To many the word ‘obsession’ has a certain stigma to it – the dictionary defines it as a compulsive preoccupation with an unwanted emotion, yet the image that springs to my mind is a horde of hormone-powered girls, screaming incessantly at Justin Beiber (doesn’t look like an unwanted emotion to me). However, to say that these teenagers shouldn’t be so infatuated (though the focus of their affection could be improved) would make me a hypocrite. In fact, I believe that a child that has never been through such a phase hasn’t experienced childhood.
Crazes that started in school – Top Trumps, Tamagotchis, those gooey alien things – brought classes and pupils together whilst they played games and swapped Yu-Gi-Oh cards. Surely those crazes weren’t bad, if they helped kids make new friends and bring old ones closer? Even Twilight, High School Musical, Justin Beiber outside of school have brought people together by finding opinions within yourself and voicing them through debate.
However, in my eyes, a true phase which has bewitched its readers for over a decade is the ending era of Harry Potter. Many of today’s generation, including myself, have journeyed through the highs and lows of Harry, Ron and Hermione’s adventures and the release of the final film is a sign to some that their childhood has come to an end. For me, the HP series was a rite of passage that led me into a literary world of quills, Quaffles and Quidditch where anything and everything is possible. Before the publication of ‘The Philosopher’s Stone’, the children’s book market was in decline as the quality of the books just wasn’t at its best. The came along Harry Potter, jinxing those fears out of the way as children were swept away to Hogwarts and into reading again. And although yes, I, and every other fan, get a tad excited just before a movie release, that harmless little rush simply makes me happy. Surely, critics can’t claim that any child should stop what makes them happy to please others? What sort of message would this send to our generation?
Even Twilight, though not a literary masterpiece, has inspired countless teens to produce fan fiction in the form of stories, poems and drawings. What is there to criticise about an obsession if it encourages us kids to write and create instead of falling into that image of a teenager that slobs about unproductively all day?
As a kid, we should have the right to fight that stereotype and to let ourselves get carried away in the excitement of it all before we get too old – why shouldn’t we be allowed to possess that creative freedom before it is taken away from us with maturity, responsibilities and cynicism?
So long live childlike freedom, long live that frenzied excitement and long live hormone-fuelled obsessions.
Besides, my Hogwarts acceptance letter is bound to come any day now.