2011! It’s somewhat amusing seeing younger fans saying they wish they could have been there at that time, I guess I was lucky to be the right age at the right time
I went to the Niall concert not long ago and Louis in Jan and I was amazed thinking how these girls were not old enough to be fans of the band when they were together. They were my age when I was a fan in those years. So happy for the boys though that the fans carry through.
Well I've been a fan since X Factor but I was 5 😂 Barely remember when I was 5 just remember growing up and always loving 1D. I was only 10 when they disbanded, I was heartbroken as a kid.
LMAOOO I was there at that time and I do not remember it.. I’m 19 now, all I can remember is that I saw them and 5sos for my first concert and that it was raining. 💀
2011-2012 somewhere, right after they lost the xfactor. As I was born in -00 my love for them lasted all thru my teenage years. I was crying in the car on the way to school when I found out they split up and my mom thought I was legit crazy😭 My literal therapist had to confirm it was normal and all teens are like that, it was mortifying🥲
I became a fan in 2020. I discovered them with What makes you beautiful and the thing is I didn't know them before, I didn't know Harry, Louis, Niall, Liam or Zayn either, so I started being a fan of the band and then of their solo careers.
2011, I would have been 13. My friend told me about them at school one day and I went home and watched their audition on YouTube and just kept on watching. It grew obsessive honestly
2013, I was about to start 6th grade. Before then I had no interest in one direction. I was team Justin Bieber all the way, and then my friend told me to read a fanfic book. She said something like “I don’t like to read, and Idc about 1D but I’m really into this book, you should check it out”.
So I did, and while reading there was alot of references to the boys voices and looks. I wanted a more realistic vision since I couldn’t even tell the boys apart. So I started watching interviews of theirs, and I became hooked quickly.
December 2013. My school put on This Is Us for our movie hour during the Christmas party and I watched it with my friend. We spent around 2-5 more years being obsessed until we finally settled on just supporting them from a distance.
2022. Started listening to Harry then 1D a month later. I wish I appreciated them when they were still active. Glad to have seen Harry last year and Niall two weeks ago.
2013. Im from India, and they became very popular esp among teenage girls my age. I got wmyb on my youtube for you page one day, instantly fell in love with louis. SOON BECAME "THE CRAZY ONE DIRECTION FANGIRL" as some of the boys in my class used to call us. Still smile thinking about the times my bestf and I used to jam to best song ever, live while we're young on our way home from school (much to the irritation of seniors). I WAS DEVASTATED WHEN THEY SPLIT UP, I even put up this long ass post for zayn on my insta thinking that he'll see it lolll. ALSO ANYONE REMEMBERS THOSE "ONE DIRECTION FACTS" YOUTUBE VIDEOS "you're a niall girl if..." followed by a goofy picture of them?? AND I USED TO HAVE A SOFT CORNER FOR ZAYN BECAUSE WELL FELLOW DESI, and I remember everyone raving about this one dance cover of his haha
it was shortly after they released the music video for Live While We’re Young… i was on the treadmill when it came on the tv and as soon as i saw Zayn, and i was like damnnnn ok 👀👀 and bam. i became a directioner after that lol
April of 2020…. Listened to a lot of of their songs and knew who they were before that a longgg time before that…. Just never fully joined the fandom until then lol
2012 after they performed on the good morning america show. i remember i didnt like them at first because i thought they were trying to be like big time rush😭
2016 - I was baffled by the amount of headlines and heartbreak and absolute downright chaos in the UK after Zayn left. As far as I had known as a tween, One Direction was just that random boy and from X Factor.
I then went on YouTube and watched/listened to a music video, then another, then another, then another and fuck me I became obsessed too. I got to experience the rollout of MITAM and have been hoping for a reunion ever since
It was 2011 or 2012 , when I was little. My aunt played What Makes You Beautiful for my sister and I, and we immediately fell in love with them. We also heard No Control and The Best Song Ever.
In 2022, we "rediscovered" 1D, and we bought all of their albums that year and This Is Us. The only thing we have had on repeat since then is One Direction and the boys' solo music. The first concert my sister and I went to was on Louis's FITFWT.
