The act of being a fangirl has been around for longer than anyone cares to admit, but is it good for you? Even though on the surface, the act of “fangirling” seems innocent and sometimes even childish, could being infatuated with a celebrity, a band, or a book, etc. be damaging to your mental health?

Sarah Lovelady, junior at Bob Jones High School, likes to obsess over boy bands in her free time. She expressed her opinion on fangirling. Sarah stated, “Being a fangirl could be bad for your health; that is if you let it consume your life.” Sarah also stated “Some types of fangirling can be a good thing, if you don’t let it take over your life. It is a good thing to love someone and have a little fun sometimes.”

Elizabeth Kasprzak, a freshman girl at Bob Jones High School, gave her opinion on the act of being a fangirl as well. “It can be bad if it’s taken to an extreme level because you don’t focus on reality and what’s going on around you.” Even though Elizabeth believes that fangirling isn’t good to an extent, she says that sometimes, it can be a good thing. “It gives you something to look forward to and helps cheer you up when you see a tweet or something from the person.” She also says that she does think that fangirling could hurt your actual mental health in the long run.

I, myself as a fangirl, believe that fangirling can be a bad thing for your health. It can make your emotions crazy, and it can make you a little insane from time to time. When you get obsessed with something or someone, it always consumes your mind and you realize that you spend your time constantly thinking about said thing/person. Once you start loving something to a certain extent, it’s hard to stop loving it, so anything that happens involving that certain thing affects you even when you know that it shouldn’t. Being a fangirl comes with more than just taking on the name. You have to become best friends with all forms of social media (which probably still isn’t good for you) and you have to know everything about that person or thing.

There have been many instances where fangirling has been taken too far. For example, in 2013, the trending topic #cut4bieber was a very popular thing for teens everywhere. Fans were cutting themselves in protest of Justin’s reckless behavior at the time. There were also rumors of fans of the popular boy band One Direction that had been seriously harming themselves when member Zayn Malik left the band in early 2015. I was personally extremely upset by Zayn leaving, but I wouldn’t take it so far as to harm myself.

Overall, I believe being a fangirl could most likely be hurt your health, but so do a lot of things. And this thing just so happens to be fun.