Move Over, Miley. In Washington, The Obama Girls Are the Latest Craze.

[gauguin57]

It seems like just yesterday that all the tween girls wanted to meet the Bush twins ... er ... uh ... well, maybe not so much! LOL!

OK ... I know this is shallow. But it's Saturday ... and what the hell.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/17/AR2009041703536_pf.html

By Ellen McCarthy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 18, 2009

The tween girls of the Washington area have transcended differences of race, class and wealth to reach a single, resounding conclusion: They really, really, really, really want to be friends with Malia and Sasha Obama.

They lap up every shred of information about the first daughters, dream about meeting them and strategize ways to make it happen. Minivan rides and dinner table conversations are dominated by questions about the girls: What's their favorite food? What kind of dog did they get? Where can I get a coat like Malia's?

"Sometimes I go up to my room and I just think, 'I want to meet them, I want to meet them, I want to meet them,' " says a desperate Sophie Metee, a fourth-grader at Wood Acres Elementary in Bethesda.

[bluestateguy]

1. I hope they learn how to screen out the phonies

I hope their parents have warned them about fake people who just want to be their "friend" because of who they are. Hopefully they have learned how to distinguish between their real friends and the mere social climbers (that's real big in Washington, D.C.).

[MADem]

2. How sad that any kid would "want to meet them" so badly.

Certainly, they're probably a much better class of role model than what's on offer to date (though we don't really know what they're like in private--nor should we) but it's a shame that ordinary kids can't have their own sense of self, instead of "desperately" needing to copy others, just because their faces are in the news.

[Thrill]

3. Kids are no different than adults. They just want to meet people they see on TV

[MADem]

9. I must be out of the mainstream. I don't particularly want to meet most of the jerks I see on TV.

That might have to do with the fact that I've met a LOT of them in years past, and I've figured out that they're just bozos on the bus like the rest of us.

[pnwmom]

13. Wouldn't you like to meet Barack and Michelle? Have a nice little dinner

with them?

[MADem]

17. I don't need to, in order to feel like I am a person of value in this world to people who are

important to me in my daily life. I'm guessing they'd probably rather have dinner alone, rather than deal with me, a complete stranger to them. I'm interested in making their lives easier, not harder.

I don't want to copy them, either, particularly. I can admire the job the President is doing, overall, and say Thumbs Up to his wife for doing the garden thing and charming the Queen and so forth, without feeling a need to rub up against them to gain some sort of ... I dunno--reflected glory, maybe?... from them. If I met them, that would be fun, but I doubt that's in the cards. I won't go out of my way to touch their hems or pine away for the day, in any event.

In the course of my life, I've met a lot of legislators. A LOT. I've also met a lot of ambassadors, "Senior Government Officials," and Cabinet members. After the first dozen or so, the thrill is gone. They fart and get annoyed like everyone else. Some are meaner than you think, others are nicer. Or maybe it's just that you're catching them on a good or bad day.

Cult of personality just never did it for me...

[pnwmom]

18. Okay, fine. Back to the OP. You never were a girl, and you're right --

boys often seem to go straight from being kids to being teenagers.

Girls, however, have a major pre-teen period, which usually involves crushes, and usually on other girls first -- then most move onto boys. Usually, unattainable boys before attainable ones.

It's not sad and it's perfectly normal.

[MADem]

19. I wish they would leave those kids alone. "The latest craze" can quickly become

the denigrated, out-of-fashion joke.

I know the parents are doing all that they can. It's hard to keep the shield up.

[gauguin57]

4. Have you ever been a tween girl?

When I was a tween/young teen, I wanted to meet Davy Jones, then Donny Osmond and the Jackson 5, so badly I could barely think about anything else. I thought about them all the time. I used to imagine what I'd say to them WHEN I met them ... and how I could get them all to marry me.

And hey ... I grew up and moved on ... and I turned out all right.

