Celebrity worship by today's youths worries experts
BY KIRSTEN SCHARNBERG
HONOLULU -
Most people in the mosh pit were between the ages of 4 and 12. They
had arrived at the concert hours early to sit on the hot concrete and save
front-row spaces, completely ignoring the nearby cotton-candy stand and the
hypnotic music emanating from the Fun House.
"We want Raven! We want Raven!" they began to chant, demanding the appearance
of the central character in the Disney Channel's mega-hit "That's So Raven."
Minutes later, Raven, the 20-year-old actor-singer phenom launched into her
high-energy 90-minute show, and the children began to sing along.
The scene this month at Hawaii's 50th State Fair was, on the surface, not so
different from decades of concerts geared toward young, impressionable
Americans. Elvis made teenage girls faint; the Beatles made them weep; posters
of Britney Spears wallpapered boys' bedrooms from coast to coast.
But experts say much is remarkable today - in ways often troubling - about
how youths respond to celebrity idols such as Hilary Duff and Miley Cyrus, names
that may mean next to nothing to many adults but that are intimately familiar to
most kids younger than 15.
Shaped by a Brangelina world, where people don overpriced T-shirts indicating
whom they support in the Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie-Jennifer Aniston love
triangle, kids increasingly obsess over celebrities at younger ages, experts
say.
They can worship their chosen stars nearly round-the-clock, with many
youth-geared sitcoms aired nightly and offered for download onto iPods for
mobile viewing. Fan clubs offer e-mail alerts that can be sent to children's
cell phones should news about their favorite celebrity break. Elementary school
kids log onto Web sites where debates center on issues such as whether Duff
would ever accept a role that required nudity, whether heart throb Zac Efron of
the Disney TV movie "High School Musical" is gay, whether a Connecticut girl is
truthful in her claims that she "made out with" Dylan Sprouse, one of the twin
13-year-olds who star in "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody."
Even the snarkiness that often accompanies celebrity gossip - an art form
many adult gossip columnists take years to perfect - seems to come easy to
school-age youngsters.
Over several hours on a recent school night, kids who identified themselves
in one Internet chat room as being between 8 and 14 argued about who most adored
Duff, the star of the Disney Channel's "Lizzie McGuire," a show no longer in
production but still aired.
"I love her more than any of you and she knows it too," bragged one girl
whose screen name was Hil4Ever. "I have her personal e-mail and phone number but
I wouldn't share it with any of you losers."
James Houran, a psychologist who has studied celebrity worship for years,
cringes at such examples.
"When you reach the point where kids feel they have an intense personal
connection with a celebrity, that's when they are beginning to cross into
unhealthy obsession," he said. "Suddenly they are in a relationship with Hilary
Duff when they don't know Hilary Duff."
Several years ago, while teaching at Southern Illinois University Medical
School, Houran helped create the Celebrity Attitude Scale. He and several
psychology and psychiatry colleagues used the scale to determine whether an
individual had morphed from simply appreciating a celebrity's talents to
becoming the kind of fanatic that inspired the term "fan."
Houran said he has seen scale results that show young kids who have
completely crossed the line into celebrity fanaticism. Examples of attitudes
that lead him to those findings include admissions that the respondent would be
willing to break the law for their chosen star, that they think about the star
constantly, that they believe the star is their best friend or soul mate.
"I often have joked that there is a celebrity stalker somewhere inside all of
us," he said. "But in a 5-year-old?"
But what makes kids' obsession with Dylan and Cole Sprouse so different from
their parents' now-cooled lust for David Cassidy, the idol from "The Partridge
Family"? The answers, experts say, can be summed in two words: tangibility and
saturation.
Cassidy was worshiped because he seemed an impossible-to-meet superstar. But
with kids' favorite stars frequently offering live, interactive chat groups with
their fans, today's children have come to think of perfect-stranger celebrities
as close friends.
In worst-case scenarios, experts say, those are the kind of delusions of
intimacy that can fuel unhealthy celebrity worship; in most kids, however, they
simply blur the line between fact and fantasy that confuses children in even the
best of circumstances.1/4
Kaylee Browder, 7, of Berwyn, Ill., watches "That's So Raven" virtually every
night. When asked whether she feels about Raven the way she feels about girls in
her suburban neighborhood or at school, Kaylee sighs.
"It's a lot the same," she said. "It feels like she's really my friend."
Browder is hardly a Raven fanatic; she jokingly says that sometimes the thing
she most enjoys about the show is how much it annoys her older sister, who hates
it. But it's statements like that that concern Houran, the celebrity-obsession
researcher.
