When you were in middle school, you're lying if you say that you didn't have any posters of the Jonas Brothers or Jesse McCartney on your wall. Or in your locker. Or the wallpaper of your desktop computer (do they still have those?). We fangirled so hard over these musicians and actors, searched for cheap AF tickets to their concerts, and fantasized about them whisking us away from the real world and into the sunset. If Nick Jonas were to come through and confess his love for me, I would drop everything and become Mrs. Nick Jonas. These are the teenage heartthrobs that we all fell in love with. They necessarily don't have to be teenagers. Age IS just a number.
Jesse McCartney
"I want you and your beautiful soul, I won't let another minute go to waste." Pretty sure I watched this video and listened to this song on repeat for about 40 days. That flop of blonde hair was in style BEFORE the Bieber haircut. His sultry voice with a touch of pop boy band into his music was at the top of our Recently Played playlist on our iPod Nanos.
Jonas Brothers
The major topic of discussion among your friend group was which Jonas brother who was gonna marry. Personally, I was going to marry Nick. I had posters of him all over my door because my mom wouldn't let me hang posters on my walls. He was the baby of the group (minus Frankie) and I was head over heels in love.
Zac Efron (HSM days)
Yes, Zac Efron is timeless and he will forever be the hottest specimen on this planet. But his HSM days with that flop of hair (seriously, that was a trend). He entered our hearts in that #14 Wildcats jersey and pretty much set all of our standards in being the best boyfriend ever. I want my boyfriend to drive two and a half hours to visit me at college and dance me with under a big oak tree. Still waiting...
Corbin Bleu
You're lying if you didn't have a crush on Troy Bolton's best friend. His sarcastic sense of humor, that big 'fro, and his jock nature made every girl squeal. "Push it to the Limit" still makes me wanna dance. Even his gig on "Dancing With The Stars" proved that he dances into our hearts.
Ethan Craft
God, it seems that every teenage heartthrob had long(ish) hair. Ethan definitely was the hottie of Disney in Disney's golden days (aka the 2000s), impressing not only Lizzie and every other girl in that middle school, but impressing me. Yeah he has air for brains but he was the most popular guy in the eighth grade!!! He had a skateboard!!!
Big Time Rush
I don't know about you, but all four of these guys were beautiful in their own way. James was the egotistical "bad boy" who wanted to be famous and had a great face for it, Carlos made you laugh, Logan was the brains, and Kendall was the ringleader. Kendall was my fav, how he cared about his friends and wanted to form a boy band instead of going solo to make James happy. These guys were the boy band of Nickelodeon.
One Direction
Speaking of boy bands, I had to mention One Direction. They arrived later on the scene after you graduated the eighth grade, but they still arrived in style. Their British singing voices made us swoon and gave us Beatles flashbacks. With their hit songs "What Makes You Beautiful" and "One Thing," every teenage girl was hooked. As their music matured, so did their fans. Zayn's high note in "You and I" broke girls hearts. But it wasn't until 1D "took a break" when our hearts broke completely. They say that it's just a pause and they'll come back, but 1D is literally the reason I have trust issues.
Justin Bieber
The baby stage. When he was 15 years old, before the drugs, alcohol, partying, and relationship troubles. His only problems were getting his allowance and learning simple boy band dance moves. His smile could melt any girl's heart. He literally trademarked the Bieber haircut. He flipped his hair and made every girl in the room go crazy. My heart is literally beating so fast writing this paragraph because I at 20 years old still have a severe case of Bieber Fever.
Dylan and Cole Sprouse
Gotta admit I had a full body poster of Dylan Sprouse. I was literally obsessed with Dylan Sprouse. I preferred Dylan over Cole, Zack over Cody. I guess I just like the bad boy. But these twins were beautiful. They played twins on their own shows. We saw Cole play Ross's son on Friends and later one half of the Martin twins on "Suite Life of Zack and Cody" and "Suite Life on Deck." They were young heartbreakers and pranksters. You can find Cole on "Riverdale" and Dylan reportedly said he was gonna return to acting after he got married.
Tom Welling
NGL, didn't watch "Smallville" but I saw commercials and I def saw him in "Cheaper by the Dozen." He was the older guy that we all fell in love with. Those eyes, his arms, and that jawline...
Pete Wentz
He was the rocker type that made your iPod Nano "edgy." His songs got you feeling some type of way and let's be serious, you were completely jealous when Peyton from OTH hooked up with him. Those tattoos and his rocker bad boy persona got every girl wearing combat boots and putting pink stripes in their hair.
Chad Michael Murray
He was our prince/football player in "A Cinderella Story," the bad boy rich kid in "Gilmore Girls," and then finally he took our hearts as Lucas Scott in "One Tree Hill." LOL, do you remember when he was in "Freaky Friday"? Because I do. Literally this man has been with us since we were ten and still breaking hearts everywhere.
I still have crushes on all of these guys, because my fangirl inside of me is still alive. I will never not fangirl over these men. They're all older than me but I'm still dreaming that they will someday confess their love to me, marry me, and build me a house.