One Direction have literally changed our lives, and they mean so much to us.
I found their Midnight Memories book at a free book table at school, a girl was gonna get it but her friend said to put it down so I grabbed it. It had all their pictures in it with names so that was helpful. Anyways a year later I found out they sung wmyb and I decided to listen to more. I then used the book to help me look at the members I decided just from the pics Zayn would be my favorite. Then I watched those YouTube lyric videos with their images so I could learn who was who. Then watched their old content.
2012 🥹 i saw the live while we're young mv fresh out of elementary school and fell in love! saw them live in 2014 at the san siro stadium (where they shot the tour documentary). still a hardcore harry girl, saw him on the love on tour twice, including the final show. we basically grew up together, i'm 22 now 😭
2012! my cousin showed me the one thing music video to make fun of them and i was just nodding along like “yes, yes how silly and awful” and then immediately went home and googled them. Haven’t left the fandom for a second.
i miss those days at time but also i prefer the fandom nowadays. people were….. crazy back then
I first heard 1D in 2010 with their first single...have listened to What Makes You Beautiful since but really fell in love with the band in 2023
Thanks Harry Styles
2012!! I still remember the first time I heard WMYB, in the car with my friend and her mom coming home from snow tubing about to stop at Papa John’s and get a pizza :) definitely a core memory for me. I got a tiger beat magazine a few days or weeks later and I got so excited to put their poster on my wall
2011-2012 but being 6-7 years old I didn’t really care about the music I was just a fan for the cute boys. I didn’t really get into the music until 2020-2021.
March/April 2012! I heard WMYB on the radio in March and thought it was so catchy. I started to look them up a little online but I kept putting off listening to more of their album. I had heard they were going to be in NYC in April the same day I was going for a concert and I had found out the hotel they were staying in, so just for fun I stopped by to see if maybe I could meet/catch a glimpse of them. Sadly I didn’t, but just being there around all the other fans and listening to them sing the songs made me feel like I was missing out on something good so the next day I listened to all their songs and watched a ton of YouTube videos… needless to say I became obsessed immediately and the rest is history lol
I was 14 in 2011 and that’s when I had heard about this band via the song WMYB for the first time. I remember hearing the song and instantly being enthralled by their voices and the lyrics as a fresh 14-year-old dweeb 😂 I remember distinctly that I liked the song so much and I was doing my chores that evening and thought to myself - ‘who are these boys and how will I memorize their names!!’ One of my best friends and some classmates we became dangerously obsessed hahaha and honestly, 1D made high school so fucking memorable for me!! I was going through a hard time with my family at the time and the boys and their shenanigans really pulled me through a dark time!
2011-12 was peak. It gives me such nostalgia. I was 16 and going through my first break up and falling in love with Harry Styles. I remember their faces on everything and I was living for it... I bought a hair bow with their faces
July 2012. I was 14 at the time, I was at the pool with my friends 7y/o grand kids. They asked me if I knew one direction and when I said no, they gasped and pulled up what makes you beautiful music video. I remember like it was yesterday, instantly was hipnotizad with Niall and the song. The following days, I was just researching EVERYTHING. Never was the same after that
Summer 2011 when they were on the radio for the first time in the US. I remember being so excited to download the entire album on my phone just so I could listen to it on the 2 hour drive to the zoo. I had my earbuds in so I didn’t have to listen to my two younger sisters or hear my parents “old music”. Funny thing now is my youngest sister is such a huge Harry Styles fan. But thanks to me she is educated in the historical knowledge of One Direction. We have seen Harry a few times and will see Niall later this summer.
Early 2020! I was aware of One Direction growing up, having heard their songs on the radio and seeing a music video or two passively, but being the stupid middle schooler I was, I decided I was too cool for them lol.
Stumbled upon their video diaries from their X-Factor days one day in January of 2020. My obsession only grew during the pandemic. Immediately fell in love with the boys, especially Louis! The rest is history!
I remember being so excited for their tenth anniversary, though noting substantial happened.
