From Beliebers to the Beyhive: 7 Loyal Celebrity Followings

March 05, 2013— -- intro: Fifteen-year-old Courtney Barrasford discovered the hard way that nothing -- nothing -- comes between Beliebers and their stylish icon.

On February 3rd, Courtney tweeted the following: "Not really a fan of Justin Bieber but his acoustic album is actually good!"(sic) Justin Bieber himself enjoyed the candid compliment enough to retweet it to his 34 million followers. Almost immediately, some of his Twitter fans began hurling insults at Courtney, claiming she was pregnant with Justin's child, sending her death threats, and venting that the pop star noticed her, but not them.

Courtney has been able to keep things in perspective, however, telling UK's Daily Mail that, "I don't think these people would say it face-to-face. But it's still not nice to hear. 'I would say to people to ignore it and stop using the site for a while. Don't reply to these people because they will only hate you more."

Of course, Bieber isn't the only star with a fiercely devoted, cutely-named fanbase...

quicklist: 1title: Little Monsterstext: Lady Gaga has used "monsters" as a theme throughout much of her work. On her second album, as Gagapedia so helpfully explains, "monsters" refer to her fears and obstacles, including "Monster of Death, Alcohol, Drugs, etc." Eventually, Gaga took on the moniker "Mother Monster" and her fans became kown as "Monsters" or "Little Monsters." Her fans also have their own symbol -- the monster claw (or paw) -- which Gaga herself explained during her 2010 Monster Ball tour.

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quicklist: 2title: Animalstext: Ke$ha -- that beautiful phoenix risen from the ashes of the '80s -- fondly refers to her fans as "Animals," after her debut album, Animal. Although there's been some discussion as to what they should call her.

So devoted are Ke$ha's Animals that, when she requested that they send their teeth her way, she received over 1,000 human teeth -- enough to make a headdress, bra top, earrings, and necklaces.

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quicklist: 3title: Rihanna Navytext: Singer Rihanna's fans are known as her "Navy" -- and, like, many fanbases, they're active online, including on fan sites, Instagram, Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter. Rihanna even gave her fans a shoutout by wearing a "Rihanna Navy" hoodie while on tour in Toronto as well as on her album, Talk that Talk.

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quicklist: 4title: Team Breezytext: Chris Brown fans. Like their controversy-courting idol, they have inspired some... thoughts. About things. And such.

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quicklist: 5title: BeyHivetext: Beyoncé, clearly a fan of wordplay, initially began referring to her fans as her "Beyontourage" but then switched to "BeyHive." In fact, Beyoncé has even released "#BeyHive," a mobile app for her fans, as well as a glossary to help them communicate among one another. She also released rules for her "Beys" to follow, including its Golden Rule: "We protect our own. We are all beautiful. One Bey should never turn on another. We defend each other. Let love & respect guide you and always be good to each other. Follow the golden rule Beys!"

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quicklist: 6title: Swiftiestext: While Urban Dictionary may showcase some competing thoughts on how, exactly, a "Swiftie" acts, a Swiftie is, simply, a fan of pop/country singer and songwriter Taylor Swift. As Taylor herself explained, her fans came up with the name on their own. She also learned that, in Australian slang, "pulling a swifty" means something else entirely.

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