To say that I was once a Jennifer Lopez admirer is kind of understating the definition of the word admirer. While she wasn’t my first celebrity crush (there was Soleil Moon Frye, Jenny Garth, Pamela Anderson, and Alicia Silverstone), Jennifer Lopez is my biggest celebrity crush. So big was she that my mom still fondly recalls my obsession with her with a smile, and I definitely made her a huge part of my life for many years.

My crush with Lopez began in 1995 where she appeared in her break out role as Grace in the action movie “Money Train.” In it, Lopez is Grace, a tough as nails Latina police officer trying to break down a money heist with buddy cops Woody Harrelson and Wesley Snipes. The movie was a bonafide treat, mainly for how it put Lopez on display and showed how absolutely charismatic and sexy she could be. There’s the scene where she indulges in the fist fight with Wesley Snipes for one.

I fondly remember watching “Money Train” at least five times in a week and found myself so smitten with Lopez, and how she tended to just ooze sex appeal and energy on screen. From there it was pretty much nothing but uphill for Lopez to the top as a big star, and I followed her every step of the way, even with her her brief roles in “Blood and Wine” and “Jack.”

In “Jack,” she had another small but memorable role as an elementary school teacher Miss Marquez, who takes it upon herself to befriend Robin Williams who is stricken with a rare physical disorder where he’s a small child in a rapidly aging body. In a film that co-starred beauties like Diane Lane and Fran Drescher, it takes a lot to steal scenes, and Lopez seemed more than up to the task. I wonder why my elementary school teachers never looked like her. When I went to school, all I had were sixty year old women, and middle aged men. Damn reality. 

1997 was a great year for many reasons, but also because it was kind of the year where Lopez was able to shine. Say what you want about “Anaconda,” but she was gorgeous and I happily went to theaters to see her. I also happily sat down to see her in her star making role as Selena Quintanilla in the biopic “Selena.” The movie itself is a solid romantic drama about a young Mexican girl rising to fame as a pop singer, but Lopez looked amazing, and did a great job conveying why Selena was such a beloved performer before she was horrendously murdered at such a young age.

I literally must have seen “Selena” eighteen times, and when it finally appeared on cable television I saw it again every single chance I got. So, yes, it was on constant rotation whenever I got to sit down in front of the TV. In 1998, I even bought the VHS copy and, yes, watched it so much I eventually wore out the tape. Weekends in 1997 were also spent in the public library surfing the net for pictures and screen grabs of Jennifer Lopez, and I’d managed to amass a large collection of Lopez pictures that I kept in a small scrap book. 

One of the banner moments of my fandom was when my grandfather gave me a humongous promotional poster of Jennifer Lopez for her new music album "On the 6," and yes, for many years it hung prominently above my television in my room where I’d just sit and gaze lovingly for hours. Did I mention my obsession for Jennifer Lopez was big?

I sought out every movie she starred in, and I even recorded her music videos including “If You Had My Love.” My mom always laughingly recalls how I’d recorded the video at least three times on one VHS tape, because if you were a fan of Lopez, that video had it all. Sadly, my love for Jennifer Lopez died down somewhere around the time she started dating P. Diddy, and starred in the horror thriller “The Cell.”

I was just kind of tired of the reputation she’d garnered, and I pretty much outgrew her. That said, that five year span of looking for anything and everything about Jennifer Lopez was a lot of fun and it was pretty much the only time I went out of my way to indulge in something involving a female celebrity I had a genuine infatuation for. It’s definitely a time many of my family members like to recollect simply for the fact that I just drooled over her every chance I got, and lovingly kept my copy of “Selena” close by in case I needed my Jennifer Lopez fix.

Every young teen has had their Jennifer Lopez at one time or another.