Chances are, there is a famous person out there that you're a fan of. Maybe it's a massive pop star or it's a small YouTuber with a few thousand subscribers. Either way, this person has had some sort of impact on your life.
Growing up, I very much embraced fangirl culture. For example, I made a fan website dedicated to Demi Lovato and had tons of posters of her on my walls.
It wasn't until years later, when she came clean about her mental health issues and drug addiction, that I realized she wasn't this untouchable goddess. She's a person with her own problems she's dealing with.
In her documentary, "Simply Complicated," there was a very poignant scene where she's sitting in a car and talking about how she had a recurrence in her bulimia and was still struggling with her body image. All the while, there are hoards of screaming girls chasing after the car she's in.
This scene illustrates something that lots of fangirls don't realize when talking about their favorite musicians, actors, athletes, writers, etc. They're people. Even Beyonce and Adele have to sleep, eat, and poop. They're not divine beings. They're just people who happen to be doing extremely well in their careers.
It took meeting a few famous people that I had admired to understand this myself. Having been used to the screaming fangirl life, it took a lot to be able to break away from that.
But I finally did two years ago when I went to a Dodie Clark concert. Dodie is a YouTuber / musician and she and two other YouTuber/musicians that I adored (Tessa Violet and Rusty Clanton) put on a show in someone's living room. There were only 35 of us there, so it was a really intimate show. Tessa even shook everyone's hands as we walked in!
Now though I do love Tessa and Rusty's music, I was obsessed with Dodie's music. Every song she had written had struck a chord with me and I would play her songs on repeat. I had fangirled endlessly when I was included in one of her music videos (for a split second, but still) and when she liked a cover I had done of her song "Intertwined."
After the show, the three of them were meeting everyone. I was incredibly nervous about meeting Dodie, but I was old enough at this point and I was in a relaxed enough setting that I wasn't feeling that fangirl feeling. I wasn't feeling that overwhelming need to be seen by that person.
When it was my turn, she immediately hugged me and thanked me for coming, but then we almost instantly launched into a normal conversation. I don't exactly remember what we talked about, but in that moment, the whole creator/fan dynamic melted away and it was just two girls having a conversation. Afterwards, we got a picture together and that was it.
The fact that it was such a normal interaction was strange to me. For years, she had been this person on my screen, writing songs that touched my heart. But she was just a normal human being.
It's something that we all know consciously, but don't really believe until we see them in person. And I think the world would be a better place if we could see famous people as people.
Now I'm not saying that fangirl culture is inherently bad. But running after someone in their car or crowding them while yelling inappropriate things at someone wouldn't be okay to do to a non-famous person, so it shouldn't be alright to do to anyone, no matter how much you like their work.
At the end of the day, the thing they're famous for is their work. You don't actually know anything about them as a person.
So if you are ever in a situation where you're able to meet someone that you're a fan of, make sure to treat them with respect. Yes, they had a big impact on you, but to them, you're a stranger, so introduce yourself to them before screaming "I love you!" in their face.
It's okay to be nervous or awkward, but don't intrude on their personal boundaries. If you avoid these things and don't do anything dehumanizing, I'm sure you'll both have a nice experience rather than one person attacking another.
