, athletes or what?

4) Did your obsession include sexual attraction of any sort?

5) And now that you are an adult, how do you feel about your adolescent obsession(s)? Do you still admire him/her/them? Or do you feel like "oh my god, I was so naive/shallow/etc.?" Or do you have almost no feelings about him/her/them anymore? (It might be useful to give your age, since a 20 year old's perspective is probably different from a 35 year old's perspective in this case).

Any other comments? I'm just trying to see if we can generate any insight into the long term perspective of adolescent celebrity obsessions.

[seashells]

Originally Posted by laohaire

1) Did you have any celebrity obsessions as an adolescent?

Yup.

Originally Posted by laohaire

2) Was there just one celebrity who you followed throughout adolescence, or did you move from one celebrity to another?

Just one.

Originally Posted by laohaire

3) Were you into rock stars, movie stars, athletes or what?

It was a rock star.

Originally Posted by laohaire

4) Did your obsession include sexual attraction of any sort?

Physical, yes. Sexual, not sure. Probably not. I didn't know what sexual attraction WAS until I was much older!

Originally Posted by laohaire

5) And now that you are an adult, how do you feel about your adolescent obsession(s)? Do you still admire him/her/them? Or do you feel like "oh my god, I was so naive/shallow/etc.?" Or do you have almost no feelings about him/her/them anymore? (It might be useful to give your age, since a 20 year old's perspective is probably different from a 35 year old's perspective in this case).

It was Bono that I followed as a kid, since I was about 12. I'm 32 now, and I still like him. But obviously it's not the same now that I'm, um, grown up. I do feel a little silly about it but I think most kids have someone they are into. It almost defined who you were. I remember being maybe 12 and talking with my mother's friend's daughters who were older, maybe 15 and 17, and they were asking me the big question: "musicians or athletes?" lol. The older sister was into athletes, some hockey star specifically (don't remember who). The younger sister was into musicians, so she gave me the thumbs-up at my answer. But it was like we were all explaining what kind of person we were.

As for other comments... all I can think of is "thank goodness I'm not an adolescent anymore!!!!!"

[Susana]

from the time I was 12 til I was 15 I was obsessed with Paul McCartney. I was definitely sexually attracted to him and of course loved the Beatles so much that I couldn't stand myself.
after 15 I grew out of the obsession part of the relationship and moved on to a healthy love and admiration for Paul and his work.
I'll always love him and I'm not ashamed of my enormous crush that I've had. Everyone who knows me well knows about it. In fact, all of my friends know he is "mine" and they don't dare say anything nasty about him or even try to invade my territory

nowadays I find myself unusually interested in the guy who plays Edward in teh Twilight movies. I don't want the actual actor, I want him as Edward. This has been going on since September, so it has lasted awhile. I'm not ashamed in the least, else I wouldn't be sharing it here!

[St. Margaret]

Great topic!

I was (am) such a nerd. I was obsessed with Michael Ball (British actor/singer), Tom Stoppard, Colin Firth, and, actually, pretty much any guy in the hero's role in a Jane Austen movie. Or a Shakespeare movie. Or Princess Bride. Everyone who knows me knows that Colin is my boyfriends :P Most of those were in a totally "oh, he's so dreamy" way (well, except Tom Stoppard of course... that was in a HOW did he write that?! way). And the sad thing is, when I was 12 or 15 or whatever, I thought if I wrote these guys fan mail (never did) I would get grateful responses, because they WEREN'T all popular with my classmates like boy bands and mainstream movie stars.

Looking back, it's nice to see that I was ever a nerd, I guess. I blame my sister for starting my Anglophilia!