'As Liam Payne gave up his teenage years, him and One Direction gave me some of my best memories'

'I was a One Direction mega fan, Liam's death has floored me and millions of women now in their late 20s'

At 15 years old I tweeted Liam Payne “Happy Valentine's Day” hoping for a reply. I was such a mega fan as a teenager that I genuinely believed I knew him and the four other members of One Direction.

Of course, I didn’t, and I understood this once I matured. However, his passing is the first celebrity death that has really hit me, and millions of others across the globe who dedicated their teenage years to the boyband.

Being a One Direction fan in the 2010s was so much more than buying their CDs and going to their concerts. I felt a part of a community at an age when life became very confusing.

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My obsession with the boy band began when they formed on the X-Factor. I was enamoured by their personalities that were shown on their weekly video diaries on YouTube.

It was before the age of the influencer, and these videos gave fans an insight into their lives and humour. Fans could also send in questions- celebrities had never felt so accessible. However, the boys also weren’t typical “celebrities”. They had been catapulted into superstardom and had limited media training, and to teenage girls, they felt like the funny boys in their class.

We genuinely believed we could be friends with them, and hoped for more. So it’s no surprise that women now in their late 20s are floored by Liam Payne’s death. It’s sad to see how the 31-year-old singer has appeared to grapple with poor mental health in the past few years. Being catapulted into global stardom as a teenager can’t be normal.

As Liam and his bandmates Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Harry Styles gave up their teenage years, they were making ours. My biggest dream at the time came true when I met the band at Tesco Clarehall in November 2011. They were doing a free signing for their first album, and I was determined to get my hand on a wristband to meet them. However, there was a slight issue.

The wristbands were being given out on a Friday, and my mother wouldn’t let me take the day off, believing my Junior Certificate classes were more important than One Direction. So my friend and I had a plan- we enlisted her poor granny to stand in the queue for us until we finished school. She queued for a few hours, and then we stood among hundreds of other fans for several more hours to get the wristbands.

Luckily, we did, and the following day we queued for another 10 hours to meet our favourite band. While this sounds terrible, we had the time of our lives. We met other One Direction fans (many I stayed in contact with), we sang our favourite songs by the band, and we were high on the fact that we were about to meet them. We only got to meet the boys for less than five minutes, and no pictures were allowed.

But, I was ecstatic. I got to meet the band that was consuming my life at the time. Life is hard at 15 years old. I was no longer playing sports, I was navigating new friends and trying to figure out who I was.

As silly as it sounds, One Direction gave me something to focus on and the community brought me genuine joy. It angers me when people make fun of teenage girls for being super fans of celebrities. It’s akin to boys being obsessed with football teams, but for some reason is seen as stupid or embarrassing.

Taylor Swift mania took Dublin by storm this summer when she played three sold-out shows in the Aviva Stadium. Thousands of young girls gathered at the concert wearing glittery outfits, belting their hearts out to their favourite songs and swapping friendship bracelets.

When I attended the gig, I was quite emotional witnessing how much this gig meant to Taylor’s young fans. It brought me right back to my teenage years of being obsessed with One Direction. When staying up late to watch their latest music video, belting out their newest hit, or talking about their social media posts with other fans brought me so much joy. While I thankfully grew out of being a mega fan, I look back on that time with so much fondness.

Liam’s life has appeared complicated over the past few years. But, there’s no doubt that many former fans, like me, will thank him for the memories.

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