Dear New Kids on the Block

Actually, this letter was written specifically to Joey McIntyre. He was my favorite of the five, I think because I was literally ten years old when I wrote this and he was the youngest of the group. Maybe that made him seem more accessible?

I was in my fan letter writing era in early 1990, and this letter is a draft I found in the same notebook in which I found my letter to Ann M. Martin. I try to separate myself from other fans by assuring him that I won't ask him to write back, even though it's peppered with questions like "what are your plans for 1990?" and "did you have fun touring Des Moines this Fall?", you know, real riveting journalism. He must have taken me seriously, because I never heard back. (Mmhmm, I'm sure that was the reason I never heard from him...)

I end the letter by confessing that I want him to personally sing to me, listing two of my favorite songs, Treat Me Right and I Wanna Be Loved by You. Ahem. I am TEN. I think I mentioned this in an earlier entry, but my boy-radar dialed up pretty early, and I was crushing hard on pretty much any boy I could look at.

The language I use to try and befriend Joey is so cute - check out this video where I read the letter aloud!

Have you ever written to a celebrity? If so, did they write back? I'd love to hear! Back in the 90s, we had to get a mailing address from a publisher or an agent or manager and then send it off with a 25c stamp hoping it wouldn't get lost in the mountain of other letters.

Nowadays we can simply slide into a celebrity's DMs, and maybe they'll tap a few words back and be done with it. In a lot of ways social media has made celebrities feel more accessible, which is cool!

(I admit I did slide into Ann M. Martin's DMs after I published my last entry. I was hoping she'd see it and love it and ask me out to lunch. I'm still hoping.)