What is fangirling? According to the Urban Dictionary, fangirling is “the reaction a fangirl has to any mention or sighting of the object of her affection”.

Alright, you might be thinking, what is a fangirl? In short terms, a fangirl is a female fan. There is, in fact, one main difference between a regular fan and a fangirl. A fan simply likes and is interested in a person or character, whereas a fangirl is OBSESSED. The term can also apply to male fans, fanboys, but they are generally less in number and less fanatical.

In some cases (in many cases) this obsession can create serious problems. In terms of dangerousness, fangirling is underrated; it can, in fact, hurt both the fangirl and the famous person being fangirled.

There are various means through which a typical fangirl can obsess over her favourites. You must always keep in mind that a fangirl’s ultimate aim is to interact with the person she is fangirling over. First come the social media platforms where Twitter has around 70% of the importance, Tumblr 29.9999% and Facebook 0.0001%. Second come live shows, signing sessions and similar events, and third come contests and fan mail.

Twitter can be defined as the hub of fangirls. If you are a frequent user you might have already noticed that a great part of the hashtags that trend are tweeted by fangirls. You will find things like #getwellsoonJustin (Justin Bieber related) and #weloveOneDirection (One Direction related).

Interactions between fangirls on Twitter can often turn into disputes, which can get problematic and bring around a great deal of cyber-bullying. Tumblr, on the other hand, is more peaceful. You will find a lot of HQ pictures and fans cracking jokes about their favourites.

Facebook is used by (some) fangirls only as an agenda where they can easily recap on events and contact other fans. These platforms can cause you to waste entire days, and it is not hard to get caught up and spend hours tweeting and re-tweeting people.

Concerts and events can cause a lot of harm. If fans know that their favourite artist is in town they will do anything to meet them, or at least get close to them. Fans turn into maniacs and run around the city hunting for the person they want to meet. They either line up at the venues for a day or two before the event and sleep there, or they stalk the artists. In both cases many people can get hurt, and even the artist can get mobbed and harmed.

The fact is, fangirling is really hard and requires a lot of effort and good time management, especially if you are a teenager and you are still in school. So I suggest you think it through before embarking on this painful adventure.