In a world where t-shirts with people’s faces and policies are popular, idolizing public figures is common, especially in teenagers. From celebrities and bands to politicians, many people have people that they admire.

“As kids individualize themselves from their parents, which is a natural part of development and growing up, they try to establish psychological and emotional independence,” says Dr. Alan Ravitz. “No matter the culture, they need somebody to look to, aside from their parents, for guidance and a model for becoming an adult. In our culture, this is often a sports figure, an actor, or a pop star.”

The definition of admiration is when someone or something is regarded as impressive or worthy of respect. The definition of idolatry is the extreme admiration, love, or reverence for something or someone. Admiring someone is normal and everyone has someone that they admire, but idolizing someone is not healthy and can go too far.

Idolizing a person can go one of two ways when they fail to live up to that title. The person is blinded by the person they idolize and they refuse to see anything that their idol might have done wrong, or they are completely crushed and embarrassed because their idol did something wrong.

When Shane Dawson was exposed to be a racist pedophile, people had many different reactions. One group of people expressed that they expected this because of his racist past. Another group of former fans got very angry and destroyed the merchandise they had bought from him. Yet, he still has supporters who have turned a blind eye to everything he’s done. 

The people who idolized him were either left shocked and disgusted, or they continued to follow him despite the harm he’s caused. Both of these reactions aren’t ideal. They came from the fact that former followers viewed him as someone who could do no wrong and only saw and wanted the best in other people. When he wasn’t the good person that people thought he was, chaos ensued. 

While this is true, it is fair to say that there are public figures that people idolize that haven’t done anything wrong, but as they are still people, we still need to accept that there are possibilities that they can be imperfect. While holding people accountable is important, a part of staying away from idolatry is accepting that they might make mistakes because they are people. It’s important to not hold them to a high standard where you believe that they can’t do anything wrong.

Public figures can exist as a form of motivation and empowerment, but idolizing someone to the extent that you want to be just like them is unrealistic. It makes sense to want to adopt some of the mannerisms and characteristics of someone you admire, but sacrificing your values and beliefs to be like someone else is going too far. If you want to adopt something your idol does because it falls in line with your values, that makes sense. But, if you want to adopt something your idol does because they do it, that can become problematic. 

Especially people our age, in high school, tend to cling onto public figures and base a part of our personalities on them. According to Dr. Timothy Legg, the admiration of public figures is normal and a part of human development. It only gets harmful when the admiration starts consuming parts of someone’s life.  

While liking someone’s music, content, or even political policies, is not harmful in itself, the complete absorption of that public figure into their own identity is. It is much better to understand the humanity of the people we admire, and the idea that their persona that they put online is not always representative of who they are.

It’s important to understand where the admiration comes from, to see if this admiration is extreme or reasonable. If you admire someone because of their actions, and support someone because of their views and beliefs, that’s admiration. If you admire someone because they are that person, and think that everything they do must be good and justified, it’s idolatry. It may be hard to see, but choosing to support everything someone does because of your preconceived ideas about them is not the way to go. The line between admiration and idolatry is thin, but by being mindful of why you choose to support someone can keep you in the clear.