When I was in Year 4 I was asked to draw a picture of my
hero and write why I admired them. I chose my sister because I looked up to her
and hoped that when I was an adult I would be as kind, caring, funny and generous
as she was. Ask a child of the same age today and you might see a drawing of
Kim K or a member of One Direction. Even if resemblance between Kim K and my
sister is uncanny (lol!) I can assure you they are very different people.
A recent survey of 11-17 year olds showed that more of them
had a higher opinion of Kim Kardashian than David Cameron and that ‘having lots
of money’ was more important to a third of those surveyed than being
intelligent or being kind.
In a time where it is blasphemous to even utter a bad word
about Beyoncé and the hashtag #BeyonceIsGod is commonplace on the twittersphere,
it isn’t surprising that kids grow up believing that fame and fortune is what
makes you successful. While I’m not denying her unbelievable talent (please
members of the BeyHive don’t send me hate mail/attack me in the street) you
must admit the way people worship her is only a reflection on a
fame obsessed culture. A touch from Beyoncé is enough to make people claim
'their lives are complete' when Beyoncé will never ever remember the day she
met you.
Another celebrity with an unbelievably loyal fanbase is of course Justin
Beiber, Mr Drunk and disorderly himself. Again, I can appreciate people enjoy
his music, I mean I have been known to YouTube his entire album from time to
time (that's normal right?!) but most of his fans, mainly young hysterical
girls, are totally obsessed with someone they have never met or will queue 24
hours for a mere glimpse of.
American talk-show host Jimmy Kimmel decided to test the loyalty of his fans by coming up with outrageous lies about the superstar's life and see what his fans had to say in a video (below) made for his show. After being told that Bieber has tyres made out of baby seals, that he punched his grandma and that he parked in a disabled parking space when someone disabled was about to park there, their responses included 'He can do whatever he wants', 'He is the King of Pop' and 'I would have made [the disabled person] wait becuase Justin Bieber is Justin Bieber.'
When I watched this video for the first time I laughed uncontrollably but then after a while it dawned on me that these girls were so keen to defend a person they didn’t know, simply because of his fame, that they made excuses for even the most awful claim.
Although I'm sure both Beyonce and Justin Bieber have many attributes to look up to, I think that most of our time could be better invested in looking up to far more inspirational people. Why is it that we all know every pointless detail about Joey Essex's life but we probably don't know the story of inspirational people like Malala Yousafzai or even take notice of the ordinary people who constantly contribute to society in a positive way.
For those of you who know me, you probably know I'm not an exception to those who are totally obsessed with reality TV shows, I mean there's nothing better than the final 2 mins of Made In Chelsea when something actually happens. But, I think it’s time we stop putting the lives of so-called 'famous people' ahead of the people we should really be looking up to. Yes, watching TV or celeb stalking on instagram can be fun pastime it shouldn't reach the extent to which we put these celebs on a pedestal.
Instead of aspiring to be as famous as Kim Kardashian
maybe we should really be aspiring to become as kind as our mother or as
charitable as the person in the local paper.
