Fame is such a losing game

MY TY: Orlagh Rynne, a TY student at Knocklyon Community School in Dublin, on the world's fascination with fame

WHETHER OR not we accept it, our lives revolve around the world of celebrity. We listen to music and buy the latest albums. We watch movies and discuss television soap twists. We read magazines detailing celebrities' every move, relationship and outfit. Often we revel in the filthy secrets that may unfold and forget that these are not TV shows - they are for real.

Many people's first and foremost ambition is fame. There's a savage desperation growing amongst the youth. The media are finding cutthroat ways to exploit it, with reality television shows such as Big Brother, where people don't need particular skills to appear and get their fifteen minutes of shame.

Why is there such a desire to become one of these unreal figures? The chance of adoration is attractive, yet shouldn't the risk of humiliation, judgment and lack of privacy be as much a turnoff?

Our perception of beauty has been to a large extent conditioned by media. Magazine covers, advertisements and celebrities sell us the idea of perfection and unattainable beauty.

So-called "role models", who young girls especially look up to, starve themselves to alarming rates of thinness. Instead of this being seen as worrying, it is merely thought of as "fashion". Eating disorders run rampant and pictures of emaciated models encourage us to lose weight.

We're told what beauty is, repeatedly, and we begin to believe the idea.

Notoriously, a show called I Want a Famous Faceran on MTV. The topic? How teenagers set about getting plastic surgery to replicate their famous idols.

It usually ended with the teen heavily bandaged, grinning next to a picture of the result they wanted, looking vaguely like Britney Spears or some other star. It was soon removed from air.

Also, the behaviour of celebrities, whether it be good or bad, is so publicly displayed that it sets examples for all. We know drugs are dangerous. But can they really be so horrific when we see gorgeous supermodels such as Kate Moss being photographed with cocaine, and singers such as Amy Winehouse, whose antics fill the headlines, selling millions of records?

So, when idols fall from pedestals, do they really fall, or do they merely set a new trend? Society has changed. Most people have lost faith in religion. What do we worship? Celebrities. And OK magazine is our bible. We forget that these are real people, with real mistakes.

Our fascination with fame is unhealthy but I doubt it will wane, because our curiosity always gets the better of us - deep down we all want to know what it would be like to be famous.

But there are always going to be two worlds: theirs and ours, both very different and separate to each other. For some this is too hard to accept and they will never settle for being on the outside looking in.