[HopeOverFear]

5. exactly

[stillcool]

6. Ha! Davy Jones! Me too...

and George Harrison.

[gauguin57]

23. If I had it to do over, I'd definitely be all over George Harrison!

Ringo was my Beatle, however.

[MADem]

8. No, sorry.

I believe that's a new phenomenon. You were either a kid, or a teenager, boy or girl. The line was quite clearly drawn.

I didn't grow up in an era of idol worship to this extent, either, with all of the obsessiveness. Of course, we came from a different cultural perspective, plus, my generation had less of that influence due to lessened media availability. I lived in countries where TV came on for two or three hours a day, if we were lucky, so we didn't even bother getting a boob tube (we'd go to the neighbors if something big happened, and watch there). Our thing was "playing outside." They don't do that anymore.

[pnwmom]

14. Not very new. It's been going on since at least the 60's in this country. n/t

[hileeopnyn8d]

20. Rudolph Valentino

died in 1926, and 100,000 people lined up in NYC to pay respects at his funeral.

It's not really a new thing.

[MADem]

22. Those weren't children, though. Those were movie fans. And curiosity seekers.

Many more than that lined up to pay respects to Ronald Reagan, too.

Sometimes, people like to be part of the "big thing."

[hileeopnyn8d]

24. Okay then

what about Elvis? 82% of the television viewing audience tuned in to watch him in 1956, I'm sure many/most of them were teens. Same thing with the Beatles. And the Mouseketeers.

I think your experience may be the unique one, not the other way around.

I do think it's slightly more widespread now, due to the Disney Channel, but I also think it's shorter-lived. These kids drop their idols faster than you can say Lindsey Lohan. Whereas, there are plenty of lifelong Beatles fans, rightly so.

[MADem]

25. Elvis was gyrating his HIPS on TEE VEE!!!!!!

He was causing a SCANDAL and giving teenagers a focus that enabled them to SEPARATE from their parents, as all teens must do.

Parents watched so they'd be able to TUT TUT, and kids and young adults watched because Elvis was COOL.

Also, Elvis was a young MAN--not a little kid like those Obama kids are.

I just hope that Sidwell looks out for them and guards their privacy. They don't need to be in the public eye constantly. The sooner they fall out of fashion, and are just allowed to live their lives with their school chums and their dog, the better for them.

[hileeopnyn8d]

27. I agree with you about the

Obama girls. I'm a little more disturbed that a journalist sought out and reported the phenomenon.

[pnwmom]

12. We're talking about pre-teens with crushes on unattainable public figures.

This isn't new, and it's not sad. It's really very normal -- and the objects of their desires, very positive.

[Butch350]

26. What, did you just pop out as an adult

How sad for you - I think that is normal for children.

[MADem]

28. My heroes were the adults in my family, my teachers, and my peers.

I didn't look to people I didn't know for inspiration.

I didn't have the influence of ninety-mile-an-hour culture, either. We didn't even have television for a good part of my childhood. We did something called "playing outside."

I never felt deprived by not hero-worshipping strangers who are spoon-fed to the public by a grasping media. Really!

[ClarkUSA]

7. The Obama Girls are better role models than any Hollywood starlet, so more power to them.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

10. The Obama girls were the only big losers in November.

Being a president's daughter must be pretty grim. Still, their parents seem to be doing as much as they can to help them cope with it.

[BlooInBloo]

15. I'm not sure their lives are quite the desolate wasteland of despair that you may be thinking of.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

21. That's an exaggeration of my position.

The Obama girls will have much harder childhoods than they would if their father were not POTUS. It's a fair step from that to "desolate wasteland of despair".

[pnwmom]

11. I love the girl who wants a play date. Basketball. "Girls against boy."

And the boy is the President.

:)

[Hutzpa]

16. I don't like this piece

it just stinks of dead fish.


Social climbers, in England we call them hangers on...be very weary of
social climbers, parents using their kids to have their way,
they can make or break you.