Rachel Herscovici is QJBlogs’ Pop Culture Columnist. She’s a second-year English major and one of the Journal’s Assistant News Editors. Follow her on Twitter @rachelhersci

Sometimes I’m convinced that the things I see trending on Twitter can’t be real life.

Unfortunately, a cancer rumour that led to numerous Justin Bieber fangirls shaving their heads was a reality. Ridiculous? Yes, but it seriously happened.

A fake tweet from Entertainment Tonight earlier this week read “Pop Star Justin Bieber was diagnosed with cancer earlier this morning. Bieber fans are shaving their heads to show their support”.

Although it was quickly deleted and Bieber’s body guard, Kenny Hamilton, tweeted out to deny the rumour there was still time for #BaldForBieber to start trending.

I feel like this is some messed-up, real-life version of Robert Munsch’s children’s story (emphasis on “children”) Stephanie’s Ponytail.

In case you missed this childhood gem, the story goes as follows: Stephanie decides to try out some new hairstyles to be different from her classmates who in turn begin to copy her new looks. Annoyed at her classmates’ mindless actions, she finally proclaims that she’s going to shave her head. The next day Stephanie comes into to school to find that all her classmates, and even her teacher, are bald whilst Stephanie rocks her infamous ponytail.

The moral of the story? Don’t just go do something because you heard it was true or you’ll end up like one of those ignorant kids with their hair shaved off for absolutely no reason.

It concerns me that the youth of today can’t come up with some more productive response to their idol supposedly having cancer.

From the looks of YouTube videos and various pictures of fans posting their supposedly ‘inspiring’ actions, to me, this all appears to be some attention- seeking effort by the fans looking for their 15 minutes.

So, Biebs, my fellow Canadian, I will openly express respect for you, but some of your fans are seriously causing me to question the good faith I put into the intelligence of humanity.

QJPop is a new column that’ll appear biweekly on Mondays. If you have a suggestion for a topic, email journal_blogs@ams.queensu.ca.