FANS

And They Called It 'Puppy Love' ...

After a NEWSWEEK writer described her letters to celebrity crushes, readers offered their own confessions.

PHOTOS

Teen Idols

Some of America's favorite boy pinups of the last 60 years

Newsweek Web Exclusive

Jul 1, 2008 | Updated: 5:21 p.m. ET Jul 1, 2008

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If you've ever written to a teenybopper crush—or merely covered your walls with posters that you kissed goodnight—know this: You are not alone. Last week, Newsweek.com published "Hopelessly Devoted"—Alicia Coffman's description of her tween love life in fan letters—and asked readers to submit their own stories of celebrity puppy love. Excerpts from our mailbag:

Crushed by My Crush:
By Roxanne Van Doren
"Bobby [Sherman] was unbelievably cool in the late sixties. It was a great time to be a pre-pubescent teen. My idol maximus had big googly brown eyes and adorable dimples nestled inside chipmunk cheeks just perfect for a quick pinch. If I ever got close enough. He wore hip-hugging pants, chokers, wild flowery shirts and he had a chair shaped like a hand where he sat in the palm. Okay, maybe that wasn't his chair but it was on the cover of his album 'Forever, Bobby,' and I was certain from this and the other fun shots of him he was definitely the kind of guy who could be my groovy boyfriend, make that husband (I always aimed high) if he just held out for 9 or 10 years.

"He didn't. I still remember the day I picked up my latest copy of Tiger Beat from my mailbox. Oh yes, I was a longtime subscriber to that and 16 (bless my mom for understanding the need to feed my devotion). I opened the latest issue and whizzed past the far-too-many David Cassidy articles—phfffft—and read the story that my Mr. Perfect, my man, had quietly and suddenly married. My crush had crushed me. How could he do this to me? He didn't call. He didn't write. Who is this hussy he married? What do you mean they're expecting a baby? He just got married. How does that happen? Yup. I was very young but I remember handling the news with all the maturity an 8-year-old could muster. I didn't sob. I didn't kick down doors. I just did what most young girls do when their idol moves on; I did too."

'N Sync ... but Out of Cash:
By Amy Lenz
"I was obsessed with 'N Sync and I'm sure if they were still a group, I would still be obsessed with them. It all started in July of 1998 when they had a concert special on the Disney channel. I saw it once and was hooked; I wanted to know everything about these five guys.

"Through the years, their music became my entire life. I went to everything they had, concerts, charity events, plays, the wax museum; I even went to see Lance Bass get inducted into the Mississippi hall of fame. I recorded every time they were on TV, even if it was a commercial. I own every single CD, including any European CDs that they may have done. I have dolls, buttons, bobble heads, shirts, programs, gum, candy; if they were on it, I have it.

"My love for 'N Sync stretched way past my means of living at the time. I was a nanny and went over [on] my credit card a lot and could not afford it with just the one job. I had to get a second job just to pay off my credit card. It was all worth it, though; I have so many great memories of all the trips I went on and all the adventures I took because of them."

Golden Memories
By Bridget Ginn
"Elijah Wood (insert longing sigh here). Even now when I hear his name, I am flooded with all the memories of my childhood celebrity crush. Don't get me wrong, I still love him; he's extremely talented. Emotions just run so much stronger when you're 12 years old. I saw 'The Adventures of Huck Finn' one Saturday night on television, and from then on, I was hooked. I began subscribing to as many fan magazines as I possibly could. That way, I would always be informed of a new movie coming out that Elijah was in. I can still remember how exciting it was when my mom took me to see 'Flipper' in the theater. An exact quote from my journal from May 18, 1996, reads, 'I just have that feeling that Elijah and I were meant to be together. I just have to be patient.'

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Posted By: DianeGalley @ 11/03/2008 3:33:11 PM

In my teen years my girlfriends & I obsessed over so many of the young heart-throbs, but we also liked guys in rock bands, one band especially liked was KISS. We waited downtown all morning on a Saturday, waiting for them to come out of their hotel room, and when they did, we had our camera & pens ready for them to sign our pictures....but alas, they came out without makeup on (before the unmasking of later years) and each rocker had a gal on each arm...we were told sternly by the body-guards, no pictures or we'll break your camera, yet when we offered up our pictures & pens for them to sign, sorry, too busy, and they got in their limo & drove away. I promptly gave away all my KISS records & vowed never, ever to go to one of their concerts. Now when I see Gene Simmonds on TV with his own show I also refuse to watch it....I guess they really, really let us kids down way back then, but I imagine there's still some fans who will still buy into their whole sctick still....but not me.
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Posted By: Tamarra H @ 10/28/2008 2:32:53 AM

I first discovered Jonathan Brandis on Seaquest DSV. I thought he looked like an angel; the most gorgeous guy alive. I wouldn???t miss a show and I grew increasingly irritated when NBC picked Seaquest???s time slot to stick in ???irrelevant??? news broadcasts or other shows. I loved how his blue eyes seamed to sear through the screen and into my own. It was definitely an intense relationship. My most fond memory was the episode when he fell in love with Kellie Martin???s (???Life Goes On???) character, and played her a love song. I think that was his first DSV kiss. I went out and frantically looked for that version of the song (whose name I???ve long forgotten) but couldn???t find it. I dreamed he actually played the song for me. I loved him in Ladybugs too, by far my favorite movie of him. My crush of Jonathan lasted over a year in high school. I managed to find the phone number to his agent in some teen bopper magazine and called. To my utter jubilation a person picked up. I forgot what the very brief conversation was about, but I remember how I felt like I had somehow touched my big TV crush. I would line my walls with his pictures (every kind I could find). My friends at school even got in on it. One found a picture of him in a magazine that I swooned over for weeks and taped to the inside of my locker. I thought back then my crush for Jonathan would never ever fade. And I remember reading in an article of a bopper magazine that a fan eventually got over him. I couldn???t even imagine such an idea. But, of course, as the years went by my crush faded like every other teeny bopper crush. The pictures began to come down off my walls in 1???s and 2???s, until one day, my life size poster seemed too big for my wall. Way back when, it didn???t feel big enough. I guess as I got older, my fancy grew smaller as the prospect of ever meeting Jonathan became unrealistic. It was 2006 when I found out Jonathan had committed suicide three years earlier. My fascination with him was so over that I hadn???t even heard the news. I had to find out about it while perusing the web. I was crushed and saddened that my past love had gone away, and in so tragic a manner. I wonder if he ever received the letter I sent him when I was 14 that spilled over with uber love for him and his work. I wonder if he did read it, did it make him smile. I will never know what led to him committing suicide. I just know that in the years before he died, his appearances were sparing until he wasn???t seen anymore. I will always have wonderful memories of that time in my life when all I could dream of was Jonathan Brandis. His memory will always have a place in my heart.
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Posted By: syerra @ 07/03/2008 1:09:42 PM

Waaaaaaaaay back in the 1960s (wow, that's incredible) my oldest sister Deb was maaaaadly in love with Davy Jones. (I was too tall for Davy, and chose Micky instead.) My poor mom and dad had to put up with the all-night record playing (sometimes the same song over and over over), the holes in their walls from all the posters, and the usual teenage & pre-teenage swooning. My sister Deb went on to be President of one of Davy's many fan clubs (got to have lunch with him on more than one occasion) while my tastes moved on to others, and to this day, she's still "wild about the boy". She even got me backstage at their reunion tour. When Micky walked past me (my perfect opportunity to drool all over him), all I could was point and say "MICKY!" (and this was in my 20's; not back in the pre-teen years.) Heh. The Monkees gave us good, clean & safe fantasy material and for that, I'm eternally grateful.