Do you remember your first celebrity fandom? I was ten when my parents let me rent the VHS of James Cameron’s Titanic. There was no going back: Leonardo DiCaprio was and remains one of my idols. I’ve followed his career and his environmental efforts and ignored his affinity for cargo pants ever since. And I’ll admit that I was very invested in his belated Oscar win. Why do we become so interested in the lives and careers of our favorite artists? Julie Klam investigates this in her new book, The Stars in Our Eyes: The Famous, the Infamous, and Why We Care Way Too Much About Them.
Why is it that we’re more likely to remember meeting a celebrity than we are some of the important moments in our lives? In her book, Julie posits that when we see the ways celebrities “are just like us,” we connect with them. Social media makes that connection more instant and allows celebrities to be more relatable. As Julie talks us through her hypothesis, we begin to understand why Kim Kardashian has 101 million Instagram followers. People want to see the glam as much as the behind-the-scenes. And if you happen to meet Kim K. at a restaurant, you’ll probably remember it.
Julie narrates the audio and hilariously shares her own run-ins with celebrity. The book also includes “intermissions”—stories that people she interviewed for the book shared about their own celebrity encounters. You can hear her chat about the book and her own Jennifer Aniston fandom here:
Originally published on penguinrandomhouseaudio.com