My Daughter Doesn't Like 'Twilight'

Summit

My daughter does not like Twilight.

She won't pick between Team Edward and Team Jacob, because, well, she's on Team Neither. She has absolutely no interest in anything Twilight. She loves to sing and dance, is into the latest popular music and watches a lot of Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, but my eldest daughter is just not interested in Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner and their vampire and werewolf characters.

And yet it seems like the rest of the world feels the complete opposite. Last summer I had the distinct privilege of mentoring a group of 13 to 15-year-old young ladies from my community. The majority of the girls were Twilight fans -- they'd read the books, seen the first movie and were anxiously awaiting the sequels. When I bought one of the girls the Twilight book, she shrieked and then started shaking and crying. It was like Beatlemania all over again.

In May, Oprah called the Twilight cast "the hottest thing on the planet" and filled her studio with primarily female screaming fans. Even Jimmy Kimmel joined in on the action, dedicating a whole show to the Twilight Saga that included the extended cast and a spoof of the movie using the Jersey Shore gang.

And then there's my daughter. Is she the abnormal one because of her disinterest in all things Twilight? Why isn't she amongst the other screaming, giggling females? Were the film's grayish-blue overtones too depressing? Do werewolves and vampires scare her? Does she have something against unkempt hair?

To get to the bottom of this, I decided to ask her point blank why she wasn't into Twilight, Pattinson or Lautner. After staring at me blankly and then commenting, "Really, mom?" she gave a pretty simple explanation: Although some of her friends were fans, she said that she just wasn't interested in reading the books, which would be the only reason for her to want to see the films. It's not that she doesn't like to read -- she couldn't wait to see the movie version of The Lightning Thief after reading the book this year. Robert Pattinson's devastatingly handsome looks were just not enough to convince her to watch the story unfold on the big screen. And, as I guessed, she doesn't find messy hair all that attractive.

So should I worry that my oldest child is not a normal tween due to her disinterest in Twilight? Probably not! Besides the fact that I haven't had to shell out the money for the movie tickets, my youngest daughter is obsessed enough with Justin Bieber for the both of them!