Enough time has passed that you can laugh about it now, right? We're guessing a fair share of today's teen bedrooms declare their allegiance for Team Edward or Team Jacob (or perhaps Justin Bieber for the tween crowd), but let's take a walk down memory lane and share our own embarrassing wall celebs.
I'll start. The very first photo I hung on my wall was a signed 8"x8" photo of Ricky Schroder (er, I mean "Rick") given to me on my birthday by my best friend who won it in a library reading contest. It was the only celebrity photo out in the open on my walls, but over my teen years the inside door of my closet became a collage of photos cut from Teen Beat, Tiger Beat and Sassy with some (now) perplexing choices: Johnny Depp, Jason Bateman (more Silver Spoons love), River Phoenix, Dolph Lundgren (huh??), Michael J. Fox and Michael Damian of Young and the Restless fame (where are you now?).
Over the years my mother has asked me to take it down since I haven't lived at home in nearly two decades, but I've resisted because it makes me giggle every time I open the door. It's my own little embarrassing time capsule. I'd post a photo if my mother knew how to operate a camera.
Your turn - who adorned your teen years' bedroom? The worse the better.
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Michael Hutchence of INXS for most of my teen years, and then Morrissey when I got to college. Heh.
The one and only Duran Duran. About a DOZEN posters. And I had a small room!
"tween" years was Billy Idol and Kirk Cameron. ?????
I moved on to Sassy magazine and Johnny Depp, Balthazar Getty (I think I liked his name, mostly) and more Johnny Depp.
Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Hanson, and then *Nsync.
NKOTB the entire wall top to bottom was covered with stapled on to pictures from bubble gum mags i bought. i was in fifth grade. i was crushed and then realized i should never put so much heart and money into such silly things. i never had posters or an obsession like it sence! pretty heavy stuff for fifth grade! BTW Donnie (y?) was my fav!
I have to say I found the mature man, rather than the teen heart-throb, more my style. Larry Wilcox and Bruce Penhall, the 2 blonds, from CHiPs! Also, I just loved Gregory Harrison from Trapper John, MD. Last, but not least, John Schneider from Dukes of Hazzard. Great memories!
Mr. Rogers (yes, as in "Won't You Be My Neighbor" fame), James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, vintage Coca-Cola advertisements and Converse high tops dipped in paint & "walked" up the wall, a pink flamingo and all my furniture was splatter painted!
I LOVED my room and all of my friends did, too.
Tom Cruise, baby. Straight out of Top Gun. I can see the poster page torn from TeenBeat now. I still get a flutter when my husband wears Aviators, but Tom creeps me out these days.
Let me see... who was *embarrassing*? I wrote "I (heart shape) Kirk" on the inside of my closet door in permanent marker - fairly small letters, but still. That was Kirk Cameron, of course. And I remember a brief stint with Corey Haim, Corey Feldman, and Mitch Gaylord. Ha.
Oooh - but Kate's post reminded me that Simon LeBon was my first real crush. I was totally into Duran Duran at the tender age of 9.
Johnny Depp all the way (probably from Sassy). River Phoenix (RIP). I also loved Balthazar Getty circa "Lord of the Flies." Before that, Kirk Cameron (probably from Tiger Beat). Up until two years ago, I had a picture of Robert Downey, Jr., in my cubicle at work (from Esquire). Now, I have an old pic of The Beatles and trading cards of Elvis, The Beastie Boys (from "Yo! MTV Raps"), and Buffy, which I do not actually trade but was given. Oh, and my husband and son!
Yes, definitely some Johnny Depp and River Phoenix. Then I moved on towards some Axl Rose and Sebastian Bach. Pics of the Beatles and posters of Marilyn Monroe made their way across the walls too.
