Justin Bieber, Tom Arnold, and Woody Allen Walk into a Bar....

In fourth or fifth grade, I discovered Little Women. I stayed up all night reading it--it was the first time I'd stayed up to see dawn, and the first time I'd cried over a book (no spoilers!).

I wanted to be Jo, the hot-headed, no-nonsense writer, but I also wanted to be Beth, who was sweet and loved by everyone, or Meg, who was sensible. I didn't care so much for Amy (she burns Jo's novel during a tantrum!).

I also loved the chaos and liveliness of all the sisters together. I'd always wished for a bigger family....

Then, in the mid-90s, two of my cousins came to live with us, bringing the total of girls in the house to four. It was karma for my dad, who grew up in a house of five boys and one girl (poor aunt!).

In any case, we started living out own Little Women drama, and those cousins I can't think of as anything but sisters.

And one of the benefits of sisters is that they have a lot of advice to give. Solicited and unsolicited. And they don't mince words, a quality I have recently learned to appreciate.

In honor of the timeless tradition of unsolicited, un-minced advice of sisters, I'm handing Friday over to my sisters. So if you are in need of sisterly advice, send me a question, or post it in the comments and one of my sisters--or all--will tell you how it is. Or at least how it should be, as evidenced below....

Q: I love Justin Bieber. Any advice on how to meet one's idol??

A.'s Advice:

I think I’m qualified to provide advice on this because I have met my ULTIMATE idol. [ahem, see above. that's *not* a wax figure. -syr] All it took was some guts, good running legs to chase after him, a firm grip, and a lot of money (dinner and show at the Carlyle cost me $600+, ouch!) Here’s my advice on meeting Justin Bieber, or any other celebrities or idols:

1. Do your research - Are they playing a show somewhere? Hanging out at certain coffee shops, malls? (This is more likely if you live in a major city like NY or LA) Try to be where they will be, it’ll increase your chance exponentially.

2. Be brave – Don’t ever think, “I’m not going to approach him or say anything because I don’t want to make a fool of myself.” DON’T THINK THAT! Because really, no one cares! Worst case scenario, you are standing in front of Justin Bieber and you turn into a bumbling idiot. You think Justin Bieber has never seen a bumbling idiot before? I’m sure he sees them every time he steps out of his home, takes a drink of water, breathes…. etc. Justin Bieber meets you (the bumbling idiot) says hello, signs an autograph and whatnot, and he goes on with his life, immediately forgetting about you. Don’t worry about leaving a bad impression, he won’t even remember. The experience is more about you than him, it’s about YOU.

Don’t ever think, “I’m not going to approach him because I don’t want him to think I’m weird.” No one cares! I was at UCLA with my husband Clifford walking our dog when we saw Tom Arnold with a small camera crew. Clifford (HUGE Roseanne fan) said, “Oh my gosh, it’s Tom Arnold!” and continued walking. I stopped him and asked him why he doesn’t go up and say hello, because he obviously wants to. Clifford replied that he was worried that he’d be the ‘weird guy’ bugging Tom Arnold. I told him NO ONE CARES! He ended up walking over and Tom Arnold ended up doing most of the talking, in addition to saying that I (Annie) am too HOT for Clifford, he also pulled up his shirt and showed Clifford a scar on his chest from when he was stabbed by an ex-wife. And now we have a cool Tom Arnold story to share with our friends and family. Just think all that we would have missed out on had Clifford been overly concerned with not being the ‘weird guy’.

3. Be persistent and don’t give up – Another quick story to illustrate this point. My favorite band in the world is Travis. Last year, Clifford and I attended a show they had in LA. They announced they were going to meet fans and sign some autographs after the show but by the time we got out there, the line was insanely long. So knowing that they were playing at the same venue the next night, I bought two tickets for the next night’s show and knowing that they would make the same announcement at the end of the show, Clifford skipped the end of the show and immediately went outside and to wait in the autograph line for me (random tip: don’t marry a guy who wouldn’t make sacrifices to help you meet your idols, it really betters your chances). So that night I got to meet my favorite band, and because I planned ahead and carried a bottle of wine with me to gift them, they thought I was the BEST FAN EVER and spent a little extra time chatting with me. Another tip, everyone likes presents, and that includes your idols. Give them a gift and they will give you a little extra attention.

If all else fails, visit http://lesbianswholooklikejustinbieber.tumblr.com/.Seriously, some of these girls really do look like Justin Bieber!

Got a question?

Post it in comments or email me !