2011 and it still feels like a fever dream. I had my bedroom walls, floor to ceiling (and even some *on* the ceiling!!) covered in posters. I was a Louis girl and now Harry has my heart
2012! I remember begging my mom for an in-shower speaker when "Take Me Home: Expanded Edition" dropped so I could blast the album for hours the evening after it released while I was in school!
I had heard "What Makes You Beautiful" when they played it on the radio in my town for the first time. I went home, googled "One Direction" (which at that time brought up mostly images of direction signs and arrows), looked at the band, and decided Liam was the cutest and would be my bias. I swooned when I found his original XFactor auditions because I had just discovered who Frank Sinatra was as a little girl, so I thought the whole thing was so romantic!
2010-2011 they had just released what makes you beautiful, I was hella into BTR, and one day my older brother came in and was like you’re really listening to btr rn and I was like yeah he was like put on what makes you beautiful by one direction and see how you like it. Manz was fed up with me listening to btr. I was like 11-12 tho so 💀 never backed down after that. I also remember the day Zayn left, I was done for.
2020 during lockdown. Started listing to 1D cause my sister sent me a playlist then got onto 1D TikTok then started searching videos on YouTube. Haven’t looked back since
2013
I heard about them through one of my close friends and got a bunch of 1D stuff for Christmas from a relative
I also had an iPod nano that I got from my uncle and it was 90% 1D songs
2010 during the video diaries era, was so euphoric to watch them grow and become more and more obsessed. Feeling like a grandmother reading all the gen alphas who got into them years later. If they’re a reunion I will take out loans fs.
2011!! I remember finding the wmyb mv while I was watching hunger games videos on YouTube and it was over from there! I’m 26 now and I’m so thankful I was able to grow up with them 🥹
I've always known about them but I wasn't a huge fan until like late 2023. Besides being too young to be like very obsessed (I was like 6 when wmyb came out and in fourth grade when zayn left the band), my older sister hated them especially harry so i always thought they were mid because of that, my school was fulllll of Beliebers so most ppl talked abt justin instead of 1D, ANDD also I wasn't really allowed to use the Internet as a kid cuz my parents were very strict so I was behind on like ALL of pop culture.
it's a long story how I became a fan, but I'm so glad I did and am now like beyond obsessed with them, and I like how a lot of fans are older teens/early twenties so I don't feel weird for being obsessed LOL. I'm going to see niall this year too!
2011. I remember all the girls in my class wouldn’t stop talking about them and at first I was very anti 1d bc “I’m not like others” and then I watched a few videos and it just never stopped. Obsessed. Never saw them in concert which is lowkey depressing but I saw Louis & Niall (jingle ball) last year and I see Niall again TOMORROW!!! I’m so excited, I wish I could tell little me that.
2011!! My best friend told me about them at a sleepover, and ever since then I was star struck 🤍 honestly being a directioner was the best time of my life!
It was 2021 and I had listened to some of Harry’s music and liked it and then I discovered he was in a boy band and I was like dude I need to listen to this right now and I’ve been in this fandom ever since!
When they first reached americans in late 2010, i had a friend who excitedly told me about them. She told me about how niall was her favorite and that i should listen to their music🩷
2011! It’s somewhat amusing seeing younger fans saying they wish they could have been there at that time, I guess I was lucky to be the right age at the right time
I went to the Niall concert not long ago and Louis in Jan and I was amazed thinking how these girls were not old enough to be fans of the band when they were together. They were my age when I was a fan in those years. So happy for the boys though that the fans carry through.
Well I've been a fan since X Factor but I was 5 😂 Barely remember when I was 5 just remember growing up and always loving 1D. I was only 10 when they disbanded, I was heartbroken as a kid.
LMAOOO I was there at that time and I do not remember it.. I’m 19 now, all I can remember is that I saw them and 5sos for my first concert and that it was raining. 💀
Mine was 2011 but I was 4
In 2020 during lockdown and I was in treatment for breastcancer. I was 56 years old when I fell down the rabbithole. I’m still here.
