Just last week, the collective heart of millions of hormonal tween girls broke. One Direction, AKA The Five Good Looking Boys Who Can Kindof Hold A Note, announced that they will be taking an indefinite hiatus. Not to worry though, it won’t be long before our consumer-driven society creates an identical pop phenomenon to arouse teen girls’ hysteria.

But I have confession to make, one that I don’t think I would have been able to admit one or two years ago. The truth is I don’t agree with a word of that last paragraph. The truth is I really, really love One Direction.

I was first introduced to them when my friend showed me one of their videos my sophomore year of high school, and I instantly fell in love. I fell in love with everything from their catchy music to their perfect hair and hilarious interviews. I started spending my car rides singing along to their music and hours at a time watching their interviews and behind-the-scenes videos on YouTube. My fellow “directioner” friends and I grew closer over our shared sing-a-long sessions and hysterical laughter over their funny videos and debates over which one had the best hair and most attractive personality.

All the while, I was beyond ashamed of myself. How could I, a self-respecting young woman, a feminist, lower myself to the level of crazy teen fan-girl? Whenever One Direction came up in conversation with my non-fangirl friends, I stayed quiet. When I did talk about it, I did so with a blush and an insistence that I wasn’t one of those fan girls. I wanted everyone to believe that I was a fan ironically; one who realized how crazy and ridiculous it was to like something so stupid. I was terrified that by outing myself I would somehow lose everyone’s respect.

But nearly four years, five albums, and two concerts later, I still love One Direction. And I’m slowly working on not being so ashamed when I admit to that fact. Because here’s the thing: what do I, or any fan-girl for that matter, have to be ashamed of? Why should I be ashamed of liking something that makes me happy and isn’t hurting anyone else?

For so long, I was ashamed because everyone else seemed to think One Direction was stupid and that all of their fans were a crazy, irrational mob of teenage hormones. But every now and then I’d hear a boy say he was a fan and feel just a little bit better about myself. Something about having male fans added legitimacy to the fanbase as a whole. The problem with “directioners” isn’t that they are crazy, it’s that they are mostly teenage girls, and teenage girls are seen as the epitome of hysteria and irrationality.

Take sports fans for example: a coed group with a majority being men. In the name of sports there are thousands of grown men and women every year rioting and looting over a lost (or won) game. Why are young women screaming at a concert a “phenomenon” while men and women of all ages injuring each other, stealing, and causing as much as $10 million dollars in damage over a sports game considered par-for-the-course?

After all, sports and boy bands aren’t really all that different. They are both groups of (mostly) young men, who are skilled in a particular form of entertainment, make hundreds of millions of dollars off of tickets and merchandise, and have very enthusiastic fan bases. But for some reason, sports fans are a central part of our society and boy band fans are a wonder of the natural world.

The underlying assumption is that women, particularly young ones, are foolish and shallow by default; therefore, something with a fan base made up almost entirely of females must be downright trivial. If men don’t like it, why should we believe its worth our while?

So I ask: Why all the hate for things that girls love? The media targets teen girls as their central market for pop music and boy bands, and then shames them as irrational and hysterical when they buy into the hype. Teenage girls have plenty to worry about as is, do we really need to add to that by calling them feel bad for something that clearly makes them so happy?