The Fandom Trap

After reading about forms of identification and star-audience relations from Jackie Stacey’s article, I thought about how much I truly looked up to celebrities and tried to copy them when I was a young girl. I dressed up like a ballerina after reading Angelina Ballerina and I played hopscotch on the sidewalk because that’s what the children did in Sesame Street. One film that particularly changed my “eight-year old life” was The Parent Trap, a 1998 film starring Lindsay Lohan.

Hallie Parker, one of the main characters in The Parent Trap (, played by Lindsay Lohan,) is portrayed as the “cool sister” when compared to her proper English twin, Annie James. Hallie wears jean jackets, has pierced ears, wears stylish sunglasses, and has an overall sense of confidence throughout the film. After watching this, my eight-year old self wanted to be just like her, so I began transforming my appearance and trying to act like her because I identified with her character and wanted to become just like her. As a result, I began to resemble Hallie by wearing similar clothing and dressing in what I thought was vogue (, for a second-grader at least). I also imitated much of what she did physically, by getting my ears pierced and cutting my bangs to fall past my eyes ever so slightly. Not only did I resemble the character of Hallie Parker in my newly-found confidence, but I also managed to look much like her as much as I could through my physical changes by my hair and ears. At the time, I did not think much of what I did, yet looking back on my year in the second grade, I realize much of what I did and how I dressed during that time was very much a result of The Parent Trap, and therefore a reflection of media identification.