According to Merriam-Webster a fangirl is defined as, "a girl or woman who is an extremely or overly enthusiastic fan of someone or something."
Being a fangirl was a lifestyle. For me, it started when I first discovered the Jonas Brothers. It started with a simple click on Youtube and from there, it was history. I could tell you anything about them and if we're getting technical, it was creepy; but that did not stop me. Whenever a new boy band came onto the scene, you bet my friends and I were all over it. We stalked for hours, watched endless videos, and stayed up late just to be one of the first people to watch a live chat or something along the lines of it. When we got to college, it was hard to keep up with the fangirl lifestyle. We had to worry about our grades, making new friends, work and a whole handful of different things. Here are four reasons my friends and I miss being a fangirl:
1. Stalking
Now I know what you're thinking, "Stalking? Really Veronica?" Yup, I'm serious. We've tried to calculate it many times, but we can never really come up with an exact number of the hours we've spent waiting outside of our local radio station, venues and any other place we've stalked. Our stalking only paid off once or twice, but we continued to do it. There is something about standing for 11 hours with 200 other girls who are just like you in the sense that they share a love for the same human beings as you. One of the many stalking experiences that sticks out in my mind is the first time One Direction came to Philadelphia. We went to our local radio station, Q102, and waited outside for almost 12 hours. We didn't get to meet them or anything, but Harry did notice my friend Aleena's sign that said, "Lick Me Harry Styles."
2. Making New Friends
Along with the stalking came new friends. There were even a few girls that were always at the same events as us. It was always fun to get to know the people you just spent four hours in line to meet Selena Gomez with or six hours outside of the radio station to meet Big Time Rush. I don't think any of us talk to those people anymore, but when we did see them, it was like picking up where we left off. We shared stories of our own experiences and bonded over them.
3. The Memorabilia
So this is another creepy aspect of being a fangirl but that's okay, just go with it. Autographs, pictures, tweets and even water bottles could all fall under "memorabilia." Anytime we did stalk, one of us always ended up with something to take with us. A lot of the times, it was a picture but on a special occasion we got something weird like a water bottle. Now, it's a little weird to think that we would actually take it and keep it, but then it was special. It was like a piece of that day could be kept forever.
4. Making Memories
There is nothing that I miss more than being a fangirl. My friends and I have so many memories from our teenage years that could never be replaced with anything. From waking up early to wait in a line, or going to a Jonas Brother's softball game, there are so many times that I will never forget. Being a fangirl was kind of like an escape for us. We could get away from reality and just live in our own little worlds for a little while. We spent a lot of time together over the past 10 years gushing over boy bands and other celebrities.
The fangirl era of our lives were some of the happiest days of our lives. So many laughs and smiles were shared and I don't think we would take of it back. Though we don't fangirl as hard anymore, we still have fangirl tendencies that won't ever leave us.
We didn't choose the fangirl life. The fangirl life chose us.
(Thanks to my friends: Miranda, Aleena and Caitlin for helping me with this article!)
