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Entertainment

Who Was the Biggest Teen Idol the Year You Graduated From High School?

By Jess Catcher

Some of my fondest memories from growing up involved sitting around my bedroom with my besties and cutting out photos of our favorite teen idols from the brightly colored magazines featuring pin-ups and posters of their beaming faces. Looking back, it seems like as soon as I hit age 11, I couldn’t help but zero in on those flashy publications for the latest scoop on my celebrity crushes. 

As someone who was a tween and teen throughout the late 90s and early 00s, that meant a lot of photos of Hanson, *NSync, and Devon Sawa (especially during his Casper years). At one point, however, my focus shifted — I happened to stumble upon an episode of The Monkees and found myself instantly hooked by the nostalgic series. Instead of scanning my grocery store for the new issues of Teen Vogue or CosmoGirl, I hit up flea markets and eBay for vintage issues of Tiger Beat and hoped they’d still be in good condition. Thankfully, there was plenty to go around.

No matter when you grew up, the appeal of a sweet teen idol flashing a smile in your direction — even if it’s on your TV screen or in a magazine photo — is all it took to fill our stomachs with delighted butterflies. 

Take a look below to remember all the cuties who stole our hearts over the years and remember which one was the biggest teen idol from your own younger days!

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    1960: Paul Anka  The crooner had a few hits in the late '50s, but really cemented his dreamboat status with "Puppy Love" at the start of the '60s.

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    1961: Ricky Nelson The handsome actor and musician grew up in front of everyone on The Adventures of Ozzy and Harriet and continued to make audiences swoon with songs like 1961's "Travelin' Man."

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    1962: Bobby Vee After his 1961 hit "Take Good Care of My Baby," the singer topped the charts again in 1962 with "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" — and charmed fans with his boy-next-door good looks. 

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    1963: The Beach Boys The clean-cut surf rock band came in strong during this year with their a wave of hit songs including "Surfin' Safari," "Surfin' Safari," "Little Deuce Coupe," and "In My Room."

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    1964: The Beatles The mop-topped lads from Liverpool kicked off the British Invasion of pop music after their legendary performance on the Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964 — but you could barely hear them over the shrieks of adoring fans in the audience.

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    1965: The Rolling Stones Mick Jagger and the rest of the Stones came charging in on the Beatles' booted heels with a little help from a cover version of the Fab Four's song, "I Wanna Be Your Man."

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    1966: The Monkees Davy Jones may have been on the cover of more teen idol magazines than the rest of this made-for-TV band, but fans tuned in to see the whole adorable group get into wacky high jinks and sing their hit songs on a weekly basis after its '66 premiere.

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    1967: Tommy James and the Shondells In the spring before the Summer of Love, the band lined the pages of teen mags in flashy outfits, while their song "I Think We're Alone Now" hit the airwaves.

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    1968: Cast of the Mod Squad The counterculture police drama premiered in this year starring an iconic mixture of talented (and attractive) young actors: Peggy Lipton, Clarence Williams III, and Michael Cole.

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    1969: Bobby Sherman As you can tell from this cheeky photo, the singer and actor wasn't shy about posing for cute photos that tons of teenage fans tore out of magazines to tape onto their walls.

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    1970: The Jackson 5 The talented family quickly catapulted into mega-stardom with 1970's "ABC" kicking off a long string of mega-hits.

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    1971: David Cassidy As Keith Partridge on the Partridge Family, David Cassidy's sweet smile and feathered hair were found on the front of countless teen mags (and one particularly steamy Rolling Stone cover). 

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    1972: Donny Osmond Before he was "a little bit rock and roll" with sister Marie Osmond, Donny filled fans' hearts with his cover of fellow teen idol Paul Anka's hit, "Puppy Love," while singing with his older brothers as the Osmonds.

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    1973: Tony Orlando It might have been a little confusing that the singer's two backup performers were known by the singular name Dawn, but that didn't get in the way of songs like "Tie a Yellow Ribbon 'Round the Ole Oak Tree" from topping the charts.

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    1974: Freddie Prinze The father of future teen idol Freddie Prinze Jr. tickled fans' funny bones with his stand-up and charmed them with his winning smile on Chico and the Man.

