Do we need them, or do they need us?

Taylor Swift: Not born being a celebrity

Willow Smith: Born a celebrity

I'm sure that once in our lifetime we have said these words in regards to a certain celebrity, "We need them". But is that really true? We admire and idolize these celebrities, but really would they even be there without us? The answer to that question is usually a no. Most celebrities used to be regular people just like us, not all of them were born into the spot light. They needed our support and love to get them where   they are today. In this blog post  I am going to talk about why we love celebrities, and how they need us just as much as we need them.

Carrie Underwood: Became star
because of reality TV.

 We all love at least one celebrity, either their music brightens up our day, or their movie makes us laugh. Whatever it is, we say we want to be them, be like them and we need to feel like we are a part of them.  But this as we call it is a parasocial relationship. We know and love them, but they don't know or love us. The thing is, that we were and are a major contributor to creating them. Who do you think bought all the albums, movies and items they have made? We support them in all that they do and make them a celebrity! The definition of celebrity is: a person who has a prominent profile and commands some degree of public fascination and influence in day to day media. To be a celebrity, they need some type of public fascination and recognition! We are the public! We decide who are celebrities, and who are not celebrities. We have to like who they are and what they do for them to become a celebrity. Celebrity - fans = nobody. Some celebrities start on a reality TV show, and some of those shows like American Idol depend on the viewers!
                                                   They need us to succeed. So really, do we need them, or do they need us?

Kim: Why do we love her?

Usually we like celebrities for certain things like: their talent, their good looks or there influence on the world. But there are lots of non-celebrities that have those qualities. There is talent everywhere you look, and lots of people have good looks! And we can all have an influence on the world... big or small it all counts. So why  do we want to be like them? Because everybody knows their name, and who they are. We think we might want to be famous, but my other posts might change your mind. So why do we love the celebrities that don't do anything significant, like Kim Kardashian? She is still a celebrity, yet she doesn't have any significant talents or any important jobs. Sure she's pretty, but it's not like beauty is rare. So why do we idolize these people? There are multiple answers to this question, and the answer is different for all of us. But in the end we want to be like them and we want everyone to know our name.

So why do we love celebrities? And why do we always feel like we need them, when really it's the other way around?

Pressures of being a celebrity

Vs.

We all know that being a celebrity must come with a catch. And there is definitely more than just one. But one of the major setbacks, are the pressures of being a celebrity. There are multiple different pressures like: Having to look good all the time, keep your oh so important image in tact, your physical appearance  and to set good examples to your viewers and people who look up to you. So first of all I'm going to talk about keeping your image in tact. For the first few years of a celebrity's career, they have to create an image. You have to have something that defines you. Maybe it's being the bad girl who gets into trouble, or the little angel that helps with charities. It doesn't really matter what you choose, but whatever you do you better be able to stick with it or your career is going nowhere soon. For example, Beyonce has an image of being a strong woman, who lives a healthy lifestyle and promotes good health. That is her image, but one day she came out with an add for Pepsi, and it threw her image out the window. She was supposed to be promoting living a healthy lifestyle, and drinking Pepsi is a very unnecessary part of that desired healthy lifestyle. There was a lot of controversy over this, and you could argue it both ways, but in the end it damaged her image. Whenever your image gets damaged , people start to loose faith in you. They start to question who you are as a celebrity, and that is not good. In order to be a celebrity you need to have to have people like you and support you. And they won't be doing that whenever they don't trust you.

You wanna be like that?

Secondly, I am going to talk about the pressure of keeping your physical appearance up to date, and always looking good. Celebrities always want to look good because they have people who could be judging them at any second. If you walk down the red carpet, and you are looking gross, who would want to look up to you? No one wants to look gross. And seeing that for the most part celebrities are people that we aspire to be, who would want to aspire to be like that. I can't think of anyone. Celebrities feel like they always have to look perfect so that they don't have to worry about being judged, when really people are going to judge them anyways. It sounds very artificial, and to be honest it is. Also, their managers put it on their contract that if they don't look good, the contract is over. They make them go get plastic surgery, or go to the gym and it's not fair. Celebrities shouldn't have to look good at all times, because at the end of the day, we're all human, and we're not perfect. But their managers and society put so much pressure on them that they have to do it.

Good role model? Good fan base?

 Lastly I am going to talk about how they always are under pressure to set good examples to their viewers. Think about it like this for a second, if you have over 5 million people looking up to you and have you as their role model, wouldn't you feel like you were under constant pressure? You don't want to lead today's youth to doing drugs, drinking alcohol and partying all night long, do you? Celebrities always have to be on good behavior, and set a good example.  Let's face it, we all want to have a little fun sometimes, but these celebrities can't. And if they do, they always have to be thinking, "What if the paparazzi's here?" "What if someone sees me?" "What will this do to my image?" It's a constant pressure that makes them worry about every single thing they do. When celebrities do get caught, it really  costs them. It could ruin some of their image, their fan base and so much more.  All they have ever worked for could be gone because of one bad move. 

So really, we think that celebrities have the easy life? Think about it from this perspective, and it's the opposite.

A day in the life of a celebrity

We all might think that celebrities have the ideal lives; fame, fortune and fun. But are they really living the so called "Perfect life"? Sure they get to experience some really amazing things, and meet really influential people, but that is only one half of what's really going on. We all have our personal lives, and our public lives.  All of us have a side that we want and allow people to see, and all of us have some things that are just for us and our closest friends. The same thing goes for celebrities. They also, have a side that very few have ever seen. Let's look at Justin Bieber, for example. 

To the outside world he is a fun-loving, charming and happy person that always has someone around to keep him company. He is never alone, especially with all his screaming fans. But as we saw in the "All around the world" movie, when Justin had to move hotels because his current location was swarmed with fans, he had nobody to go with him. He was lonely and had to have one of his assistants come with him so he wasn't alone in his hotel room. You're probably thinking that he could have anyone in the world come talk to him. Over a million people would be thrilled to accompany him, but that's just not how it works. Is that really the type of life that you want to live? Being lonely and miserable?  That's certainly not my definition of an ideal life. 

Secondly, celebrities can't do any normal activities with out being mobbed! Just close your eyes for a second and think of the things in life that you enjoy the most. Maybe you're thinking of going to the beach, taking your dog for a walk or going shopping!

None of those things would be quite as enjoyable if you had people running up to you screaming. Imagine never being able to go somewhere without being recognized -  that would suck! Even if you don't have fans coming up to you, you can always count on the paparazzi to be there, invading your not-so personal space.Your simple, daily activities would become interesting to the whole rest of the world. Day after day, year after year your life will be like this. Until you retire. Then what are you going to do? At first fame might be fun, but in the end...is it really?