Celebrities have always been in the media, but do they realise how much they influence young people? We spoke to young people in Bexley to find out what they think about the issue.
Faye Wheatley is a 16 year old from Thamesmead who has lived there all her life. She says: “Everyone wants to be their favourite celebrity, every little girl wants to be their favourite singer or dancer and every little boy wants to be a footballer.”
She believes Bruce Willis is the worst role model as he dates people younger than his daughter but she argues: “celebrities don’t set out to be role models.”
Faye thinks celebrities crave attention and they know they influence young people. According to Faye, magazines are partly to blame as they airbrush celebrities to make them look perfect; it is dangerous for girls to want to be so skinny as it puts pressure on them to be this way.
Every girl sees something wrong with them that they want to change, but Faye believes: “Cheryl Cole isn’t that pretty in the flesh. Catherine Zeta-Jones is stunning because she is curvy and men want to go out with curvy women.” Faye says you can’t win with magazines: “if you loose weight you’re too skinny and if you put it on you’re too fat.”
Kieran Holloway, 17, also from Thamesmead, agrees with Faye. “The media blow up the scene and add what they like to the picture,” he says. For Kieran, Usher is the person he looks up to as he grew up listening to his music and finds that he is a positive man. He has been inspired by figures in the music business to develop his love of music into something bigger.
In the year 2000 approximately 100 million magazines were sold to the British public and in the past 7 years this figure has increased to 1.438 billion. This shows that we, as the buyers, have shown a greater interest in celebrities and their life styles.
This year, Britney Spears was the most searched celebrity on the search engine Yahoo, followed by wrestling stars and Paris Hilton.
Miley Cyrus, the teenage star of Disney’s Hannah Montana, has said in interviews that it is ‘normal’ for young stars to run wild, but having talked to Faye and Kieran, we don’t think they should. They have a responsibility and so do the media, as they know that young people look up to celebrities and want to be like them.
About this story
This article was written by Hannah Braisted, 13 and Amy Jaiteh, 12 as part of Bexley Summer University 2008.
