Hoping to meet them, getting daily updates on their lives through your favorite networking sites, or copying their pathway to success as your motivation are things you may do with your idols.

“I like them because they are gorgeous and their songs are great to listen to,” Aulia Sofiana said. She adores the five-piece Korean band, Big Bang.

The ninth grader at junior high SMP 252 in East Jakarta said that as a die-hard fan of the band, she not only collected their pictures and posters but also did her best to sing their songs in Korean.

Aulia, who goes by Opie, said she had decided she really wanted to learn to sing well and to speak Korean since she fell in love with the band.

“I joined their fan club, got involved in groups connected to Big Bang on Facebook. Sometimes I just dance while singing their songs in front of a mirror, dreaming I’m on stage,” she said, adding that she thought this was pretty standard fan behavior.

“I want to be a star when I grow up, too. I can earn a lot of money from it,” she said.  Her words are not idle talk.  She has participated in several teen modeling contests.

Kawanku

Because of the many modeling, singing and other performance contests out there, people can now take a stab at a career in the entertainment world. Or, for fans who can only think of meeting their favorite celebrities, television programs have been setup to make those wishes come true.

Psychologist Rose Mini, also known as Romy, said the phase in which teens start to admire someone was part of their development process and speaks to the influence of their environment.

“This is a form of window shopping for teenagers.  They look around themselves and say, “Oh, this group is cool, that thing is hip or that place is awesome,” she said.

Romy said that when teenagers are looking for models, they absorb influences in their surroundings like sponges to find their self-identification. Unfortunately, with mass media and popular culture being omnipresent, what they take on is mostly based on the outside, surface appearances.

This was the time, she said, when teenagers needed to be reminded that other things beneath the surface were also worthwhile.

“They can do the window shopping, but there should also be someone, their parents for example, who can help them see things more deeply, the ingredients for real success,” she said.

Ananda Nurahmi Berkah Nastiti of SMA 99 in East Jakarta said that after falling in love with the songs of Lyla Band, she was curious to know more about their success stories.

“I like them more now that I know about their hard work. They never give up and they also don’t let their musical career disrupt their studying. I just like them,” she said.

Nanda added that she felt excited to have an idol, someone who set a good example for her.

“But I only like them for their songs and hard work, I don’t get caught up in their personal matters,” the teacher wannabe said.

Romy said that some of her friends just got too deeply involved in their idols’ personal doings. They follow their daily lives through fan clubs or the news, assuming it will bring them closer to the people they admire.

Since admiring someone is part of self-identification, teenagers have started to picture what they want to achieve in the future.

Romy said they needed to know what they would have to further develop in themselves, knowing what kind of person they wanted to be and what they wanted to do.

“Today it is so easy for young people to show what they’ve got. For example, those who love to sing can upload their video clips on Youtube, sign up for a singing contest or use Facebook to channel their love for writing,” she said.