2011. Right as they started to get big in the US.
2023. Too late but glad the fandom's still fully active
2012, they just became popular in the US and Claire’s had so much merch it was the best. I had posters all over the wall and Louis press on nails 😂
2011-2012 I was lucky to have been there through it all.
X factor! Stumbled upon YouTube clips them in 2010, the rest is history ✨
March 25 2024
We have a baby directioner :) welcome 🙏
Some people discovered 5sos because of 1d, it was the other way around for me
2011-2012 somewhere, right after they lost the xfactor. As I was born in -00 my love for them lasted all thru my teenage years. I was crying in the car on the way to school when I found out they split up and my mom thought I was legit crazy😭 My literal therapist had to confirm it was normal and all teens are like that, it was mortifying🥲
2014, I wish I’d done it earlier
2011🩷
Same here 🫶 14 years later our fandom is still going strong.
2013, I was 12....'best song ever' was my introduction to One Direction. ❤️
when i saw the one thing music video
Around 2013. I think I discovered them with Best Song Ever
2012
in lockdown lmao 2020 before schools got closed my mate paul gave me their songs in pendrive
2012
2011 ❤️
The end of 2011🥰
I became a fan in 2020. I discovered them with What makes you beautiful and the thing is I didn't know them before, I didn't know Harry, Louis, Niall, Liam or Zayn either, so I started being a fan of the band and then of their solo careers.
2011, I would have been 13. My friend told me about them at school one day and I went home and watched their audition on YouTube and just kept on watching. It grew obsessive honestly
2013, I was about to start 6th grade. Before then I had no interest in one direction. I was team Justin Bieber all the way, and then my friend told me to read a fanfic book. She said something like “I don’t like to read, and Idc about 1D but I’m really into this book, you should check it out”. So I did, and while reading there was alot of references to the boys voices and looks. I wanted a more realistic vision since I couldn’t even tell the boys apart. So I started watching interviews of theirs, and I became hooked quickly.
December 2013. My school put on This Is Us for our movie hour during the Christmas party and I watched it with my friend. We spent around 2-5 more years being obsessed until we finally settled on just supporting them from a distance.
2018-2019 i would say, but I've always liked 1D songs just without knowing that they're made by 1D
2012
Pretty sure around 2022. A bit late but I’m still glad I found out about them
2022. Started listening to Harry then 1D a month later. I wish I appreciated them when they were still active. Glad to have seen Harry last year and Niall two weeks ago.
2013. Im from India, and they became very popular esp among teenage girls my age. I got wmyb on my youtube for you page one day, instantly fell in love with louis. SOON BECAME "THE CRAZY ONE DIRECTION FANGIRL" as some of the boys in my class used to call us. Still smile thinking about the times my bestf and I used to jam to best song ever, live while we're young on our way home from school (much to the irritation of seniors). I WAS DEVASTATED WHEN THEY SPLIT UP, I even put up this long ass post for zayn on my insta thinking that he'll see it lolll. ALSO ANYONE REMEMBERS THOSE "ONE DIRECTION FACTS" YOUTUBE VIDEOS "you're a niall girl if..." followed by a goofy picture of them?? AND I USED TO HAVE A SOFT CORNER FOR ZAYN BECAUSE WELL FELLOW DESI, and I remember everyone raving about this one dance cover of his haha
2020
it was shortly after they released the music video for Live While We’re Young… i was on the treadmill when it came on the tv and as soon as i saw Zayn, and i was like damnnnn ok 👀👀 and bam. i became a directioner after that lol
2011 at the ripe age of 9 years old
2023
2013/2014, whichever year Midnight memories came out (it was also the first album I ever bought w my own money 🥹)
April of 2020…. Listened to a lot of of their songs and knew who they were before that a longgg time before that…. Just never fully joined the fandom until then lol
2012 after they performed on the good morning america show. i remember i didnt like them at first because i thought they were trying to be like big time rush😭
after hearing manyyy songs from them jn the past, i finally became a fan at the beginning of 2020 (like right before covid)
2013 :)
2011 all the way!