"The more a child has invested in a relationship - be it real or not - when
that goes away or doesn't come to fruition, you expect that child to have a much
more emotional and negative reaction to that loss," he said.
Also, kids are estimated to get more than six hours of media exposure every
day, according to Dr. Michael Rich, the director of the Center on Media and
Child Health at Children's Hospital Boston. Where "The Partridge Family" was on
once a week, "That's So Raven" routinely airs up to seven times per day.
That kind of constant saturation is something the Disney Channel has honed.
Take, for example, the network's "High School Musical." Described as "Romeo and
Juliet" meets "Grease," the movie has been rebroadcast a dozen times since its
debut Jan. 20 and has been seen by an extraordinary 36 million unduplicated
viewers.
Seen in more than 87 million homes, the Disney Channel also has set the gold
standard for cross-marketing. As "High School Musical" became a runaway success,
the network went all out: during breaks in other Disney shows, videos of music
from "High School Musical" aired. The soundtrack - published by Disney's record
label - made history when one of its songs, "Breaking Free," became the
fastest-rising single in the history of the Billboard charts, climbing 82 slots
to its peak at No. 4.
There is a solid reason Disney - and other networks such as Viacom's
Nickelodeon - are working so hard to ensure young viewers are addicted to not
just their shows but to their shows' stars. Marketing research indicates that
the nation's 26 million children between the ages of 9 and 14 have a spending
power of between $39 billion and $59 billion, so when stars are found to be
popular with kids, they are put in as many shows as possible.
Drake Bell and Josh Peck, for example, were cast members on Nickelodeon's
"The Amanda Show." But when their popularity grew, Nickelodeon gave them their
own show, "Drake & Josh."
What worries many experts is that kids may be worshiping celebrities for
reasons more disturbing than simply mirroring the society in which they live.
Linda Sonna, a psychologist who studies "tweens," kids who are not toddlers
but not yet teens, says she has seen statistics that show the average parent
spends only about 15 minutes a day talking with his or her kids, an estimate
that does not include the time spent issuing orders and giving directions or
specific guidance.
"Celebrity worship is not a new phenomenon," Sonna said. "What's new is the
depth of emotion and energy these kids are putting into it at earlier and
earlier ages. I worry that they are doing that in an effort to fill a deep sense
of longing that exists somewhere in them."
Indeed, one study - conducted in England - shows that while youngsters a
decade ago tended to describe parents or other family members as their heroes,
today they are more likely to cite a teenage celebrity.
Kids, especially young ones, may not fully understand how different the
celebrity they call their hero is from them.
Kendall Scruggs, 9, watches "That's So Raven" several nights a week. The
Chicago-area girl says she feels very similar to her Hollywood idol even though
Raven's TV character is nearly 18.
"That's only 9 years older than I am," she said.
Experts note there is good news in the burgeoning trend of celebrity worship
among the very young. Where girls once almost exclusively idolized boys and
young men, today they are devoting most of their attention and spending power
toward female stars.
Already a cult favorite is "The Cheetah Girls," a TV movie starring Raven and
three other actresses. Despite the fact the movie was by Disney, things weren't
exactly Pollyanna among the four stars. "Cat fights" were said to punctuate the
filming earlier this year of the upcoming sequel - a juicy piece of dish much
discussed among kids in entertainment chat rooms.
Bickering aside, the stars idolized today are not the bad-girl-types - like
Spears and the Spice Girls - of a few years ago. Raven, a voluptuous young woman
who has struggled with her weight, talks openly to girls about embracing their
given body type and not focusing too much on being thin. Duff has vowed to turn
down parts that require nudity. Cyrus, the 13-year-old star of new show "Hannah
Montana" talks of being best friends with her dad, country music singer Billy
Ray Cyrus.
Emily Osment, who also stars in "Hannah Montana," feels all the celebrity
adoration from the other side. Polite to a fault, she will acknowledge only that
"it's a little odd sometimes" when strangers come up and say, "Oh, I've known
you for so long."
But the 14-year-old, who is the sister of Haley Joel Osment, the star from
"The Sixth Sense," finds it scary when people pretend to be her to liven up
online chat rooms and bat around nasty celebrity gossip, either online or on the
playground.
"It saddens me a little," she said during an interview, "that they're so
young and debating things like that."
Regardless of any consequences of celebrity obsession, it is nearly
impossible to reverse. And for some families, star watching has become a bond
between parents and kids.
Kendall Scruggs' mom, Marilyn, admits to rushing out each week to buy
magazines such as Us Weekly to keep current on the goings-on in Hollywood.
