Teenagers dream of fame over academic success, shows survey

TEENAGERS are resting their hopes and dreams for the future on fame rather than academic success.

A new survey shows 85% of boys and 80% of girls, aged between 13 and 19, want to be famous, while just 1% of the same group want to be politicians.

Almost half of all teenagers — 56% of boys and 40% of girls — said they would drop out of school if they had an opportunity to fulfil their dreams of fame.

The survey was carried out for a new RTÉ Radio One programme — Fame, presented by Geri Maye — which explores the phenomenon of fame and what drives people to achieve it.

The survey targeted 1,300 young people from Dublin, Galway, Limerick, Cork, Drogheda and Donegal.

Speaking on the first programme of Fame yesterday, Louis Walshe said the figures were lower than what he expected.

“They all want to be famous, especially the girls, because they can,” he said.

Larry Bass, executive producer of You’re a Star, said young people sacrifice a lot for a chance to be in the public eye.

“School unfortunately takes second place while they’re in the competition. It’s not something we advocate, but it’s something that they decide themselves,” he said.

Money is the main driving force, with three out of five respondents saying it was their main motivation for wanting to be famous. This was followed by success (55%), a belief that being famous would be fun (52%) and being on TV (25%).

A fifth of young people believed that being famous would prove others wrong, and 15% said it would make them more attractive.

Almost 2,000 Irish people auditioned for Big Brother last year. But only 5% of those surveyed said it would be a desirable route to celebrity. In fact, more teenagers (6%) would prefer to be writers.

Acting was the most popular choice, followed by becoming a singer or a sports star.

But for many, it is more than just a dream, with over a third believing they would be famous some day.

Mr Bass said this optimism showed that Irish people had shaken off their inferiority complex, with young people have emerging as ambitious and confident.

“Kids have much bigger dreams [now],” he said.

Roy Keane emerged as the celebrity most admired by teenagers followed by Bob Geldof and Bono, showing that Irish teenagers have reserved their admiration for talent over instant fame.