‘I’m 17 and AFRAID of Sabrina Carpenter’: One fan’s response to the Short n’ Sweet tour gave us a new meme

There is a tweet that I think about often. It says that every day, I am at the risk of seeing a teenager’s opinion on the internet. Often, I found that to be mean. Then came one fan’s reaction to Sabrina Carpenter’s Short n’ Sweet tour.

The issue came when a video of Carpenter went viral. During her tour, Carpenter sings her song “Juno” and has a moment where she asks “Have you ever tried this one?” The question is referring to a sexual position and the song itself has lyrics like “Whole package, babe, I like the way you fit. God bless your dad’s genetics” as well as “Adore me. Hold me and explore me (Ah-ah) I’m so f*ckin’ horny.”

Basically if you listened to “Juno” and thought it was an innocent song…that one is on you. Especially since Carpenter is a 25 year-old woman who is free to sing about her more sexual thoughts because she is an adult.

Because Carpenter was a former Disney kid, she does have a younger fanbase but that doesn’t mean that she has to continue to cater her music to a certain demographic. If anything, anyone upset but Carpenter’s music not being “appropriate” probably shouldn’t be listening to it/shouldn’t be allowing kids to listen.

Which is ultimately where this new meme was born from. A 17 year old Taylor Swift fan posted that they were offended by Carpenter’s performance of “Juno” because children were there. Quite frankly, that’s on the parents for bringing them and not on Carpenter. But the thread went on with the fan saying that anyone defending Carpenter’s actions as an adult were “disgusting” as well.

“You guys are disgusting and weird for defending a literal weirdo. Im 17 and AFRAID of Sabrina Carpenter when she’s performing. You guys need help,” they wrote and the rest was history.

Well, you’re a meme now

The quote has now become its own thing. People have posted about how funny they found it and even started to apply it to other artists. Some got creative in their jokes. When a video of Renee Rapp on stage was posted, someone made a Stevie Nicks joke which then spiraled into THIS meme. It is very layered.

Personally, my favorite response was “I’m on the edge of 17 and AFRAID of Stevie Nicks.”

We had jokes that connected back to The Sound of Music even. The song “Sixteen Going on Seventeen” from the musical found its day in the sun too.

Everyone seemed to make fun of it and, to be fair, it is a pretty wild thing to say on the internet. When I was 17, I was too busy talking about Christian Bale and Robert Downey Jr. to be AFRAID. Times were different back in 2008.

The layers to some of these jokes are truly so impressive. One fan even made an Olivia Rodrigo connection which, if you remember the “Drivers License” debacle, you know how deep this goes.

Even Bruce Springsteen got roped into it.

Unfortunately, this is one of those things that is going to have legs. The minute you hear about it, you cannot stop thinking about saying it. It’s an ear worm, kind of like all the tracks on Short n’ Sweet, to be honest.

So, if you see someone say they’re 17 and AFRAID of someone, we have one fan account to thank. But also maybe don’t listen to Sabrina Carpenter without talking to your parents!