Justin Timberlake is one of the few celebrities whose birthday I actually remember; the only other ones I can think of right now are Britney Spears, who shares a birthday with my dad, and David Bowie, who, uh, is my personal savior.
But I remember Justin Timberlake’s birthday because I actually used to celebrate it. My best friend in elementary and middle school, Savannah, and I went through all the preteen crazes together. We had a Spice Girls club until Geri Halliwell left and ruined everything. Then came the Backstreet Boys, who were pretty fantastic, but still not completely what we needed. Then came NSYNC. And NSYNC made all our dreams come true.
We made collages from posters from Tiger Beat and J-14. We had a binder full of fan fiction that we had slaved over during slumber parties and math class. We had a fight when No Strings Attached came out because my dad took me to get it on the day it was released, but her dad couldn’t do it so she was mad when I kept talking about how awesome it was. We cried together when our parents refused to drive us three hours away to the closest concert. We were serious fans.
We were so serious that one night, Savannah felt the need to confront me about my treasonous, continuing love of the Backstreet Boys. She told me that I needed to choose which side I was going to take, and that flip-flopping was no longer acceptable. I needed to declare my allegiance. The next time I slept over at her house, I brought all my Backstreet Boys memorabilia – my posters and t-shirts and trinkets and love letters – and we burned them in the backyard. Seriously, we loved NSYNC.
I was always a J.C. girl, while she favored Justin. While I still think I had pretty solid taste for an 11-year-old, I can finally see what she saw in Justin. He’s magical, right?
Today, Justin turns 31. And to celebrate, let’s go over some of the highlights of his career, ok?
Did I miss anything?