Just a 16-year-old masquerading as a 37-year-old

In my office we have a common area that has a flat-screen TV hanging on the wall. If it's on, it's usually to something non-offensive, like the weather channel (snore). It's pretty much been OFF for the past year. But it used to be on every day. When it was on, I would change the channel to NBC from time to time so I could catch snippets of The Today Show as I walked by.

I'll never forget the day I walked past it and stopped dead in my tracks. There, out on the Today Show plaza, were five glorious creatures, standing behind mic stands and swaying their little hearts out. New Kids on the Block. Staging their comeback. I was transfixed. I stood there in front of the screen, grinning as big as possible,  heart rate accelerated a bit, practically bouncing on my toes from giddiness. In an instant...just a few short notes and two dance moves...I was sixteen again.

Later that day my sister called me.
"Did you see New Kids on TV this morning?"
"Yep. I got quite a few looks from co-workers and even a couple of 'Who is that?' I was appalled they didn't know."
"It was awesome."

Back in the late 80s and early 90s I was a fan of New Kids. Okay, that may be a smidge of an understatement.  I was a BIG fan. Pretty much everyone who knew me knew that I loved the New Kids. I had a wall that was plastered with 8x10 pictures ripped from teen magazines. I watched their videos over and over. I would day-dream about them, had their photos in my locker, wore their faces on my jacket in pin-form. One time a friend's mom gave me New Kids paraphernalia. That's how well known my fandom was.

Then New Kids quit recording music and broke up and I became more mature and life went on. That little part of who I was as a sixteen-year-old girl remained in the past. Or so I thought. Then New Kids made their comeback in 2008 and that strange phenomenon was once again in full force. The phenomenon of teenage girls going crazy for a boy band or singer. What IS that? It happens with every generation...some young stud (or multiple young studs in one group) rise in popularity and the teenage girls go nuts.

Times change and the world moves forward but this is just one of those things that remains constant. It started back in the 40s for cryin' out loud with Frank Sinatra. Then it was Elvis. Then the Beatles. Then David Cassidy, Donnie Osmond, Duran Duran, New Kids, Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, the Jonas Brothers, Beiber...the list just goes on and on.

Now I'm not saying that EVERY teenage girl ever in the past 70 years has been nutso over some celebrity. But a lot have. Any time you see any footage of a young heart throb performing, you see screaming girls. Lots and lots of screaming girls. Nary a fella to be seen in the crowd. It just this "girl" thing that I can't explain.

My husband and I have had this discussion about this phenomenon. He doesn't get it. I told him, "Good. I'm glad you don't get it. Because if you did, we would have a problem." Guys do have the same tendency for idol worship in them...it just looks different because it's usually in the form of a name of an athlete splayed across their back. And when they're screaming, they're doing it in front of a TV where the person they're cheering for can't hear them. Teenage girls scream in a crowd, where their hunk-a-hunk-a burnin' love can hear 'em. Loud and clear.

I'm not sure why, when I see a clip of New Kids or hear a part of one of their songs or watch them sing on stage (Chicago...summer of 2011...finally saw them in concert for the first time) my sixteen-year-old self comes roaring back. It stirs up feelings of teenage fun and freedom I guess. All I know is that I am not alone. That was proven at last summer's concert, which was filled with screaming 30 and 40 year old women. Married women. Single women. Moms. Even extremely pregnant women. We all turn into teeny-boppers at the site of our beloved celebrity musician. New Kids definitely know how to tap into that phenomenon...their last tour had to be a money making machine. For the record, I didn't scream once during the concert, but I was grinning the entire time and I was entertained like no other time in my life! Someone who went with me, who shall remain nameless, declared that day the greatest day of her life.

And, just for full disclosure, I still have a New Kids poster on the back of my bedroom door at my parents' house. That thing is not coming down until my parents sell their house.