All-Star Dangers Of Cheerlebrity

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King

Is all about that bass
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FBOD:LLFB
Dec 4, 2009
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This might seem silly but I have seen the potential for this for a while (ever since I was randomly approached in the cheersport warmup room for an autograph... which was odd).

CA just tweeted about a couple people being a little too enthusiastic.. to the point of the athletes possibly being in danger. I can't say its really surprising. So many tweens/teens now with internet and twitter can follow a cheerleader like they would follow their favorite sports star. Only they can go to an event and compete against their favorite sports star (and see them in the wamrup room and what not). My interaction with cheerlebrities has been... they are just people. However cheerleading does celebrate bigger than life personas and the 'myth', as you will, can be a lot bigger than the person. Does the cheerlebrity thing self perpetuate a sort of mini paparazzi / screaming fandom?
 
I think there is a risk. While every sport has these people that are more well known than others the distinction with all star cheerleading is that there is no security team there to protect these "cheerlebrities" who are basically teenagers in high school. The girl or boys that become obsessed with them can find their locations and simply walk in. It scares me too think that there is going to be a time where these teens might have to be kept separate from other competing teams to protect them.
 
I think Erica from CEA, mom doesn't let her walk around comps alone for this exact reason. Any creep, pyscho, can walk up to them with out anyone suspecting any malice. It's scary. And yes, there are some fans who are just that- fans of a great athlete. But then you have people who envy these athletes, to a alarming degree.

I think parents should be aware of their child's popularity, and make sure that they aren't walking alone or without their cell phones. It's the little things.
 
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While in the athletes (and coaches and parents heads) there might be a higher level that better cheerleaders live on.. in reality its all kids just competing and being kids.
 
There is definitely an increase in people "cheer-stalking" their favorite athletes. It's truly getting out of hand. We need more people with that same mentality "they are just people who excel at what they do." But then again, these are young athletes who don't know any better. I think that these young cheerleaders are constantly exposed to social media where they feel like they are best friends with these so-called "cheerlebrities." I don't like where this is headed because athletes should be able to watch other teams without being bombarded. Their safety is at stake and I don't think they are prepared with how to even deal with "fans."
 
The same kind of personality disorder that Mark David Chapman and John Hinkley Jr were afflicted with could affect anyone. And if that person were a part of the cheer world and happened to have a 'cheerlebrity' as the object of their fixation, I think the cheerlebrity would be just as much at risk as any real life celebrity would.

Anyone can become the object of someone's crazy attention - ask any woman or man who has been stalked. Being a 'cheerlebrity' just makes them more visible than others, to many more people - and I would think the risk would increase relative to that.
 
I did not see this but here is what I posted in random thread about CA today lol



First of all Matt Smith - I feel so bad for him!!
These girls are crazy.. He is standing there watching Panthers practice outside. This older girl was like Omgggg it's Matt (as like 28 other girls) she taps him on the shoulder and asks for a pic he says no he can't.

This girl looked like she was about to cry he starts to walk off and the girls mom was like follow him!!

I was like seriously are you promoting this?

Now inside we are watching Pumas perform. These 2 girls come up behind Matt as he is talking (oddly enough I was standing right beside him lol) they tap on him..and I'm not sure if he can feel the incessant tapping on his bag. I told them he can't take a pic while not in uniform but you can try and ask! The girls leave and comeback they then ask do I know when he will be in uniform so they can ask him? Lol I said I have no clue- idk why they thought I knew..

I'm standing by another woman and I turn to her and I said this is out of control!!!! She says yes! The second my sister walked in she got mobbed by a bunch of girls.. I said really who is your sister? She said Cami! I said I can see why! The thing is I legit witnessed many girls stalking and whispering about him...


It has to get overwhelming!! As for all the other cheerlebs ...
 
I feel like this "cheerlebrity" thing is getting more popular and crazy every season...
I remember last year at Super Nationals, my mom came and told me that a certain girl on Senior Elite was almost in tears and was telling her mom that she "wanted to get out of here" because there was a huge group of cheerleaders hovering around her. It must be tough to be easily recognized because it seems like people get followed by people until they go to warm ups and then when they get off the floor, there are usually people waiting for them.
Maybe this can be controlled by only allowing people to get pictures/autographs at meet and greets like they did at Jamfest this weekend so athletes won't be bothered by just walking around the competition.
 
My cp witnessed the couple of people going too far today. A coach put some of these athletes in a private room to shield them and the two over zealous fans were knocking on the door saying "I know you're in there" And trying to slide notes under the door. Granted, it could have escalated past that, as she walked away.

But that's all I could think as several scrambled to get photos and autographs: that they're just people. They might be amazing athletes or attractive or both, but it made me so uncomfortable to watch the surrounding and hounding. They were all so gracious, too. Blew my mind.
 
The whole "cheerlebrity" thing is just creepy. From the instagram comments to the outrageous amounts of replies someone will get on a tweet about nothing... It's weird. As many people that are "cheerlebrities", there are ways around it. Don't have Twitter, don't have instagram, don't have Facebook. And if you can't live without them, make them private and only accept the people you know as your followers. If you haven't noticed, the crazy "fans" are more likely to walk up to you at a competition if you have all of that stuff, where as a few years ago we didn't have all of this "cheerlebrity" nonsense because I don't think anyone actually cared about the individual as much as they cared about the team as a whole. I garuntee the teams I watched when I was younger at competitions I didn't know anyone's individual name- I knew the team name. That's it. And that's all I cared to know. And now if say senior elite is your favorite team, you would know maddie and gabbie and erica. I'm not saying that being a "cheerlebrity" takes away from the team as a whole, but people are more likely to point out that gabbie fell rather than just saying senior elite dropped a stunt. If that makes any sense at all.
 
Cheetahs were warming up today outside and literally there were a crowd of people watching them.
I witnessed a girl crying after she took pictures with certain Wildcat Flyers
& After Cheetahs performance tonight, there was a mob of girls RUNNING to them just to take a picture.

It IS insane and something has got to be done about this.
 
This has definitely gotten way out of control! Especially now that technology is so readily available to so many people and the age of kids with cell phones and internet access keeps dropping. Like King said, all these kids follow these athletes on Twitter or Instagram and I see posts everyday from teenage or even younger girls professing their love for Matt or Cami or Erica and how much they want to meet these cheerlebrities and how they would "do anything" to simply get a photo together or an autograph.
I never understood the whole "cheerlebrity" thing. I guess I was introduced to the sport so long ago that it wasn't very prominent. Of course we had our people we would look up to (Bucky or Tye or whoever was popular back then) but I never idolized them the way kids no nowadays. These are just kids - minors at that! And these parents get manipulated by their children to think that they are Mary Lou Retton or something!
I come across these athletes all the time and of course I'll introduce myself, get pictures, and cheer them on but the key thing is to just treat them like normal people! Because under the hairspray and the uniforms that's what they are. Yes, I understand they are cheer icons for a reason - whether it's amazing tumbling or stunting body positions or point dancer - but they are still minors and all they want to do at the end of the day is what we all love, and that's cheerleading.
I really think that we should do something to try and calm down these fans as much as we can as mature adults before something serious happens. I have a very bad feeling about Worlds since all these teams have practices on property and technically anyone and everyone can go watch them. You never know when some crazed fan will do something drastic to get the attention of their favorite athlete.
 
In many cases the fault lies with the cheerlebrities as much as their fans. There are many amazingly talented cheerleaders who don't put themselves in the public eye the way so many of these kids do... Twitter, Facebook, etc. In many cases the cheerlebs are victims of their own self promotion. (Again...not all cases...but many)
 
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