History Main / TeenIdol

Not to be confused with the Creator/MegCabot novel, Literature/TeenIdol, or ''Music/MarinaAndTheDiamonds'''s song "Teen Idle".

* Music/AlanisMorissette (We don't talk Canada about that).

* Lesley Gore was 16 when her debut "It's My Party" went to #1. After attending college in 1965, she started a modestly successful adult career with the entirely self-wrote comeback album, ''Someplace Else Now'', in 1972. She remained on the oldies and cabaret circuit while recording the occasional album until her death in 2015.

This trope commonly overlaps with the IdolSinger, although not all teen idols are singers. See also BoyBand.

The most basic way to tell if a celebrity is truly a Teen Idol is by whether they wind up in magazines aimed at the teenage market (like ''Sassy'', ''Tiger Beat'', ''YM'', ''Seventeen'', and ''Teen People'') and by whether they become a poster celebrity. It should be emphasized that TropesAreNotBad and many idols, particularly musicians that legitimately wrote their own material, [[VindicatedByHistory gain critical defenders as time goes on]].

** Music/MileyCyrus, probably their most successful to date after [[Series/HannahMontana]].

** Music/VictoriaJustice (''Series/{{Victorious}}''). This show also spawned Creator/ArianaGrande, who became more popular than Justice ever was (and spun her character off into [[Series/SamAndCat her own series]]).

People have been declared teen idols for as long as being a teenager has been recognized[[note]]which, by the way, is NewerThanTheyThink - until the 1950's, anybody under the age of 18 was simply a "child"[[/note]]. Many, but not all, have been specifically groomed for this purpose. They generally have several things in common:

** Music/MileyCyrus, probably their most successful to date.

* Music/{{KISS}} was considered this during the late 1970s, based on the way in which the group's merchandise was originally marketed.

* Music/MileyCyrus

* Music/AlanisMorissette ([[CanonDiscontinuity We don't]] [[OldShame talk [[CanadaEh Canada]] about that]]).

** And then you have Music/BridgitMendler, Creator/DebbyRyan, Creator/BellaThorne, {{Creator/Zendaya}}, Creator/LauraMarano, Music/ChinaAnneMcClain, [[Series/DogWithABlog G. Hannelius]], [[Series/LivAndMaddie Dove Cameron]], and Creator/OliviaHolt...the list just goes on. Creator/RossLynch, Creator/JakeShort and Peyton Meyer are the channel's male faces.

* Music/AlanisMorissette ([[CanonDiscontinuity We don't]] [[OldShame talk [[CanadaEh Canada]] about that]].)

* Wham! in the '80s.(Creator/GeorgeMichael would also be a Teen Idol at first as a solo singer).

* Music/{{NSYNC}} was this in the late-'90s/early-2000s. Music/JustinTimberlake is this now.
* Music/BackstreetBoys were also this in the late-'90s/early-2000s (albeit more in the late-'90s).
* Lesley Gore was 16 when her debut "It's My Party" went to #1. After attending college in 1965, she kickstarted a modestly successful adult career with the entirely self-penned comeback album, ''Someplace Else Now'', in 1972. She remained on the oldies and cabaret circuit while recording the occasional album until her death in 2015.

* Music/AlanisMorissette ([[CanonDiscontinuity We do not]] [[OldShame talk about that]].)

Not to be confused with the Creator/MegCabot novel, Literature/TeenIdol, or ''Creator/MarinaAndTheDiamonds'''s song "Teen Idle".

Not to be confused with the Creator/MegCabot novel, Literature/TeenIdol.

* All three of the brothers on ''Series/HereComeTheBrides'', although Robert Brown was way up at the top end of the Teen Idol age range. Most teenaged girls were enamored of Bobby Sherman, but some preferred David Soul ([[Series/StarskyAndHutch which turned out to be a wise choice]]). Bridget Hanley (the youngest bride) was the female Teen Idol from the same show.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Whiting Len Whiting]]. He was Romeo in Franco Zefferelli's 1968 ''RomeoAndJuliet''. He was such a major Teen Idol for a while that it wasn't uncommon for him to be the subject of 60% or more of the articles in a single issue of a teen magazine.

* David Cassidy of ''Series/ThePartridgeFamily''. Interestingly, he's one of the few real-life Teen Idols who was also portrayed that way on the show.

* Music/Madonna

* Music/KISS.

* Music/BritneySpears was the late '90s/early 2000s

* Pat Boone. (yes, that one)

** Shaun Cassidy, half-brother to David. His singing career never quite got in the way of solving mysteries.

** Particularly in their pre-disco stage of their career (late 1960s and their rise to stardom to the early 1970s).
** The Gibbs' youngest brother, Andy, was also a teen idol in the late 1970s. Unlike post teen pop of the 1960s and later, Gibb's music made as a teen still gets heavy oldies/classic hits airplay -- espeically "I Just Want to Be Your Everything," his ultra smash from 1977 -- due to his music being substantially and stylistically different from peers such as Shaun Cassidy, Bobby Sherman, etc.