"When I'm done with them, Kendall looks through them for her favorite stars,"
Marilyn Scruggs said.
Kendall often then clips pages about her favorite teen celebs and files them
into a folder she keeps next to a mostly blank autograph book. She occasionally
uses the information she finds to post questions or comments on various stars'
Web sites. So far, no one has written back.
The Tween Diaries
Girls figure out how to be young women amid
barrage of celebrity culture
 |
Friends Sammi Maciel, 11,
Molly Redmond, 11, and Katrin Larusson, 12, link arms. The
girls said they read stories about celebrities in magazines,
but do not see them as role models because life is more than
being pretty.
Emma Garrard/Sierra Sun |
|
By Sierra Countis
Sierra Sun,
scountis@sierrasun.com
March 23, 2007
Celebrities have become familiar icons we see day in and
day out. Reading and talking about the latest antics of Britney Spears or
Paris Hilton is how we, as a society, define ourselves.
Eleven-year-old Molly Redmond, a sixth-grader at Alder Creek Middle School,
says she thinks Britney Spears doesn’t appreciate her real self, since she’s
always changing her look.
But separating fact from fiction can prove troublesome for some girls as
they find themselves showered with sensationalized stories by an insatiable
media, says Krishna Desai, a violence prevention educator with Tahoe Women’s
Services.
Similar to Roman times when crowds cheered for a blood-bath during a
gladiator fight, America loves a great coming-of-age story, but many people
also like it when someone in the spotlight falls, Desai says.
But what kind of story are we telling young girls with the media’s portrayal
of and obsession with Hollywood’s party girls?
| Tween Fashion |
Tween fashion targets
girls who are too old to play with toys but too young for
boys. Many of the clothing styles geared for 9- to
13-year-old girls have been criticized as too adult or too
sexy for their age. Clothing such as brightly colored
T-shirts splashed with sexually suggestive words like “cute”
embroidered across the chest in rhinestones, or pants with
the word “juicy” stitched on the rear can be found at most
mass retail chains. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have aimed
their clothing line of fashion-forward looks, sold at
Wal-Mart stores, to girls age 4 to 14.
“There’s no Limited Too — Boys’ Edition,” Desai says of the
recent plethora of tween fashion marketed exclusively to
girls.
Plus, retail executives already know a girl can never have
too many shoes, or purses for that matter. The earlier you
can get a consumer hooked on a product the better, she says.
Wearing soccer shorts and a light pink tank top, sixth-grade
student Larusson says she likes to shop at stores like Gap
and Abercrombie & Fitch for T-shirts and pants. Living in
Tahoe, shopping at the mall is a special occasion, Cindy
Maciel says. Girls aren’t hangin’ at the mall every weekend
like many city girls do for fun.
And if a girl’s wardrobe isn’t appropriate, it’s OK to say
“no,” Cindy Maciel says of shopping for her daughter.
“You’re the one buying it.” |
|
Media Influence
Media — TV, tabloid mags, newspapers and particularly
the Internet — are today more readily accessible to youngsters of all ages,
Desai observes.
“For junior high kids — it’s opening Pandora’s box. Everything’s at their
little grubby fingertips,” she says.
Desai adds that the Internet “exposes such an impressionable young person to
social factors that are not mitigated by adults.”
Media literacy is not where it should be, and some youngsters have a hard
time separating myth from reality, Desai cautions. And today’s youths are
often immersed in the media.
Nowadays, many couples both work full time, making it easy for their
children to have unsupervised access to the Internet and television, says
Jan Susman, a counselor at Truckee Elementary School.
One of the myths media coverage of celebrities portrays is the easy life of
affluence — young stars flaunting their disposable incomes with cars,
million-dollar homes and expensive clothing.
Most youths living in Truckee and the North Shore know they’re not going to
have those material things — and that says something about our society,
Desai says. The majority of children who are aware that society includes
both haves and have-nots are able to differentiate between what’s real and
what’s not.
But the media’s portrayal of people in the spotlight, who seemingly achieved
overnight success, can lead some youngsters to feel less than positive about
themselves, Susman says. The pressure can be brutal for youths on the cusp
of their teenage years, better known as tweens.
Susman, the school counselor, says pop culture — what tweens wear, the music
they listen to, and how they talk to each other — affects who they will
become as adults.
And stars are now shown behaving badly more often in the media, Susman says.
“When I was growing up it was more hush-hush,” and things like rehab weren’t
talked about openly, she says.