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    1975: John Travolta  It just took one look at those bright blue eyes and chiseled face for audiences to swoon over John Travolta as Vinnie Barbarino on Welcome Back, Kotter, which premiered in this year.

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    1976: Leif Garrett After a few small-yet-memorable acting roles in films like Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Garrett signed a record deal this year and launched a string of hits, including "Come Back When You Grow Up," from his self-titled debut album.

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    1977: Scott Baio  Joanie certainly wasn't the only one who loved Chachi when audiences got a look at the baby-faced character played by Scott Baio on Happy Days. Of course, we'd expect nothing less from someone related to the Fonz.

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    1978: Cast of the Hardy Boys Shaun Cassidy (on the right) followed in his older brother David's TV footsteps on The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries while also charting with hits like "Da Doo Ron Ron."  Parker Stevenson (on the left) played his brother on the series and earned more than a few ardent fans for himself, too.

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    1979: Cast of the Dukes of Hazzard Whether you preferred John Schneider as Bo or Tom Wopat as Luke, the Duke boys gave their cousin Daisy and her short-shorts a run for her money with their casually unbuttoned shirts and feathered hair. 

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    1980: Cast of The Empire Strikes Back As the original Star Wars trilogy came to an end, it wasn't just sci-fi fans who showed up to the theater to get a good glimpse of hunky Harrison Ford as Han Solo and dreamy Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker.

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    1981: Rick Springfield After steaming up the screens as Dr. Noah Drake on General Hospital, Rick Springfield released his instant hit "Jessie's Girl" in this year and skyrocketed into a whole new level of fame.

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    1982: Cast of the Outsiders This classic coming of age flick included an impressive list of future stars as the "greasers" — Tom Cruise, Rob Lowe, C. Thomas Howell, Ralph Macchio, Matt Dillon, Emilio Esteves, and Patrick Swayze — that all popped up in teen magazines after this nostalgic story tugged on audiences' heartstrings first.

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    1983: Duran Duran The British group reminded the world of Beatlemania all over again as they dominated airwaves with hits like "Hungry Like the Wolf" and "Rio."

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    1984: Bon Jovi The New Jersey-based band cracked into the top 40 with their first single, "Runaway," during this year and continued to rise in popularity with hoards of fans throughout the decade.

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    1985: Wham! George Michael may have been the more memorable half of this duo, but Andrew Ridgeley still brought a lot of charm and charisma to their performance in hit songs like "Jitterbug" at the massive LiveAid concert this year.

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    1986: Kirk Cameron By the time the family sitcom Growing Pains was in its second season, Kirk Cameron as Mike Seaver was maturing from the goofy class clown to, well, the goofy class clown you hoped would ask you to the school dance.

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    1987: Johnny Depp The actor kicked off his career as one of the undercover police officers infiltrating a high school on 21 Jump Street, and it did not take long for audiences to zero in on Johnny Depp's bad-boy good looks.

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    1988: Michael Hutchence  After a few hits earlier on in the decade, the Aussies of INXS had a massive hit single with "Need You Tonight/Mediate" this year that blew everyone away all over again. Hutchence's curly hair and cute smile were just icing on the cake.

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    1989: Neil Patrick Harris It's crazy to think the How I Met Your Mother actor was actually 16 in this baby-faced photo from his Doogie Howser, MD, but his adorable charm was already winning the hearts of young fans after it premiered in this year.

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    1990: Cast of Beverly Hills, 90210 The teen drama premiered in this year with plenty of hunky actors for teen fans to fawn over —  Luke Perry, Brian Austin Green, Ian Ziering, and Jason Priestley — and make us wish we could hang out at the Peach Pit, too.

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    1991: Marky Mark  Before becoming an actor, Mark Wahlberg performed as Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch with hits like “Good Vibrations” and a particularly memorable underwear campaign for Calvin Klein.

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    1992: Cast of California Dreams The cute boys on this popular Saturday morning show were frequently found on the pages of teen magazines during their five season run on the musical series that offered fun songs and tackled serious topics, like drug use and divorce, for a young audience.
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