I became a fan in 1997 after I started hearing QPG and ALAYLM on the radio. My best friend loved them before I did, and she got me hooked. The first time I saw them perform was on "All That" on Nickelodeon, when they sang ALAYLM. From the moment Brian smiled and opened his mouth to sing his verse, he was my favorite. I got their first US album, started buying the magazines they were in, and by the time Millennium came out two years later, I was obsessed.

I went to my first concert with the best friend who got me into them on March 7, 2000 in St. Louis. It was probably the best day of my life up to that point. Our seats were terrible, but that didn't stop us from loving every minute of that show, from the awesome entrance on the flying surfboards to the confetti that rained down on us after the encore of IWITW. I still have a few pieces of that confetti saved in a scrapbook.

Over the next year or two, my friends who had been fans fell off the bandwagon, as it suddenly wasn't "cool" to like Bsb anymore. However, I stayed a fan and am still a fan to this day. I've faithfully bought every album and solo album the day it came out and played them to the point of driving the people around me crazy. I've been to six concerts and can't wait for the next tour to start so I can add a seventh to that list.

Why am I still a fan? I love the music. I have fun listening to it; it can pull me out of a bad mood, make me laugh, or give me goosebumps. I love the guys themselves. Their charismatic personalities and good looks have made me like the Backstreet Boys on a level I like few other celebrities. Because of them, I've honed a talent in writing. These days it's fanfiction, but sometime in my life, I hope to write a novel and get it published, and when I do, it will be all thanks to their impact in my life. They've been such a huge part of it for the last decade that I can't imagine my life without them filling at least a small part of it.

I will always be a fan.