* Music/BritneySpears was the late 1990's/early 2000's version.
* Music/TheBeatles!

* Ricky Nelson. His sons, Matthew and Gunnar (who performed as Nelson), also became teen idols for a time in the early 1990s, extending the family tradition to a third generation. As patriarch Ozzie Nelson had No. 1 hits on the ''Billboard'' charts in the late 1930s/early 1940s, and Ricky followed with his string in the late 1950s/early 1960s, Nelson became one of the few multi-generation families to each have No. 1 hits, turning the trick in 1990 with "(Can't Live Without Your) Love and Affection."
* Music/FrankSinatra was arguably the original teen idol[[note]]Some argue that he really wasn't as much of a "teen idol" as conventional wisdom suggests and that Elvis was the true pioneer of the teen idol[[/note]]. This was in the '40s and [[TheFifties '50s]].
* Music/TheJonasBrothers, part of the Disney marketing machine.

* Creator/LeifGarrett, who actually started his career as an actor but got into music full-time in the late 1970s.
* Donny Osmond, his sister, Marie, and the rest of the Osmonds. Both Donny and Marie (who recorded together as teenagers) would each have huge hits as adults in the 1980s, both as solo artists or in Marie's case, with various duet partners. Marie's success came primarily on the country chart, with her solo No. 1 hit "There's No Stopping Your Heart," and duet No. 1's with two fellow ex-pop stars: Dan Seals ("Meet Me in Montana") and Paul Davis ("You're Still New to Me"); Donny returned to the pop chart's top 5 with "Soldier of Love" in May 1989, and had another top 15 hit with "Sacred Emotion" toward the end of the summer of '89.

* Grayson Chance
* Wham! in TheEighties (Creator/GeorgeMichael would also be a Teen Idol at first as a solo singer).

* Music/{{NSYNC}} was this in the late-90's/early-2000's. Music/JustinTimberlake is this now.
* Music/BackstreetBoys were also this in the late-90's/early-2000's (albeit more in the late-90's).

** Williams' co-star, Maureen [=McCormick=] (Marcia) became a teen queen during the fourth season, when she really started getting hot. Chris Knight finally developed his following in 1973, just as Year 5 got underway.

** Although oldest teen star Staci Keenan was supposed to be the designated teen queen of the series -- and at least in the early going it was this way -- by 1995 her popularity was completely eclipsed by co-star Christine Lakin (who played youngest daughter Al Lambert), once she entered puberty, became completely hot and became the apple of many young men's eyes (and those in their late teens).

Youtube has also created many teen idols of the New 10s.

** And then you have Music/BridgitMendler, Creator/DebbyRyan, Creator/BellaThorne, [[Creator/ZendayaColeman Zendaya]], Creator/LauraMarano, Music/ChinaAnneMcClain, [[Series/DogWithABlog G. Hannelius]], [[Series/LivAndMaddie Dove Cameron]], and Creator/OliviaHolt...the list just goes on. Creator/RossLynch, Creator/JakeShort and Peyton Meyer are the channel's male faces.

* [[BlueOni Akihiko]] and [[RedOni Haruhiko]] [[PolarOppositeTwins Beppu]] from ''Anime/CuteHighEarthDefenseClubLove'' are [[GenderFlipped male]] examples as [[DarkMagicalGirl the]] [[AlterEgo VEPPer]]. They can sing and are popular with the ladies ''and'' the [[EvenTheGuysWantHim guys]]. They also happen to be in the second year of high school. They became [[IdolSinger idols]] because they wanted to get closer to [[CelebrityCrush Gora]] [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe Hakone]], [[HatesTheJobLovesTheLimelight not because they actually enjoyed being idols]]. [[spoiler:[[FaceHeelTurn Until the end of season 2 that is]].]]

* UsefulNotes/BarackObama got this treatment in the viral video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKsoXHYICqU "Crush on Obama"]] by the YouTube artist [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin ObamaGirl]]. See more on [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Got_a_Crush..._on_Obama that other wiki]]. He later remarked that [[TheStoic he didn't have a response himself]], but that his daughters [[DudeNotFunny felt teed off by it.]]

* [[BlueOni Akihiko]] and [[RedOni Haruhiko]] [[PolarOppositeTwins Beppu]] from Anime/CuteHighEarthDefenseClubLove are [[GenderFlipped male]] examples as [[DarkMagicalGirl the]] [[AlterEgo VEPPer]]. They can sing and are popular with the ladies ''and'' the [[EvenTheGuysWantHim guys]]. They also happen to be in the second year of high school. They became [[IdolSinger idols]] because they wanted to get closer to [[CelebrityCrush Gora]] [[BecauseYouWereNiceToMe Hakone]], [[HatesTheJobLovesTheLimelight not because they actually enjoyed being idols]]. [[spoiler:[[FaceHeelTurn Until the end of season 2 that is]].]]