I am no where near embarrassed to admit that Leonardo DiCaprio was plastered over my walls while I was in middle school. I also had a poster of Kurt Cobain up for a few years that I adored, but I redecorated my whole room as a freshman and from then on didn't keep posters or pictures like that up anymore. However, my one year in the dorm in college I had a large bulletin board tacked with my favorites... I remember having Zach Braff, still some pictures of Leo (still love him!), and Heath Ledger (RIP) being up there, for sure... Many others, too, though...
I was a teen in the late 80s, when hair metal was really popular. I bought Metal Edge magazine and tore out pictures of Poison, Ozzy Osborne, Guns 'n Roses, Skid Row, and pretty much any other similar band. Oh, and Johnny Depp. ;)
morrissey, morrissey, morrissey
i wasn't allowed to hang posters in my room, but i had a sliding glass door every inch of which was covered in duran duran. the lovely vertical blinds of the '80s kept my secret stash hidden from my disapproving mum.
Some of you are making me feel old.
Duran Duran in middle school. Morrissey and The Cure in high school.
I had a pic of Bo and Luke Duke posing behind the open door of the General Lee until my brother pointed out that the doors were supposed to be welded shut. Dammit!
I also wasn't allowed to tape up posters in my room, but I went to boarding school in high school and taped up posters then. I had a huge collection of Absolut Vodka ads and Salvador Dali posters. My roommate had a huge poster of Luke Perry.
Some of you are making me feel old.
Duran Duran in middle school. Morrissey and The Cure in high school.
No, you're not old. I had Duran Duran up in middle school, too, then I went to Billy Idol, Bauhaus, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure, Smiths, and such. I had an iconic Robert Smith poster I took to college.
Oh yeah, I had Beastie Boys (when they first were punk) and Ministry, plus a dozen more easily.
(did we not just go through this? but for reals, wasn't there a post about this a little bit ago? just wondering:) i was all for Hanson. i know i know. mmmbop, really? YES!!
Kirk Cameron and Tom Cruise...always Tom Cruise!
Joshua Jackson and N*Sync. My head exploded when they were on SNL together!
Great question! On one wall, a life-size poster of Marylin Monroe. On the other, my own drawing of Herschel Walker. Closet door, Star Wars movie poster.
Those were the days...
Backstreet Boys, especially Nick Carter. And Hanson. Annnnnd Leonardo DiCaprio. And NSYNC. Basically anyone featured in Teen Beat from 1997 to 2000. I had an entire wall covered in magazine clippings, plus a poster I made for the BSB concert I went to in 6th grade. Screamed/cried through the whole thing and could have sworn Nick was looking RIGHT AT ME! Oh lordy.
Nobody - I stuck to photo-posters of exotic landscapes, Porsches and BMWs...
...No people - It wasn't exactly cool back then to be "Out" back then.
What, no one else had any Rob Lowe?? (He still looks just as good as he did in that mid-'80s poster!) I also had tons of Duran Duran (Team Simon!), John Stamos, C. Thomas Howell, Patrick Swayze, and Matt Dillon (I was totally a child of the '80s). At some point I also had a big poster of the cute boys from A-Ha.
Prince, Miguel Bose, This Mortal Coil and Lord Byron.
When I was 12, I swore up and down to my mother that I would marry Jonathan Brandis, and I demonstrated it via my bedroom walls.
Smashing Pumpkins, Cranberries, Mike Herrera (from MxPx), Hoi Polloi. when i was younger, i had a pic of Neil Patrick Harris taped to the underside of my sister's top bunk. every night i would smooch him goodnight. and thus began my 10 year streak of only dating boys who would later come out. *sigh*
My dad wouldn't let me "destroy" the walls (btw: after buying a much-loved house, I now understand why he hated having holes in the wall) and I didn't get to hang a poster until after freshman year of college when they were planning to repaint my room in the coming years anyway. That means my first wall poster was an old Hope Floats movie poster and, therefore, the first and only guy ever on my wall was Harry Connick Jr. Not bad, but he's many years older than me, sooo...