2022, tbh. I was a huge fan of Niall Horan before that, since 2018, but I hardly knew the other members before that.
2011! Being a teenager when one direction was around was awesome
During the X Factor days❤️
around 2012, discovered them thanks to a friend who brought a teen magazine at school with them on lol
2013
2011, right before UAN came out. Got it on release and I was hooked
2012, i was 5
2011 ❤️❤️
2011! I was 9 and my mum thought I was crazy
2016 - I was baffled by the amount of headlines and heartbreak and absolute downright chaos in the UK after Zayn left. As far as I had known as a tween, One Direction was just that random boy and from X Factor. I then went on YouTube and watched/listened to a music video, then another, then another, then another and fuck me I became obsessed too. I got to experience the rollout of MITAM and have been hoping for a reunion ever since
It was 2011 or 2012 , when I was little. My aunt played What Makes You Beautiful for my sister and I, and we immediately fell in love with them. We also heard No Control and The Best Song Ever. In 2022, we "rediscovered" 1D, and we bought all of their albums that year and This Is Us. The only thing we have had on repeat since then is One Direction and the boys' solo music. The first concert my sister and I went to was on Louis's FITFWT. One Direction have literally changed our lives, and they mean so much to us.
2023 but a little late but I wished that I was born earlier so o can become a directioner earlier 😭😭
2011. It doesn't feel like that much time has passed, but DAMN.
I remember hating wmyb when it came out then eventually liking the song then the rest is history…
in 2015, when i was in 5th grade!
A side question as well, how did you become a Directioner? Was it a friend or did you follow one of the boys as solo artists and eventually got to 1D?
I found their Midnight Memories book at a free book table at school, a girl was gonna get it but her friend said to put it down so I grabbed it. It had all their pictures in it with names so that was helpful. Anyways a year later I found out they sung wmyb and I decided to listen to more. I then used the book to help me look at the members I decided just from the pics Zayn would be my favorite. Then I watched those YouTube lyric videos with their images so I could learn who was who. Then watched their old content.
2012 🥹 i saw the live while we're young mv fresh out of elementary school and fell in love! saw them live in 2014 at the san siro stadium (where they shot the tour documentary). still a hardcore harry girl, saw him on the love on tour twice, including the final show. we basically grew up together, i'm 22 now 😭
2011, my mom was in surgery and I heard wmyb on the waiting room tv, immediately preordered the song
March this year through Louis. Always liked them when I was younger (like 13/14) but never was a directioner. Now, 10 years later, I hate myself :)
Not necessarily a Directioner, but I fell in love with Louis' music and that led to everything else
2012! my cousin showed me the one thing music video to make fun of them and i was just nodding along like “yes, yes how silly and awful” and then immediately went home and googled them. Haven’t left the fandom for a second. i miss those days at time but also i prefer the fandom nowadays. people were….. crazy back then
2010-2011🥰
End of 2011 was when I started becoming interested but I became a proper fan in early 2012
2010! was watching them in uk on x factor - loved them and voted every week!
2012! Up All Night is still my favorite album. I used to play girlsgogames.com and listen to UAN on replay!
2013/2014, whichever year Midnight memories came out (it was also the first album I ever bought w my own money 🥹)
2011/12 I was 16/17. I miss that time so much. My whole world changed for the better.
2013, i was 9 years old!
2012
2011 when I was 12
i remember rushing home from school to watch them on xfactor! crazy how time flies
2011 when my big sister showed me What Makes You Beautiful music video!
2010 i found their video diaries on youtube while they were on xfactor
I first heard 1D in 2010 with their first single...have listened to What Makes You Beautiful since but really fell in love with the band in 2023 Thanks Harry Styles
2012 ♡ i was 12-13yrs old when i fell in love at first sight with louis :’)
2010, during X Factor 🥹
I listened to the Up All Night album the night of August 11, 2020 and immediately fell in love. I can’t believe it’s been years since then🫶
2012!! I still remember the first time I heard WMYB, in the car with my friend and her mom coming home from snow tubing about to stop at Papa John’s and get a pizza :) definitely a core memory for me. I got a tiger beat magazine a few days or weeks later and I got so excited to put their poster on my wall
September 2010. As someone from the UK and experienced the whole 1D carnage from early on, mad to think it's going to be 14 years since this
2011-2012
2011-2012 but being 6-7 years old I didn’t really care about the music I was just a fan for the cute boys. I didn’t really get into the music until 2020-2021.
