It was the mid 90’s and life was good.  TGIF was in full effect on the ABC network, instead of Facebook, AOL instant messenger and chat rooms connected you more to complete strangers than friends and no one could tell me that I wasn’t going to marry Marques Houston, the lead singer of the popular boy band Immature who would later be known as IMX.  At the most intense point of my fandom, you could find my walls literally wall-papered in posters of glistening boy pecs and the single “I Don’t Mind” from their first LP blasting faithfully from my room every morning before school.  Whether it was Jodeci, Hi-Five, Shai, N’Sync, Boys II Men or Backstreet Boys we all had boy band or pop star crushes that captured our hearts, and lifted them up only to send them crashing.  Don’t let your favorite one, whether it be the “The Quiet One” or “The Dangerous One” be pictured with the next hot, new starlet and suddenly you felt that you were in an emotional rollercoaster with someone you’d probably never meet.

Now in a time of Twitter and Tumblr, fans of today have one thing that the teen version of me didn’t: What seems to be a direct connection to the celebrities they either would love to be or love to be with.  And more and more the fame monster is preying on the prepubescent, making the obsession with lifestyles of the rich and famous dangerously delusional.

We’ve got the Beliebers, Justin Bieber’s personal disciples who spread the written gospel of “Baby” and “Never Say Never.”  Then there’s the Rihanna Navy who make sure everyone gets drenched in Rihanna’s reign of girl power and stand as the ultimate FU to demure unfashionable females everywhere. Chris Brown’s Team Breezy held it down for the boy through all of his ups and downs.  Trey’s Angels make sure ladies everywhere can show their appreciation for the chisel chested Songz for a mere $30.00 a year membership fee. And if Drake should be proud of anyone it should be Team Drizzy for following him across the globe and making sure a fan book is always there waiting for him.