In junior high, however, I covered all my books and binders with JTT - that's right, Jonathon Taylor Thomas. And, later, my AP binder had Dougray Scott - a MUCH more lasting choice!
Albert Einstein. Seriously. :)
Joe Perry from Aerosmith and Slash from Guns 'n Roses.
In junior high I had one small Parker Stevenson (the smart Hardy Boy) pic and that was replaced by a poster of Woody Allen's "Manhattan" (white with black skyline) which stayed up through high school. Now that I think of it, none of my friends really had teen heart-throb pics, either. None of us were really into that, I guess. In high school I added architectural prints to my one Woody poster and that was it.
I started with Pseudo Echo and Men At Work in the 80's but moved on to The Cure, EMF (I was in LOVE with the singer), Blur, Guns 'n Roses, Pink Floyd and Pearl Jam (early 90's).
I saw the Godfather series when I was in middle school (early 2000's) and became OBSESSED with Al Pacino, circa mid '70's-80's, both as an actor and good lookin' mug. I had Godfather and Scarface posters all over my wall--he was quite the handsome man in his younger days! My friends totally made fun of me because they only knew Al Pacino from Scent of a Woman and they all thought I was in love with an old man haha
I tore out page after page of rockbands from a few Alternative Press magazines, until an entire wall was covered in Dashboard Confessional, Hot Hot Heat, and Coheed & Cambria. Once I hit the middle of high school, I ripped them down, painted a mint green, and now have three shelves full of books and a landscape painting over the same spot.
Early in my life I had Donny Osmand and Andy Gibb... Then I graduated to Cheap Trick before moving on to the very questionable Adam Ant... Finally Depeche mode made I final stop before I left home... As soon as I did, all my stuff came down to make way for the Sugar Cubes and a poster for the movie 1969!
oooh...didn't put up posters..but dreamed of: jimmy osmond, donny osmond, michael jackson, john stamos, glenn scarpelli, scott baio, leif garrett, george clooney (from his time on Facts of Life).
Still have some of those magazines! Must peruse them soon.
I figured others would say Duran Duran and I did have more then one poster of them. I didn't think anyone else would say Bruce Penhall from CHiPs! I loved him, he was so cute! I had a big poster of him and all magazine pics from teen beat. I feel like you could guess ages for sure from these posts. :) I also would rip out ads w/teddy bears or anything cute. I remember Oneida had some really cute ads.
I'm 45 and feeling really old compared to the rest of you. Davey Jones as a child. The Beatles as a teenager. REM in college.
I never really got into the heartthrob thing, though if I had been it probably would have been Jonathan Taylor Thomas, Benny from the Sandlot, and Devon Sawa. Instead I was super into the Redwall books and had my room decorated with my drawings of small British mammals, and a big tree painted in one corner. I switched over to Lord of the Rings at some point, but never the movies, I hated the movies, so I think I just drew the characters how I imagined them and put them up. I was a Faramir girl.
I dunno. I think if I still had some of those Iron Maiden posters, at least one of them would be framed and up on the office wall.
leonardo dicaprio and *NSYNC.
I'm not embarrassed AT ALL to say it was Bruce Springsteen. Not just posters but every article and photograph and tape liner i could get ny hands on. Man, those were the days.
Actually Bowie, Bowie and some more Bowie.
(And I am not ashamed to say that at 41 he still adorns my/our bedroom)
Oh god, Hanson was literally 'wallpapered' all over my room!!
I'm older than most of you so I had David Cassidy all over my walls.
I made a "wallpaper border" with our dot matrix printer-it had Kiefer Sutherlands' full name: Kiefer William Frederick Dempsey George Rufus Sutherland-see I was designing even back then!
Wall-to-wall NKOTB. Like seriously, I must have bought every tiger beat on the newstands to make those boys into my wallpaper.
