6 Celebrities With Amazing Childhood Crushes

If I’ve learned anything from magazines, it’s that celebrities are people too. Despite their fame and fortune, they still have some things in common with us “regular people”—like random childhood crushes. If we’re allowed to crush on older Hollywood bad boys, teen heartthrobs and quirky musicians twice our age, why can’t celebrities? After some research, I discovered a few surprising connections between some of our favorite female stars and their own celebrity crushes:

1. Ariana Grande liked Jim Carrey.

When Ariana Grande met her childhood crush and idol Jim Carrey, did she calmly shake his hand, smile, and walk away? No. She cried. Right there, right in front of him. And for that, I commend her. Her tearful reaction was so genuine and heartwarming, I immediately felt the need to tweet her and say congratulations. Instead, I got distracted and ended up finding this gem on her newsfeed (in response to her meeting Jim for the first time):

2. Emma Watson liked Tom Felton.

Hear that? That’s the sound of the fan fiction world imploding. Apparently, during the first two movies, Emma Watson had such a big crush on her co-star, she would check the agenda first thing in the morning to see if they’d be working together in any scenes. Felton, who viewed Watson as more of a sister, politely rejected her advances and the two have since become close friends.

3. Julia Roberts liked Abraham Lincoln.

At the age of seven, Julia Roberts had already outgrown the idea of boy band crushes, focusing her attention, instead, on a more sophisticated breed of human. “I had an enormous crush on President Lincoln at that point in my life,” she said in an interview. “Why I would choose to reveal this, I know not.” We don’t know either, Julia, but we’re glad you did.

4. Janet Jackson liked Barry Manilow.

Nowadays, Barry Manilow might not be the first person that comes to mind when someone says “heartthrob” but back in the day, his hair alone could attract hoards of teenage girls. Janet Jackson was apparently one of them. According to her, “he performed on TV and I taped it. When no one was around I’d kiss the screen.”

5. Jada Pinkett Smith liked Prince.

While everyone was drooling over her future husband, Jada Pinkett Smith was fawning over a different Prince, the non-fictional one with the fabulous hair and groovy fashion sense. Though Prince’s musical style was a bit more sophisticated than Will’s, the latter ended up stealing Jada’s heart.

6. Kristen Wiig liked Billy Idol.

Some people go to concerts and take pictures of the performers on the big TV screens to make it look like they had better seats than they actually did. (Not speaking from personal experience at all.) Kristen Wiig does the same thing, but in the comfort of her own home. In perhaps one of the greatest confessions of all time, Wiig noted: “I had Billy Idol’s ­picture on the back of my bedroom door, and I took a photo of it, because I wanted to take the picture, develop the picture, and tell people that I saw him. But it didn’t work, because there was always a huge glare, like over his face, and it was very obvious I was taking a picture of a poster.”

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