Seeking lifestyles of the rich and famous

New survey says young people dream of celebrity lives.

A new survey carried out for the RTE Radio One Programme 'Fame' shows that teenagers are dreaming of being famous rather than of achieving high in study and exams.

It shows that 85% of boys and 80% of girls, aged between 13 and 19, want to be famous, while just 1% of the same group want to be politicians. Almost half of all teenagers — 56% of boys and 40% of girls — said they would drop out of school if they had an opportunity to fulfil their dreams of fame.

The survey interviewed over one thousand young people from Dublin, Galway, Limerick, Cork, Drogheda and Donegal and according to Louis Walshe the statistics are lower than expected.

“They all want to be famous, especially the girls, because they can,” he said.

It seems that money is the main driving force, with three out of five respondents saying it was their main motivation for wanting to be famous. This was followed by success (55%), a belief that being famous would be fun (52%) and being on TV (25%).

A fifth of young people believed that being famous would prove others wrong, and 15% said it would make them more attractive.

Roy Keane was nominated as the celebrity most admired by teenagers followed by Bob Geldof and Bono.

So SpunOutters, what do yis reckon? Are you dreaming of fame?

Do you wanna be like Roy, Bob or Bono? Or perhaps like Uncle Louis?

Let us know your thoughts. Join the discussion boards or send us your views.