Amy Reyes, 17, of Tampa celebrates while sporting an outfit covered with photos of Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera.
TAMPA - The boy next door got a famous blond girlfriend and did you know what. The girl next door squelched her sweetness and went vamp.
Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera - "Justified and Stripped," as they call their double-headliner tour this summer.
Once Mouseketeers, they're all grown up now.
That's giving a whole cadre of young girls license to flaunt what they haven't yet got, for teenage girls to swing what they just got - and for moms and dads to provide many of the rides to the St. Pete Times Forum, where the duo played Monday night.
Girls floated into the arena bearing their belly buttons and donning skintight jeans. They wore hip huggers and miniskirts, halters and flip-flops with towering heels.
But there was a wholesomeness to the crowd. Many were too young for cigarettes and most were too young to order beer. Mothers held hands with daughters. Girls giggled and guys watched them from afar.
Alyse Faour slipped on her new, mature clogs for the concert. She promptly fell down, bloodying her left knee.
"I've been a fan of Justin's for like, my whole life," said Faour, of Westchase.
That would be a total of, like, 11 years.
Not all the fans, it seems, have kept pace with the reincarnations of Justin and Christina, both 22.
But they might dress like they have.
"I look at these 12-year-olds and I'm like, whoa!" said Amber Slate, 18, of Land O'Lakes. "You look around and you can't tell who's 12 and who's not."
Timberlake went from a little charmer on the Mickey Mouse Show, to a young heartthrob in the band 'N Sync, to his current gig as a singer-songwriter in his own right.
Oh, yeah, and crazy cute - as the screaming teeny-boppers attest.
Cry Me a River, a single from Timberlake's latest release, is among the most played songs on the radio. His admission that he and former girlfriend Britney Spears had consummated their relationship hasn't turned fans away.
Then, there's Christina. Gone are the golden locks and saccharine smiles of 2000 when she nabbed a Grammy for best new artist.
Instead stands a raven-haired, repeatedly pierced temptress.
"She changed," said Josh Burrill, 14 and sadly ticketless. He broke even, in a sense, by checking out the legions of girls traipsing into the arena.
"It's kind of good, in a way - for guys," Burrill said.
If her recent music video Dirrty is any indication of her self-expression, Aguilera's inner voice is telling her to explore sadomasochism in a Thai brothel. The young throngs are listening. Her latest album, Stripped, has gone double platinum.
"I think she has more freedom now," said Jennifer Huchingson, 17, who drove from Lakeland with her sister in a car they decorated with foam lettering that said, "Justin" and "Christina," with hearts next to the names.
"Before she was pop and goofy. Have you seen Dirrty?" said Huchingson, clapping and laughing.
"As you get older, you get more daring," said Huchingson's sister Casey, 24, wearing a low-cut shirt and glitter spray on her collarbone.
The concert inspired Cheyenne Petitte to be as daring as she could. For an 11-year-old girl, that meant sporting light-weight wedge heels even higher than her mother's.
Standing next to her mother Amber and friend Alyse Faour, she assessed Aguilera's appeal.
"I just, like, think she has, like, a good voice," said Petitte.
"And she's a good role model."
- Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Kathryn Wexler can be reached at wexler@sptimes.com or 813 226-3383.