Tahoe Women’s Center’s Desai says it’s important for kids to learn that
sadness is an everyday fact. But when explaining to a girl why Britney’s in
rehab, it’s important to keep the explanation age-appropriate, she says. The
lesson is not lost on many teens.
“(Britney Spears) was all good girl and now she’s turned into something
else,” says Angie Ortega, 17, a Sierra High student who volunteers at the
Humane Society of Truckee-Tahoe.
And if a tween develops a celebrity crush, they’re likely drawn to something
positive in that person — like singing or dancing — and parents should
nurture those qualities in their children, Desai says.
“Celebrities are a brand name; but they’re also a person,” Desai says.
Take Paris Hilton for example: “Maybe she comes up with crazy things to
boost her career, but don’t say to a girl who admires her, ‘Paris Hilton is
a worthless human being,’” Desai explains.
Instead, she says, find something good to emphasize about that person.
| Psst ... Celebrity Gossip On The Net |
“When I’m good, I’m very,
very good. When I’m bad, I’m better.” — Mae West, American
actress, playwright, screenwriter, sex symbol (1892-1980)
Google Britney Spears and about 33.2 million Web sites to choose
from pop up. Sensationalized celebrity gossip sites like tmz.com
and perezhilton.com try to one-up each other with the latest
juicy dirt in Hollywood.
Fans of Britney Spears must be at least 13 years old to e-mail
the troubled star well wishes and to read her latest blog
messages posted on the site, www.britneyspears.com. |
|
Role Models
There’s a real lack of strong role models for children
today, Desai says. Girls are trying to figure out how to become young women.
Susman says girls start to become more aware of genders by the fourth or
fifth grade.
“All of a sudden you start seeing them distance themselves, talking in
cliques amongst themselves, and girls not putting their hand up in class,”
Susman says.
At the same age, many boys also assume gender roles patterned on the example
set by our society, Susman says.
Issues over body image also begin to surface at the tween age, Desai says.
Tweens are changing emotionally, physically and mentally, she points out.
Anything that helps youth blend in at that tipping point of adolescence —
they grab it. Many youths have a herd-mentality at that age, a tendency to
go with what’s popular, she says. Yet they must measure themselves against
idealized images in the media.
Young girls are constantly presented with photographs in magazines of
perfectly toned, tanned, made-up, and airbrushed women that portray a
difficult-to-attain — if not impossible — standard of beauty.
“It doesn’t stay in Hollywood,” Desai says; “but until girls have something
to contrast that with, it gets harder and harder.”
Susman says she has counseled fourth and fifth-grade girls dealing with
depression and concerns with body image.
“Girls need to know they’re loved, and remember how special they are and how
special it is to be a girl,” Susman says.
What does it take?
So what does it take to be a good role model in the real
world?
Redmond and her two friends, Sammi Maciel, 11, and Katrin Larusson,12, talk
over each other as they wait for soccer practice to begin, chattering about
how they’ve been friends since preschool. The Alder Creek sixth-graders say
they look up to their older sisters and relatives, because they don’t make
you feel bad about yourself. And the girls say they know their close
relatives will always be there for them.
Being a role model means more than just having a pretty face, the girls
agree. Maciel says she admires her cousin because she gets good grades in
college, has a sense of humor and treats other people well.
Role models don’t have to be perfect people. As long as a mentor is honest,
he or she doesn’t have to have celebrity status to be a solid role model.
“Just show up,” Desai advises.
Tahoe Women’s Services tries to give girls the tools they need to go out
into the world and apply what they’ve learned in all aspects of their lives,
Desai says.
Maturing is learning how to see all the things in your world for what they
are, and many tweens will eventually grow out of their childhood celebrity
crushes, Desai says. The presence of responsible role models can help.
We have danced around the role of being a parent recently, Susman the
counselor says, giving youths more power. Children watch what parents do
more than what they say.
“Parents need to be the captain of the ship,” Susman says. “‘Because I said
so,’ is ultimately, I think, what kids want [to hear].”
For the most part, it’s not movie stars or athletes that youths admire, says
Cindy Maciel, Sierra Teen Education and Parenting Program manager, and the
mother of Sammi Maciel. Parents are supposed to be the role models.
Ask an adult, “Who really helped you out?” Desai says. “No one’s like:
‘Keith Richards.’”
Tweens probably need us more now than when they were babies because of all
the changes happening in their lives and the choices they will make, Cindy
Maciel says. Parents need to listen to what their children have to say, talk
to them, and be there as a check-in.
She sighs and rolls her eyes as she thinks about what the teenage rebellion
years are going to be like in her household.
As a mom, “I don’t know if I’m doing it right,” Cindy Maciel concedes.