{"id":472524,"date":"2026-02-11T09:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T09:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/472524\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T09:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T09:14:12","slug":"a-woman-shared-her-4th-grade-journal-about-debbie-gibson-and-the-pop-singer-responded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/472524\/","title":{"rendered":"A Woman Shared Her 4th Grade Journal About Debbie Gibson … And The Pop Singer Responded"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Broadway leading lady Patti Murin began reading her fourth grade journal, she wasn’t exactly sure what she would find.<\/p>\n

Murin learned that she was a true ’80s child: a lover of Milli Vanilli, The Baby-Sitters Club books, compact discs … and most especially, Debbie Gibson, a pop singing icon for tweens who liked their ponytails high and their concerts in malls.<\/p>\n

“I hope I get Debbie Gibson concert tickets,” Murin, now a mom of two girls, wrote in a pre-birthday journal entry. <\/p>\n

Instead of the tickets, 9-year-old Murin a received a bottle of Electric Youth perfume, which was the Holy Grail scent for fans of Gibson’s 1989 album of the same name. <\/p>\n

“Oh my god, she was it,” Murin tells TODAY about the pop singer. “She was, like, the coolest thing in the world.” <\/p>\n

\"BroadwayBroadway star Patti Murin rediscovered her love for Debbie Gibson in her fourth grade journal.Courtesy Patti Murin<\/p>\n

Murin credits her older sister as “the portal to all the pop culture of the time.” Her sister had “the hat.” Debbie Gibson fans will know the exact hat she meant \u2014 it’s the slim gaucho-style black hat she always wore that perfectly accented her bangs.<\/p>\n

“I believe in dance class that year, we somehow coerced my dance teacher to let us do a dance to ‘Lost in Your Eyes,'” Murin shares. “There was a lot of floor work.”<\/p>\n

\"80s80s pop star Debbie Gibson was known for her iconic black hat. picture alliance via Getty Image<\/p>\n

As she grew and began pursuing theater as a career, Murin had yet another reason to idolize Gibson: she was playing the role of Belle in Broadway’s “Beauty and the Beast.”<\/p>\n

“That was like a reignition of my love for her because I was like, ‘Oh my god, she’s a pop star, but then she’s also Belle on Broadway,'” Murin gushes. “How much cooler can you be?!”<\/p>\n

Murin may not be a pop star (yet), but she did get to be a Disney Princess, just like Gibson. She played Anna in Broadway’s “Frozen” for two years. Even so, she never met her childhood idol.<\/p>\n

\"CaissieCaissie Levy as “Elsa” and Patti Murin as “Anna” in the Disney musical “Frozen” on Broadway.Bruce Glikas \/ Bruce Glikas\/WireImage<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, Murin posted her journal page on Instagram<\/a> along with this plea: ” @debbiegibson<\/a> please be my friend?”<\/p>\n

After being tagged a number of times in the comments, Gibson herself finally appeared. <\/p>\n

“I\u2019m here and honored to be your new bestie \ud83e\udd70,” she wrote on the post.<\/p>\n

“I thought it was so awesome,” Gibson tells TODAY.com of the post. Murin’s journal entry “was such a time capsule of that year and that moment.”<\/p>\n

Gibson was made aware of the post through an acquaintance.<\/p>\n

“Of course, I knew of Patti through the Broadway community, and she’s a phenomenal artist,” Gibson says. “She’s just one of those very real New York gals who, oh, by the way, happens to be extraordinarily talented.”<\/p>\n

Gibson, who released a memoir titled “Eternally Electric<\/a>” last fall, appreciates all the fond memories from her fans.<\/p>\n

“It’s an honor just to be included in somebody’s childhood in that way,” she says. “When I think about the fact that my music, my perfume, my concerts, were the part of the fabric of somebody’s life to the degree that I’m in their diary … that’s never wasted on me. I think it’s extraordinary.” <\/p>\n