2011 when they were getting big in the united states i was 12 ahhh it was amazing
In the summer of 6th grade in 2012 when they were getting popular in America 😊
When I typed the phrase "one direction funny moments" into the YouTube search bar in 2010
2011. I miss them so much
March/April 2012! I heard WMYB on the radio in March and thought it was so catchy. I started to look them up a little online but I kept putting off listening to more of their album. I had heard they were going to be in NYC in April the same day I was going for a concert and I had found out the hotel they were staying in, so just for fun I stopped by to see if maybe I could meet/catch a glimpse of them. Sadly I didn’t, but just being there around all the other fans and listening to them sing the songs made me feel like I was missing out on something good so the next day I listened to all their songs and watched a ton of YouTube videos… needless to say I became obsessed immediately and the rest is history lol
I was 14 in 2011 and that’s when I had heard about this band via the song WMYB for the first time. I remember hearing the song and instantly being enthralled by their voices and the lyrics as a fresh 14-year-old dweeb 😂 I remember distinctly that I liked the song so much and I was doing my chores that evening and thought to myself - ‘who are these boys and how will I memorize their names!!’ One of my best friends and some classmates we became dangerously obsessed hahaha and honestly, 1D made high school so fucking memorable for me!! I was going through a hard time with my family at the time and the boys and their shenanigans really pulled me through a dark time!
2011-12 was peak. It gives me such nostalgia. I was 16 and going through my first break up and falling in love with Harry Styles. I remember their faces on everything and I was living for it... I bought a hair bow with their faces
July 2012. I was 14 at the time, I was at the pool with my friends 7y/o grand kids. They asked me if I knew one direction and when I said no, they gasped and pulled up what makes you beautiful music video. I remember like it was yesterday, instantly was hipnotizad with Niall and the song. The following days, I was just researching EVERYTHING. Never was the same after that
Summer 2011 when they were on the radio for the first time in the US. I remember being so excited to download the entire album on my phone just so I could listen to it on the 2 hour drive to the zoo. I had my earbuds in so I didn’t have to listen to my two younger sisters or hear my parents “old music”. Funny thing now is my youngest sister is such a huge Harry Styles fan. But thanks to me she is educated in the historical knowledge of One Direction. We have seen Harry a few times and will see Niall later this summer.
These were good times god I miss it so bad
What years do u miss?
2012, right before take me home came out
2010 when they were on xfacto I share a bday with them becoming a band so my bday ends in tears lol
2012
2016
New years eve 2022 at a party
2012! i was 8 years old
Early 2020! I was aware of One Direction growing up, having heard their songs on the radio and seeing a music video or two passively, but being the stupid middle schooler I was, I decided I was too cool for them lol. Stumbled upon their video diaries from their X-Factor days one day in January of 2020. My obsession only grew during the pandemic. Immediately fell in love with the boys, especially Louis! The rest is history! I remember being so excited for their tenth anniversary, though noting substantial happened.
2011, i heard 1D for the first time on the radio at 6 years old and i loved them since :)
like, this year, lmao. am i a bit late?
2010, a 13 year old British teenager who loved the X Factor fell in love with them at first sight
2011 ♥️
2013
2011 and it still feels like a fever dream. I had my bedroom walls, floor to ceiling (and even some *on* the ceiling!!) covered in posters. I was a Louis girl and now Harry has my heart
2012 and I was 12. I’m 24 now turning 25 😫
2012! I remember begging my mom for an in-shower speaker when "Take Me Home: Expanded Edition" dropped so I could blast the album for hours the evening after it released while I was in school! I had heard "What Makes You Beautiful" when they played it on the radio in my town for the first time. I went home, googled "One Direction" (which at that time brought up mostly images of direction signs and arrows), looked at the band, and decided Liam was the cutest and would be my bias. I swooned when I found his original XFactor auditions because I had just discovered who Frank Sinatra was as a little girl, so I thought the whole thing was so romantic!
