One Direction. Louis Tomlinson. Babygate. Real or not real?

If none of those words mean anything to you, then let’s review.

Babygate, to put very simply, is the notion that One Direction’s Louis Tomlinson is faking having a child with Brianna Jungwirth.

But who came up with this idea? Who looked at these photos (or lack thereof) and decided, hey, the entire pregnancy and the ensuing baby might be fake? Why is Brianna wearing leather leggings and heels as she leaves the hospital she just gave birth in? Is Louis’ house really his or are they just renting until this whole thing is over? Is the baby a doll or are they borrowing random babies? Would someone actually name their child Freddie Reign? For the love of god, why has he not taken a paternity test?

These questions, and many others, are not going to be answered right now.

I’m going to answer the first question: Who started questioning everything?

The fans.

These fans live, breathe, and die for these boys. These are the same fans that wait hours outside to just to see the boys for two seconds. These are the same fans that have managed to gain access to Niall’s passport photo (they really should consider careers in the FBI).These are the same fans that went into a meltdown when Zayn announced his leaving last March via Facebook (come on, who breaks up with someone via Facebook?).

These are the same fans who looked at Louis Tomlinson and his relationship with Brianna Jungwirth and said, hmmm, something isn’t right.

I want to throw in a disclaimer here: these fans are not overanalyzing the relationship because they “want Louis for themselves” or anything like that. Other relationships that the boys have had have been overanalyzed and deemed “not right” (see Hendall or Liam/Cheryl which is so dumb that it hasn’t even been granted a ship name) and yet others have been fully supported by the fans (see Payzer or Zerrie). This particular relationship is on a whole new level. A baby level.

Thousands of tweens, teens, and adults are analyzing every move that Louis and Freddie make.

And that’s what I want to talk about. The analyzing. These fans are taking basic critical thinking skills and applying it to a boyband member.

Now, that sounds crazy or weird or highly inappropriate. But many of these fans are young. This is their first experience questioning what they are being told by the media and even by someone they thought they could trust.

The boys have always been grateful to the fans, there’s no doubt about that. They have always done everything they can for their fans and have tried to be as honest as possible.

But babygate has been going on for almost a year now, and there are still so many questions unanswered (see above). These fans want answers and no one is giving them to them. They are being forced to go out there and look for themselves, to question everything, and to get to the bottom of this situation.

And I, for one, am positively thrilled.

An entire generation learning to question what is being put in front of them, what the media and their idols are telling them? I can’t wait to see them in 15 years when they are in the real world.

What happens when the CEO of their company starts acting strangely? What happens when the news on one station doesn’t match the news on the other? What happens when they start looking at life with a critical lense? What happens when they start questioning everything that’s told to them, not just details about babygate?

This generation will become so aware of what’s happening around them that something might actually change. They could change the entire system simply because Louis Tomlinson may or may not have a child.

Like I said, this has been going on for almost a year. If these fans can stick with it for this long, imagine what kind of data they can uncover if they apply this same critical thinking and perseverance to businesspeople or politicians? I swear these people could uncover something the size of the Panama Papers and it would just be another Tuesday.

My hope for the fans is that they remember this whole ordeal, not for Louis or the baby, but for the analysis and questioning they did. I hope that they carry this with them for the rest of their lives and realize that babygate was actually a good thing.

Who knows what can happen when an entire generation doesn’t just take what the media gives them, but digests it, thinks about it, and spits it back out at them and says no, this isn’t right.