How “Stalker Sarah” Takes Thousands of Selfies with Stars 追星狂人萨拉的追星之路

追星的人很多，中学生也不例外。有的通过各种渠道搜集偶像资料，了解其最新动态，一说起自己的偶像就滔滔不绝；有的把自己的零花钱全都攒起来，偶像的专辑、电影、海报、签名T恤等东西无一不想收入囊中；有的甚至因为偶像的事逃课、和父母吵架、做一些很极端的事。不过凡事都有特例，美国女孩萨拉虽然追星也十分狂热，但却并未因此而迷失自我。这个普普通通的少女喜欢到处追着自己喜欢的明星合影，四年多的时间里和明星合影多达6200张，到后来甚至有些明星都主动与她合影，然而如此疯狂追星的萨拉却始终门门功课全优。萨拉究竟是怎样的一个女孩？又是如何做到追星如此成功的呢？

If you're famous， "Stalker Sarah" waits for you in your hotel lobby or outside your favorite nightclub， or approaches you in a restaurant or backstage at your concert. Each time， she asks you for a picture.

She's collected almost 6200 of them in a Flickr2） account under the name Sarah M Online， which she started when she was 12. Each photo has two subjects： a member of Hollywood's elite class—everyone from Justin Bieber and Brad Pitt to virtual unknowns—and Sarah， positioned in the right of the frame. She turns her head 45 degrees. She wears a black leather jacket and a classic rock T-shirt. She smiles the same calm， practiced smile.

After five years of striking this pose again and again， Sarah M Online， now 17 and a senior in high school， has achieved her own level of celebrity. She has fans （and haters）， passes to movie premieres3）， a manager， and an invitation to Perez Hilton's4） 35th birthday party. She and Miley Cyrus are friends.

"I go to events now and I'll just get absolutely swarmed5） by kids，" she tells me. "I'll sign hundreds of autographs and take hundreds of pictures ... Miley Cyrus said one time， 'When they touch you， they feel like they've touched Justin， they feel like they've touched One Direction. Meeting you is like an indirect way to meet their idols.'"

Her fans always ask how she does it. How does the home-schooled teen meet celebrities？ How does she do it several times a day？ "I just approach them，" she told me. "If it's not the right time， I won't go up to them. I'll just stay back and watch if there are a lot of paparazzi6）."

Though she often embeds7） herself among those photographers， Sarah doesn't consider herself one， preferring to be thought of as a collector. She doesn't make money. And while she isn't the only stalker of this kind， sarah is definitely the best. She knows where to wait， where to hide， and how to follow.

"When Harry Styles8） was here， my friends and I had to figure out， 'Okay， what time will he have to land？' We had to figure out the time difference， what time his plane will fly out， how much time he would need to sleep before a concert." And though she tends not to approach celebrities walking their dogs， for instance， or playing with their kids at the park， the gallery contains as many photos snapped in supermarkets and Hollywood parking lots as at red carpet events.

One of the earliest pictures shows her posing between Nickelodeon9） star Vanessa Hudgens and Hudgens's then-boyfriend， Zac Efron10）. She was 12 or 13， a shiny， round-faced kid in an oversized white T-shirt and black hooded11） sweatshirt12）. Her caption13） reads：

Zac， Vanessa， and I at the California Pizza Kitchen a week after Zac got out of surgery. They were SOOOOO nice！ Vanessa is my idol， and Zac is one of my favorite actors. I was so nervous but they were so nice！！

The omission of last names might suggest that Sarah and the couple were actually friends. But what kind of friend calls her friends idols？ Videos of Sarah on YouTube show her bowling with a Jonas14） brother one minute and waiting in the shadows outside Chateau Marmont the next. And even if her behavior is stalkerish， stars still call her a sweet kid. "Oftentimes now， the celebrities will approach me because they know that I'll say something nice about them，" she says. Sarah also protects their fame： in response to negative online attention the Jonas Brothers were receiving， she decided to include them on her site 80 times in one year.

But she's not immune to her own hate mail： "Stalker Sarah"， which she's reclaimed as her moniker15）， started out as an online insult. She once read some of the letters she gets in a YouTube video. "Stalker Sarah scares me， to be honest，" one said. Another： "If I get famous and she asks for a picture， that biotch16） ain't gettin' one！" But even as she laughs at these in the clip， Sarah purposely doesn't share her last name for fear of online predators17）.

She shares limited biographical info on Twitter， Instagram18）， and in occasional interviews. She is home-schooled per19） an agreement with her father that， if she got straight A's， he would drive her to "as many events as he possibly could".