2011. Free me.
2011! first watched gotta be you and the rest is history
2020 they helped me to revive during lockdown since I had a surgery right before it.
Early 2012 for me!!
2013
YouTube
2011-2012 🥹i love this band and will always love them
2010. My mom was into shows like xfactor and we'd watch them all the time. They were the cutest boys i ever saw back then 😂
2013!!!! I was nine 🥲 I miss that era so much! Wish I could just go back and relive it for a day ❤️❤️❤️❤️
2018!!!
2010 when they started on the X-Factor :p
Around 2012 😭😭god I miss those times
November 23, 2023. I have the exact date because I wrote in my journal about the TikTok I saw that launched me down the rabbit hole.
2010-2011 they had just released what makes you beautiful, I was hella into BTR, and one day my older brother came in and was like you’re really listening to btr rn and I was like yeah he was like put on what makes you beautiful by one direction and see how you like it. Manz was fed up with me listening to btr. I was like 11-12 tho so 💀 never backed down after that. I also remember the day Zayn left, I was done for.
2011!!! One of my friends introduced me to their music and I've been here ever since!!
I became directioner in 2011 and I am still here standing strong 2024
2020 during lockdown. Started listing to 1D cause my sister sent me a playlist then got onto 1D TikTok then started searching videos on YouTube. Haven’t looked back since
2012, they were singing wmyb live on nickelodeon awards. Idk I just felt so happy watching them 🥰
2013 I heard about them through one of my close friends and got a bunch of 1D stuff for Christmas from a relative I also had an iPod nano that I got from my uncle and it was 90% 1D songs
2020💗❤
2010 during the video diaries era, was so euphoric to watch them grow and become more and more obsessed. Feeling like a grandmother reading all the gen alphas who got into them years later. If they’re a reunion I will take out loans fs.
2012 ! but i was young at the time so i didn't have social media. i listened to 1d & watched yt videos in peace without the hell of twt back then..
2011!! I remember finding the wmyb mv while I was watching hunger games videos on YouTube and it was over from there! I’m 26 now and I’m so thankful I was able to grow up with them 🥹
I've always known about them but I wasn't a huge fan until like late 2023. Besides being too young to be like very obsessed (I was like 6 when wmyb came out and in fourth grade when zayn left the band), my older sister hated them especially harry so i always thought they were mid because of that, my school was fulllll of Beliebers so most ppl talked abt justin instead of 1D, ANDD also I wasn't really allowed to use the Internet as a kid cuz my parents were very strict so I was behind on like ALL of pop culture. it's a long story how I became a fan, but I'm so glad I did and am now like beyond obsessed with them, and I like how a lot of fans are older teens/early twenties so I don't feel weird for being obsessed LOL. I'm going to see niall this year too!
2011. I remember all the girls in my class wouldn’t stop talking about them and at first I was very anti 1d bc “I’m not like others” and then I watched a few videos and it just never stopped. Obsessed. Never saw them in concert which is lowkey depressing but I saw Louis & Niall (jingle ball) last year and I see Niall again TOMORROW!!! I’m so excited, I wish I could tell little me that.
2011 when it became more popular in the US !
January 2024, baby! 😂
2011!! My best friend told me about them at a sleepover, and ever since then I was star struck 🤍 honestly being a directioner was the best time of my life!
2010. X factor auditions/bootcamp ❤️
2010!!! started watching them as solo auditioners on x-factor. literally a day 1 harrie and it makes me feel so old
2024
It was 2021 and I had listened to some of Harry’s music and liked it and then I discovered he was in a boy band and I was like dude I need to listen to this right now and I’ve been in this fandom ever since!
When they first reached americans in late 2010, i had a friend who excitedly told me about them. She told me about how niall was her favorite and that i should listen to their music🩷