My First Celebrity Crush

When I was 15, I had had some minor celebrity crushes, but nothing major, as the heartthrobs were all in their 20’s at that point…think Jason Priestly, Luke Perry (RIP,) etc. In 1993, that all changed for me. Boy Meets World hit the airwaves and quickly because a raging success. The fact that it was all set in suburban Philadelphia made it all the more exciting to me, being that I am a true Philly girl, born, raised, and still live there. I couldn’t wait to see the next episode…for more reasons than one.

The storylines that the show followed were wonderful since they followed the day to day struggles of being a kid and growing up. However, I also watched it because I had developed a huge crush on Eric Matthews, the older brother, AKA Will Friedle. I would wait with anticipation to see his smiling face walk onto the screen and sigh with longing. I lived for a good Feeney call. I would daydream about being one of the girls that he dated on the show. I collected every poster out of Tiger Beat, Big Bop, or whatever other teen magazine I could find. My walls were littered with pictures of him. It was just a small obsession.

One day, I got up the courage to actually write him a fan letter. I honestly don’t remember what I said in that letter with my 15-16 year old hormone-influenced intelligence, but, I thought it was the fan letter to end all fan letters. Right… I forgot about the letter not long after…until I opened the mailbox one day and found a letter back from the Will Friedle fan club. Enclosed was an autographed black and white photo of none other than Will! Be still my teenage heart. I harassed my poor mother and made her go out and got a frame for it that day. It stayed on my nightstand until I left for college…and went with me when I lived with my grandparents.

My best friend, Danielle, had me convinced that Will had actually read that fan letter and was going to call me (because, ya know, famous people do that,) and that we were going to go out and grow up and get married and live happily ever after (because, ya know, that happens every day.) We later found out about generic letters and photo printers that can mass produce autographed photos. That was a sad, sad day for 16 year old me.

My celebrity crush continued during high school…although Will got a little competition from Eddie Furlong at one point. That was short lived. I went away to college and didn’t watch as much TV, as I lived with my grandparents who didn’t have cable and the reception wasn’t always so great. The autographed photo went with me and stayed in a drawer, though. I think I still have it somewhere in between the midst of the 3 houses my stuff is spread across. I just never could bring myself to throw it away. I mean, who would want to?

Will, as most people know, suffers from anxiety and is very honest and open about it. He does a lot of voiceover work, but has not been in the public eye much after Boy Meets World. Disney made three seasons of the spin off, Girl Meets World, which follows Cory and Topenga’s daughter and her friends. Now in my late thirties, I heard this and was intrigued. Would the love of my teenage life be on this show? Would I get to catch a glimpse of him again? The answer to that would be a resounding YES!

I was so excited to learn that Will would be on the show and I tuned in to every episode that he guest starred in. It was exciting for me to see that he had not lost that comedic touch that seemed to come so naturally to him. You could tell that he still loved the character, but had also grown as an actor as well. I loved to see him help the next generation solve their problems just by being Eric. It was around this time that I also learned that he had joined the Twitter. I thought, “I also have the Twitter.” (Yes, I know that the “the” isn’t necessary. I’m old, get over it.) I started following him on there and fell in love with this guy all over again…but not in a 16 year old, “I want to marry him and live happily ever after,” kind of way. I mean, he is still a very good-looking man. He grew up and age was good to him, no doubt, but it was this man’s heart that made me realize what a fantastic first celebrity crush I had picked. He is kind and funny and all of the good qualities. His wife is a very lucky woman.

It wasn’t long after that that Wizard World Philadelphia was coming up. I had never been to a Comic Con of any kind at all. He had announced that he would be there. Ummmm…hello? Will Friedle is coming to Philly? I. AM. SO. THERE! I went online and bought a ticket for myself and decided that my daughter and I would go (she was young enough to not need a ticket, but I knew she would love the mommy-daughter outing as she loves spending time with me and she would appreciate what Comic Con entails.) I bought the photo op with Will and got excited for the event.

The day finally arrived and I decided on my Gen 1 Jazz t-shirt (this is very important to the story) and my daughter wore her t-shirt with Raven from Teen Titans Go! (also very important.) We got into Center City, parked and made our way over to the Convention Center to check out what it was all about. As we were walking around, I decided that we were going to get a meet & greet too. I couldn’t pass up that chance.

After purchasing tickets, into the line we went and Will came out and was chatting with people and signing autographs, and just looked like he was having a genuinely great time. We were about 5 people away from the front when I heard him exclaim, “THAT IS A GEN 1 JAZZ SHIRT!” I looked up and he was pointing directly at me. I was in shock and I got a huge smile on my face and nodded vigorously. He excitedly told me, “I do the voice of Bumblebee on The Next Generation!” I said, “I know!” Because every last brain cell in my head had melted at this point and I had no other idea what to say.

As he went through the fans, he was amazingly sweet to each and every one. In between, he kept looking over and saying things to me. I. Was. In. HEAVEN. I could have died right then and there and my life would have been complete. My daughter was getting excited too since this man, who had a long line, so he was obviously someone she should be excited about, was singling us out to talk to us.

We finally got to the front of the line and got to have a conversation with Will. He was the SWEETEST person. He chatted with me, signed a photo and started chatting with my daughter, who was about 7 at the time. He then noticed her t-shirt and told her, “I write for that show.” He little face perked up and she broke out into a smile. He told her that he wrote the Pie episode and another one, and he also does the voice of Kid Flash. I think if she had died right next to me, her 7-year-old life would have been complete as well. We took a picture with him, and told him we would see him in a few minutes, as we still had the photo op.

Once we got through the photo op line, and Will saw us coming, he reached out his arms and hissed, “My Precioussssss,” to my daughter, who ran over to him and was so excited to stand with him for another photo. Again, he was super sweet and my daughter and I both walked away with huge smiles on our faces. I have that photo safely tucked away as well...and always will.

That day will be forever burned in my mind as one of the best days of my life. I think most people look back and think what a nerd they were when they were kids for who their celebrity crushes were, but, I have to say I’m pretty proud of who mine was. Will is an amazing person. He is smart, funny, compassionate, kind, and all of the good adjectives. Now, if only my taste in men was as good in real life as it is with celebrity crushes, I think I would be golden.