Almost everyone has idolized or admired a celebrity – from pop boy bands to that hot actor/actress in a movie – and everyone that has had an idol has stalked that celebrity online at least once. But sometimes idolizing celebrities can go a bit too far.

Last month Justin Bieber fans, commonly known as Beliebers, started a trend on the social networking site Twitter by tweeting “#CutForBieber”. Many fans participated in this trend by posting pictures on Twitter of them cutting themselves.

There is nothing wrong with admiring a celebrity, but what might start off as innocent admiration could turn into something dangerous, like the “CutForBieber” hashtag.

“It’s silly and weird that fans would go that far. Some fans are probably doing it for attention, but if they were seriously doing it, it’s ridiculous,” sophomore Christina Leon, a Justin Bieber fan said.

Maura Gavin, East Leyden psychology teacher, had never heard of the “CutForBieber” hashtag and expressed her shock yet understanding of how this could have happened.

“There’s so much exposure now on celebrities. There’s just too much and a lot of it out there is not positive,” Gavin said.

Most teenagers that do adore a celebrity, spend most of their day talking about or thinking about the celebrity. These teenagers’ lives are consumed by checking Twitter or Facebook every day to see what the latest news is on their celebrity idol.

Junior Caitlyn White, a One Direction fan, commonly known as Directioners, admits her recent obsession with One Direction.

“I spent the entire year of 2012 staying on the internet and getting rid of my social life,” White said about spending too much time on the internet and not making time to hang out with friends.

But that is only the beginning of going too far for a celebrity. Some fans around the world spend thousands of dollars on concert tickets and merchandise. Others camp outside venues in the cold just to catch a glimpse of the celebrity.

Gavin points out some warning signs on when the behavior is going too far for a celebrity.

“In general there is a giant shift in behavior, you notice red flags going up in terms of their attitude changing: their actions have changed, they’re becoming dangerous to themselves or others, the performance in school has changed and they’re isolating themselves from others. Basically they are no longer themselves,” Gavin said.

But idolizing celebrities might just be a phase that teenage fans go through. As people grow up they don’t necessarily like the same things as they did when they were younger. So this means that the fans would grow out of idolizing their celebrity in a few years.

But for now, White seems pretty attached to her celebrity idols.

“I don’t see myself outgrowing One Direction..” White said.

For Leon, she’s unclear on the future of her celebrity obsession.

“I don’t know. It depends if he stops making music,” Leon said.

Yet, idolizing a celebrity can sometimes be a good thing. In some cases, the celebrity promotes taking part in positive things and helping causes, which in turn makes more people recognize what they could do to help.

“If the celebrity is a positive role model, it is something that would benefit the child. But if the celebrity promotes violence and creates a negative influence, we should limit how much that celebrity is talked about,” Gavin said.

“His music, he’s good-looking, he’s down-to-earth, he helps people in need, he gives back to the charities, and I think he’s a good person,” Leon said about Bieber.

As a teenager myself that has been obsessed over some celebrities, I think that as you find out more about yourself and mature over time you don’t have the time to obsess over something as irrational as celebrities and your possible future with them.

Because I have grown out of obsessing over a celebrity I feel as though others would too because I came to the realization that it was needless consuming my life. And once these teenagers are forced to grow up and get a job and go on to college they aren’t going to have time to drool over the new hot boy band.

Although it might seem as though that all these fans are overly attached to a celebrity, in a few years it’s likely that that won’t be the case and it’ll just be another phase in life that people go through.