why does justin bieber having a baby make me feel so nostalgic?
good for them, sad for me
I was an OG Belieber
When I say I was a belieber, I don’t mean I tapped my foot when “Baby” came on at a TJ Maxx, I mean that on July 7, 2009 when Justin Bieber came out with his first single, “One Time” my life had changed forever. To this day, I remember the first time hearing it. I was sitting in the back of my then best friends moms tan Toyota Corola. As we spoke about whatever happened that day in the 6th grade, we heard a faint angelic voice over the radio. It was then we asked her mom to turn Radio Disney up, and that’s when it happened. When I first heard Justin Bieber.
After that, I was in love. For the next 10 years, Justin Bieber would run my life. I did the whole belieber shebang- I went to all the concerts, had all the merch, ran a Twitter fan account, tweeted him everyday in hopes of him noticing me, saw the Never Say Never movie multiple times, watched every JB interview from my iPod Touch, had 10 posters of him in my room including one life-size one, and cried (but also felt sexually awakened??) at the sight of his mugshot. I was fully convinced that Justin Bieber was going to be my boyfriend. I was that girl.
I mean, I was able to get access to him all the time so to a 13 year old this could feel like a real relationship. At the time, Twitter was filled with nothing but updates of his whereabouts, concert dates, and constant tweets from himself about how much he loved his #beliebers. But, no matter how much JB content I consumed in a day, he just remained my boyfriend in my head.
As time went on, I moved on
My life and my friends were filled with JB centric conversations and activities for what felt like forever. But as time went on, I moved on and developed more interests to take up space in my head. JB being my boyfriend in my head turned into real boyfriends outside of my head. I discovered new things like reality TV, got addicted to Instagram, went from reading Tiger Beat to Seventeen (that’s a big milestone in a woman’s life), graduated high school, and went off to college (where they DID NOT play his songs at parties), but I always held a special place in my heart for him.
If he’s grown up, does that mean I am too?
So yesterday on May 9, 2024 when I wake up to the news of Justin Bieber posted that he was going to be a father, you can understand why me, a 26-year-old woman who had dedicated almost a decade to loving him from afar, shed some tears.
I received texts from old friends, friends who witnessed my undying love for him with their own eyes. Messages like, “Are you okay?” “Did you hear the news?” “Thinking of you during this difficult time” filled up my phone inbox. A simple-minded person may read this and think, Why are you sad over a celebrity crush having a baby? They don’t know you! And yes of course on a surface level that is true. I’m sure the women who experienced Beatlemania felt the same way when Paul McCartney had Stella. But as they and the women before me know, it is so much more than that.
A simple-minded person also may think, Why do you care? You have a very loving boyfriend! And though that may be true, this sadness has nothing to do with relationship status. Which is why I have seen thousands of TikToks of pregnant married women also sharing their grief during this news.
Because it’s not just being sad a childhood celebrity crush moved on, it’s because Justin Bieber becoming a father means a part of our childhood is gone.
There will never be a time again when I am in the back of my moms car singing along to his songs, there will never be a time again where my friends and I put on purple mascara to go see him perform live, there will never be a time again when I am decorating my entire locker with mirrors and stickers with his face on it, all of those days are gone. Justin Bieber is growing up, he got married, and now is starting a family, which means, I’m growing up too.
Now we’re just friends- in my head
No I am not sad that he is having a child, in a bad way. I obviously hope he has a healthy and happy child thank you very much I am not that type of CRAZY. He is not in the wrong for growing up, the way neither of us are. It’s just kinda sad.
The best way I can explain the nostalgic feeling I have when I watch him do grown up things is that it feels like watching your childhood best friend who you don’t talk to anymore grow up through social media posts. You like, you comment, you share, but you know you’re not getting invited to their wedding (which is fine because who would you even know there at the wedding anyways?)
So yes, as former 2000s belieber, I am happy for Justin and Hailey, but I’m also a little sad. We are the adults in the room now, including him.
So, that’s it. Me and Justin Bieber are growing up. No more choreographing a dance routine to Need Somebody To Love with my friends during lunch time, and no more him having swooshy hair and a dance number in a purple hoodie again. But c'est la vie, I will just have to wait to drive around my future daughter as she asks me to turn up the radio sings the songs of her Justin Bieber.