Production companies have noticed her—and even offered TV shows—but she knows she's not truly famous. Sarah's rise happened accidentally， when she started posting her photos on Flickr for her family. Before that， she would keep them in a book. "I had this big purse that I'd carry everywhere with me， and when I'd see celebrities， they'd say， 'So who have you seen lately？'" She'd pull out her book and show them.

Soon， she started noticing her Flickr hits go up. She wasn't sharing the photos herself； she didn't have a Facebook or a Myspace20） account. But some of her earliest fans were passing them around. "One day， over 24 hours， I got a million hits." So she decided to build up her Twitter following. Four years ago， when she started her account， it was private； now she has 70，000 followers. "Justin Bieber requested to follow me！" she remembers.

Once she finishes high school， she wants to work in the entertainment industry. At this point， she's already dipping her toe into21） the work of a publicist； if she's at an event and sees a paparazzi that she knows likes to print negative stories， "I'll be like， 'Let me call and get this person out here. I know who to call because I know who's going to write a good story.'"

如果你是一位明星，“跟踪狂萨拉”会在你下榻的酒店大厅或你最爱光顾的夜总会外面等着你，也可能会在饭店或你演唱会的后台接近你。每一次，她都会要求与你合影。

萨拉在Flickr上有一个名为Sarah M Online的账户，里面上传了她从12岁起就开始收集的她与明星的合影，到现在（编注：本文写于2013年）差不多都要有6200张了。每张合影中都有两个人：一个是好莱坞的精英人士——从贾斯汀·比伯、布拉德·皮特到实际上不怎么知名的人；另一个则是照片中站在右侧的萨拉，她穿着一件黑色皮夹克和一件经典摇滚风格的T恤，头倾斜45度，笑容始终淡定而老练。

在过去的五年里，萨拉把这个姿势摆了一次又一次；今年她17岁了，是一名高中毕业班的学生，已然收获了自己的知名度。她有粉丝（也有讨厌她的人），有经纪人，有许多电影首映式的入场券，还受邀参加佩雷斯·希尔顿35岁的生日派对。她还和麦莉·赛勒斯是朋友。

“现在我去参加活动时，都会被一群孩子们团团围住，”萨拉对我说，“每次我都要为好几百个人签名，并跟他们合影……麦莉·赛勒斯一次曾说，‘当他们触摸到你时，他们觉得自己好像触摸到了贾斯汀，触摸到了单向乐队。见到你就好像是以一种间接的方式见到了他们的偶像。’”

萨拉的粉丝总会问她是如何做到这些的。这位在家接受教育的少女如何能够见到众多明星？她又如何能够在一天之内数次见到明星？“我就是去接近他们，”她告诉我，“如果时机不对，我就不会走上前去，而只是退回去，观察是否有许多“狗仔”出没。”

尽管萨拉自己常常混在那些“狗仔”摄影师当中，但她并不认为自己是其中一员，她更喜欢别人把她看做是一位收藏者，因为她并不会从中赚钱。虽然像这样的跟踪狂不止萨拉一个，但她绝对是他们当中最出众的那一个。她知道去哪里等候，在哪里隐藏，也知道如何尾随。

“哈里·斯泰尔斯要来这儿开演唱会时，我和我的朋友们就得弄清楚，‘好吧，他坐的飞机什么时候降落？’我们还得算清楚时差，确定他坐的飞机什么时候会起飞，以及演唱会开始之前他会需要睡多久。”虽然萨拉不太喜欢在明星们比如遛狗或者陪孩子在公园里玩的时候接近他们，但相册里她与明星在超市、好莱坞停车场的合影和在红毯活动上的合影一样多。

在萨拉早年与明星的合影中，有一张是她站在尼克罗顿国际儿童频道女星瓦妮莎·赫金斯和赫金斯时任男友扎克·埃弗龙中间的合影。萨拉当时也就十二三岁，圆圆的脸上神采飞扬，身穿一件超大号的白色T恤和一件黑色的连帽运动衫。照片的说明文字是这样的：

扎克做完手术一周后，我和扎克、瓦妮莎在加州比萨厨房。他们太太太太太好了！瓦妮莎是我的偶像，而扎克是我最喜欢的演员之一。我非常紧张，不过他们人很好！！

萨拉直呼其名也许说明她和这对情侣的确是朋友。不过，谁会称自己的朋友为偶像呢？关于萨拉，YouTube上有一些这样的视频：前一分钟她还在跟乔纳斯兄弟乐队的某位成员一起打保龄球，下一分钟她又在夏特蒙特酒店外面隐蔽的地方等候着某位明星。虽然萨拉的行为有点像“跟踪狂”，但明星们仍然认为她是一个招人喜欢的孩子。“现在明星们常常会主动接近我，因为他们知道我会说他们的好话。”她说。萨拉也会保护这些明星的名声：针对乔纳斯兄弟在网络上受到负面关注一事，萨拉决定一年之中让他们在自己的主页上出现80次。