P.s I love the fact that you can tell a person age by who the posted on their wall. Too cute!
michael jackson in grade school. my own artwork in high school. calvin klein and versace ads in college featuring reigning supermodels or marky mark (wahlberg) and marcus schenkenburg. and fashion tear-outs
Johnny Depp's Cry Baby poster : ) my friend and I were kind of, sort of, well..a lot obsessed with him for a good year or so. lol we threw him a birthday party with cake and everything for fun one June, all our birthdays were almost the same day, so I can defend it as saying, it was a party for my friend and I...
My sister just reminded me that I once had a double-sided poster that I hung from the ceiling with a string when I couldn't figure out who to choose. It would twirl in the AC and I could enjoy both pics. I think it was a River Phoenix/Johnny Depp poster, but honestly I can't remember.
The staple is still there in the ceiling. I see it everytime I visit.
I didn't have any people on my wall, but I did have a whole bunch of Clinique ads! I loved their whole series. (If I had had pictures though, it would've been Michael J. Fox.)
One whole wall in my bedroom was COVERED with Madonna pictures and posters. I had recruited all my family members and friends to cut out any Madonna picture they came across, whether it was from a magazine or newspaper...I collected every picture and put it up on my wall. It looked very cool (to me...and back then.) Eventually, I took all those pictures down and put them in an album. Awww, those were the days.
I had Escher prints and fractals on my walls. I'm just now realizing how geeky that is.
I'm 27, but I watched a LOT of classic TV (I was OBSESSED with Nick@Nite) so as a preteen until I was 15 or so I had printed out pictures of Peter Tork of the Monkees, David Cassidy, and Jim Morrison (and Christian Bale). As an older teen I had pictures of Lux Interior of the Cramps (don't ask me why, I still don't understand it), Billy Corgan, and the Rubber Boy (Daniel Browning Smith -- a contortionist I was obsessed with for a while). Then I got a real boyfriend and took everything down. I kind of miss those days, actually. I'd love to be able to plaster pictures of Liam Neeson, BJ Novac, and Thomas Jane all over my bedroom, but my husband would probably kill me. haha
In '77 as a 12 year old boy I had the iconic Farrah Fawcett poster in a sexy red bathing suit, a Star Wars poster with Princess Leia and her cinnamon bun hairdo and various Red Sox player posters... all on a wall of wood paneling of course :)
What about Mark-Paul Gosselaar? I was sure to see his name! Heart-throb wise...he was the only one on my wall. I had a Simpsons calendar...obviously only for one year. I had a bulletin board where I posted my drawings and some newspaper clippings. And I had one of those nets that go in the corner to hold all of your stuffed animals and dolls...chock full!
George Strait and Ryne Sandberg. Don't make too much fun!
lifeinthefortress: I had lunch with Peter Tork and his brother in Shreveport, La when I was in the 6th grade, along with my Mom and younger sister. We were staying at a Holiday Inn while my Dad was on a business trip. They gave us tickets to the concert they were doing there. As you can imagine, I had quite a story to tell when my girlfriends when I got home. But my only poster was George Harrison, my first true love. Now...if my husband would let put posters on our wall, I would now hang Viggo and Harrison Ford.
To correct the first comment: I had quite a story to tell my girlfriends when I got home.
Boy bands, the guy who played Zach on Saved by the Bell, a poster of Poison, etc...I was a random mix of 80's and 90's.
Perry Farrell (from Jane's Addiction). So much Perry. An entire wall-full, and that was mostly magazine clippings, not even posters... He was so hot before he got nutty.
I can't believe no one has mentioned Fred Savage! The walls of my 10 x 6 room (I know, tiny) were virtually covered with posters and photos of him. I think I saw every episode of the Wonder Years... and my firstborn's name is Kevin, not by coincidence. ;)
@r2b2: That's awesome!!!! I had dinner with Peter Tork's band, Shoe Suede Blues, when I was about 15. They had a small (about 15 people) private party where you could meet and greet with the band. Way much fun. I'm so jealous that they gave you tickets! That is awesome!