Let’s face it: having a crush on a fictional character isn’t just perfectly normal, it’s something we’ve all done (even if you don’t want to admit it). No shame.
If you grew up in and around the ’90s, you can probably relate to these Redditors, who bravely shared answers when they were asked, ” 90s babies.. who was your first television crush? “
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Based on a bunch of commenters saying Buffy and other characters from the show, it seems like it was a pretty pivotal moment for a lot of kids who grew up in the ’90s and early ’00s.
“Probably Melissa Joan Hart starting from Clarissa Explains It All and into Sabrina the Teenage Witch.”
Another Redditor had more to add on that: “I just finished a rewatch of all the series (Sabrina the Teenage Witch) and she was so pretty in the first seasons with her natural hair!! Also I rediscovered my first crush, Harvey.”
“Zack Morris.”
One commenter said, “I had a crush on him, too. But if you look back now at all the things he did, he’s actually a pretty horrible human.”
Sounds… eerily like something you’d say about TV characters nowadays.
“Meg from Hercules as a kid was my first crush I can remember lmao.”
“Meg sparked my lifelong love for women with deeper voices,” one commenter wrote.
“We learn so much about ourselves in these threads,” added another.
“Amy Jo Johnson.”
If you’re like me and wondering who that is, the comment section confirmed that she was the pink Power Ranger back in the day (I was never into the Power Rangers as a kid so I had no idea until now).
“Topanga.”
Boy Meets World ended before I was a teenager, and yet I’m pretty sure every boy I knew in school had a crush on Topanga. That’s the power of syndicated television for you right there.
“Joseph Gordon Levitt when he was in 3rd Rock from the Sun.”
I always forget that Joseph Gordon Levitt was a bit of a teen heartthrob back in the day, because I can literally only remember him from 500 Days of Summer .
“Nurse joy. Brock was on to something.”
“Anyone else remember that song from the anime about how he’s two-timing them?” A commenter asked. “That song was a banger lmao.”
I… I do, in fact, remember that song. And it was pretty catchy…
“Shego for sure.”
I might be wrong on this, but I think there’s a pretty huge overlap between people who had a crush on Shego and people who had a crush on Raven from the Teen Titans.
“Jonathan Frakes. That beard fetish has followed me around for the last 25 years.”
Of all the TV crushes I expected people to say, this… absolutely wasn’t one of them. But hey, no shame!
I guess some people were really into beards as kids, too.
“Danny Phantom.”
I feel like Danny Phantom appealed to kids who were born later on in the ’90s. In fact, I’m pretty sure I can still recite the whole theme song for that show. What an absolute wild time.
“Johnathan Taylor Thomas.”
“EVERY girl in my class had a magazine pic of him on the front of their binder,” one person commented.
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The fact that I had no idea who that was until now… I sincerely apologize to everyone.
“Lucy Liu. Charlie’s Angels…”
I feel like the general consensus around the Charlie’s Angels movies was that you were pretty likely to have a crush on one or all of them. Which, like, makes total sense.
“Leo DiCaprio.”
“I saw Titanic twice in theaters as an 8 year old. I cut out the newspaper picture of the film on the movie page and put a picture of my face over Rose’s lol,” a commenter added. Amazing.
“Tuxedo Mask.”
Look, I totally get why anyone would have had a crush on Tuxedo Mask. But my biggest hang up about him was the fact that he showed up every week to do absolutely nothing but throw roses around.
“BRENDAN FRASER.”
A commenter wrote, “Came here to say this! For me it was George of the Jungle, the bowls scene changed me.”
Another said, “Let’s be honest here, practically the entire main cast of the Mummy qualifies.”
I’m not going to argue.
“Rider Strong, aka Shawn Hunter from Boy Meets World.”
If Topanga was the character all the boys had a crush on, then Shawn was totally the character all the girls had a crush on. And again, it was pretty hard to argue with that.
“Dana Scully, from X Files.”
A commenter said, “I crushed hard on Mulder, but wanted to be Scully so bad. Still love The X-Files to this day.”
I’m kind of surprised, but at the same time I’m not surprised at all.
“Kelly Kapowski.”
Some commenters wondered if she’d count as a ’90s TV crush, or an ’80s TV crush. I think it’s safe to say preteens across several decades had a crush on Kelly Kapowski.
As one commenter mentioned, “The reruns dominated the early 90’s.”
“Xena had me.”
Another commenter added, “Xena had a whole lot of dudes and ladies. Hudson Leick (Callisto) was one of my biggest early crushes. An unbalanced, beautiful woman who can swing a sword and throw fireballs — what can go wrong?”