You could say I had an amusing array of celebrity crushes growing up. It didn't take much for me to develop a new weekly fantasy. Waiting for the bus, doing math homework or during the homily at church, I imagined one of these boy wonders coming to my school for a pep rally or other festive event, sitting with me at lunch and then taking me under the bleachers where he would remove my glasses and say how much he liked my color choice of braces rubber bands.
My first crush was Rider Strong AKA Shawn Hunter from Boy Meets World. Every Friday I would tune into the family friendly TGIF line-up and hate any female actor that portrayed his girlfriend, not understanding the concept of an "on-screen romance."
He was the bad boy and I was the good girl. We were an incredible match. I used to worry about our 5 year age difference and that he would never go out with a third grader. My sister, Merideth, had a poster of him in our room from YM magazine that I used to blush at whenever I was changing my clothes.
He came out of hiding in 2002, starring in the gruesome flick, Cabin Fever. Then my crush fizzled. Along with any desire to ever go camping.
Next up is Joseph Gordon-Levitt during his 3rd Rock From The Sun days. Granted, when your co-stars are French Stewart and John Lithgow you are definitely keeping the young female fan base all to yourself. Before he was a Hollywood hunk, starring in Inception and 500 Days of Summer he was "Tommy Solomon" the wildly intelligent alien with the sex appeal of an orange. What did that matter to me? We all know I find smart guys sexy. It was his characters clever wit and....well, let's be honest, hair flip that won me over.
Yet another example of my where my attraction to a high IQ stems. In 1998, Deep Impact swept across the nation. While most girls my age were fawning over Ben Affleck in Armageddon, I fell hard for Elijah Wood as "Leo Biederman", the young teenager who discovered the destructive comet, married his girlfriend so she and her family could be saved and THEN went back for her minutes before impact, risking his own life. My heart couldn't handle it.
Deep Impacts slogan was "Heaven and Earth are about to collide." And it certainly felt that way with 11-year-old Karen toward Elijah.
Now I know I am not alone when I say that Disney knows how to draw their men. Captain Li Shang from Mulan was no exception. However, it was not the physique of this cartooned warrior that pierced my heart with love, but his singing voice.
I would listen to "I'll Make A Man Out Of You" on repeat before I went to bed. I just HAD to know whose voice I was falling asleep to every night! After some internet research, I discovered Donny Osmond provided his flawless vocals for the film. Thus switching my crush from Shang to Donny......
I was a little late jumping on the Donny train. I was also not a product of the 70's, leaving me the only Freshman who listened to Donny and Marie but was closest with my mother. I religiously listened to the "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolored Dreamcoat" CD (movie version) which I also used to get me through long road trips.
Even though he was married with several children, I still had high hopes of meeting him one day, singing "Joseph..." together and stealing a kiss. And if I wasn't going to get Donny, then I was going to hold out for a guy just as nice as him. Which is probably why I never had a date in high school.
As I became older, I realized we would never work as a couple for several reasons. However, whenever I happen to catch a TV special featuring him, I get butterflies all over again.
Naturally, I was royally boy crazy and had many other celebrity crushes growing up. Some lasted a few days, others years. However, I can only claim one celebrity has kept my interest since I was a teenager and that forever will be, Bill Murray.
