I Think I Love You Contest: Your Crushes Revealed!

In honor of the paperback publication of Allison Pearson’s I Think I Love You, we asked you to tell us all about your teenage celebrity crushes. And you delivered! From Elvis to the Osmonds, from Jonathan Taylor Thomas to Davy Jones, you dished like you were at a sleepover. Read on for some of our favorite crush stories (and don’t worry—names have been hidden to protect the smitten!).

“I was absolutely in love with Scott Baio when I was a young teen! He had gorgeous hair and tight jeans! I fell in love with him on Happy Days and got jealous of Erin Moran when he was on Joanie loves Chachi! I had posters from Tiger Beat all over my room, so many that you could not even see the wall. My parents hated my Chachi room!…. My 10 year old daughter is now enamoured with Justin Bieber…deja-vu!”

“I lived and breathed Bucky Dent. Now, you may not remember him, but he was the shortstop for the New York Yankees and all the girls loved him. Of course, we all loved Scott Baio back then too, but Bucky Dent was the one for me. My dad would take me to see the Yankees often and they were so fabulous back then, it’s a great memory. I still can picture the poster on the back of my door, surprised that I don’t still have it, but I do have his baseball card still tucked away in some treasure box.”

“My teen idol crush was on the Bay City Rollers. My best friend and I loved them—she liked Eric and I liked both Derek and Leslie. We would buy every magazine that talked about them…. My friend’s parents even took us to their concert…. We wanted to travel to Scotland and meet them. My family to this day still teases me, and my brother even called me at 5am one morning because the song ‘Saturday Night’ came on…. it was pretty funny that he would still remember my crush on them.”

“I had a lot of teen idol crushes. They ranged all the way from Jonathan Taylor Thomas to Justin Timberlake to Leonardo Dicaprio. I think the biggest teen idol crush I had was on Nick Carter from the Backstreet Boys. Man, could he sing and he was so fine! My favorite song was ‘I’ll Be The One,’ mainly because he sang most of it. I was also one of those teenie boppers with a million and a half posters on my wall. Literally all four walls in my room were covered with posters of Nick Carter/Backstreet Boys. Those were great memories back when we actually had decent people to look up to. I will always have a tiny bit of a crush on Nick Carter, he was part of my teenage years and was definitely my teenage dream.”

“Loved, loved, loved Davy Jones (of the Monkees, in case you didn’t get to have the 60s experience). There might have been a line of other teens…but I was certain his beautiful brown eyes were meant only me. Had posters, signet rings, Tiger Beat magazine…and used to play “Daydream Believer” so often, and so loud, that my brothers and sisters begged me to stop. I was broken hearted the day I realized I had grown taller than my Davy. On my bed, on my stomach, reading teen magazines and listening to the Monkees when I should have been doing my homework…now, as Davy would say, you know how happy I could be!”

Thanks to everyone who shared their stories with us! We’ll be selecting 25 eligible entrants to receive a copy of I Think I Love You. Winners will be contacted shortly.

Click here to read an excerpt from I Think I Love You (and click here to download our reading group guide). Plus, click here to watch other Knopf Doubleday employees sharing their crushes, and click here to read a list of Allison Pearson’s favorite crush songs.