然而，对于诋毁自己的邮件，萨拉却无法做到不受任何影响：“跟踪狂萨拉”起先是网上侮辱她的叫法，现在被她拿来当成自己的绰号。她曾在YouTube上的一个视频里读过她收到的某些诋毁信件。“老实说，跟踪狂萨拉真的吓到我了。”其中一封信中如是说。另一封信中则写道：“如果我出名了，她想要跟我合影，我是绝对不会让那个得逞的！”虽然萨拉在该视频中对这些都报之一笑，但她还是有意隐瞒了自己的姓，以避免网络攻击者寻衅滋事。

在推特、Instagram上和偶尔接受的一些采访中，萨拉只公开了有限的个人信息。萨拉在家接受教育源自她和爸爸达成的一个约定：如果她成绩全优，爸爸就会尽量开车送她去参加“尽可能多的活动”。

一些制作公司已经注意到了她——甚至还邀请她上电视节目——不过萨拉明白，她并不是真正的明星。萨拉走红纯属偶然，她一开始在Flickr网站上传照片是为了给家人看。在此之前，她会把照片收藏在一本相册里。“我有这个大包，无论走到哪儿我都会带着它。当我碰到明星时，他们会问，‘你最近都见到谁了呀？’”她便会从包里掏出那本册子，展示给他们看。

很快，萨拉开始注意到她的Flickr页面点击量在上升。她自己并没有把那些照片公开；她也没有Facebook或Myspace账户。不过，她最早的一些粉丝把这些照片传开了。“有一天，才一天多的时间，我的账户就获得了100万的点击量。”于是，她便决定在推特上开一个账户。四年前她刚开通账户时，并没有对外公开；现在，她已经有七万粉丝了。“贾斯汀·比伯还向我求关注呢！”她回忆道。

高中一毕业后，萨拉就想进入娱乐圈工作。现在，她已经开始涉足公关工作了。如果她在参加某个活动时，看到自己知道的某个爱写负面新闻的“狗仔”记者，“我会这样说，‘让我打个电话并把这个人轰出去吧。我知道要打给谁，因为我知道谁会写一篇好的报道。’”

1. stalker [?st??k?（r）] n. 跟踪者

2. Flickr： 一个图片分享网站

3. premiere [?premie?（r）] n. （戏剧、电影的）首次公演

4. Perez Hilton： 佩雷斯·希尔顿（1978～），美国知名博主、著名电视工作者

5. swarm [sw??m] vt. 挤满

6. paparazzo [?p?p??r?ts??] n. 跟踪偷拍名人照片的摄影者，狗仔队员。其复数形式为paparazzi。

7. embed [?m?bed] vt. 把……嵌入，放入

8. Harry Styles： 哈里·斯泰尔斯（1994～），英国超人气组合单向乐队（One Direction）的成员之一。

9. Nickelodeon： 尼克罗顿国际儿童频道，于1979年4月1日开播，是美国有线电视里一个主要给儿童和少年观看的频道。美国演员、歌手瓦妮莎·赫金斯（Vanessa Hudgens， 1988～）参演的首个电视剧就在该频道播出。

10. Zac Efron： 扎克·埃弗龙（1987～），美国电影演员，以出演迪士尼《歌舞青春》（High School Musical）系列电影而知名。

11. hood [h?d] vt. 给……罩上兜帽（或风帽等）

12. sweatshirt [?swet???t] n. （从头上套穿的长袖圆领的）厚运动衫

13. caption [?k?p?n] n. （图片的）说明文字

14. Jonas： 指Jonas Brothers，即乔纳斯兄弟，由大哥凯文·乔纳斯（Kevin Jonas， 1987～）、二哥乔·乔纳斯（Joe Jonas， 1989～）以及弟弟尼克·乔纳斯（Nick Jonas， 1992～）所组成的美国摇滚乐队。

15. moniker [?m?n?k?（r）] n. 绰号

16. biotch： 相当于bitch，常用于网络上的俚语。

17. predator [?pred?t?（r）] n. 造成破坏的人（或事物）；损人利己者

18. Instagram： 一个免费提供在线图片及短视频分享的社交应用

19. per [p?（r）] prep. 按照，根据

20. Myspace： 一个社交网络服务网站，提供人际互动、使用者自定的朋友网络、个人档案页面、部落格、群组、照片、音乐和视讯影片的分享与存放。

21. dip one's toe into： 开始做某人不熟悉的（或觉得新奇的）事情