Im a fan of this! (billiepiperfan.com)

Member Name: AmyAmy

Product:	billiepiperfan.com
Date:	16/09/09 (15 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: loads of detail, images, always updates

Disadvantages: cluttery

Over the years I have had several idols, which have stuck with me to this day. Although Andrea McLean is my career inspiration, there are a few celebrities who are not involved in the presenting industry that I do admire. Among them is the wonder that is Billie Piper. I first discovered the talented actress back in 2005 when I feel in love with BBC family sci-fi show 'Doctor Who', and since then she has become one of the main figures in my life.

Billie rose to fame at fifteen when she was given a record deal, becoming the new face of pop. With hits such as Because We Want To, Something Deep Inside and Day and Night, she topped the charts with her music and soon became a household name. Though her pop career came to an end after the release of her second album when her songs were not so popular, faced with competition such as Britney Spears (though why you would choose Britney over Piper, I never know), and she took a break from the media industry. Within the space of a few years, she married Chris Evans, moved to America, and then back to Britain where she kick started her career as an actress - something which had always been her passion since attending Sylvia Young's Theatre School as a child. She is best known for her roles as Rose Tyler in Doctor Who, and as Hannah in Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

Naturally, I have spent a lot of time researching Billie, and have come across a number of various fan sites in the process. There is one particular site that caught my attention straight away, being www.billiepiperfan.com. There was something about it that was incredibly eye catching, and it seemed to be filled with so much information, images, detail, that I couldn't help but browse around. Since this find it has become one of my most visited websites.

When you first click onto the website you will see two images of Piper at the top of the page, informing you instantly that you have arrived at the right place. Although this is quite a good thing for sure, I wouldn't say the images chosen for this header are the best - there are a few pictures I'd say would have been much more appealing and definitely more inviting. Nonetheless this doesn't make the site less interesting. Above these images you will find a selection of tabs, but before exploring these I always give the homepage below the images a once over. This is where all the site updates are displayed so you can get quick and brief up to date news about Billie and the shows she is starring in. At the moment, there is information about Billie's birthday book that was created by the site owner, as well as image updates from the TV Quick and TV Choice awards, and links to the official Secret Diary of a Call Girl website. Although this amount of informative updates is quite nice, the only down fall is that it does make the homepage look quite cluttered, which is not the most inviting thing to be shown when you first click onto a website.

After thoroughly inspecting the home page it's time to start on the tabs. The first one is titled simply 'Billie'. Upon clicking this you will be given various options to further explore, including 'Biography', 'About Her Name', 'Fun Facts' and a few others. These tell you all about Billie, giving you all the information you could ever need to know about the young actress. I quite like this section as even I have learned quite a bit more about her, especially discovered that she has a tattoo of her husband's name on her arm (she married Laurence Fox in 2007). This is definitely quite an interesting section and well worth the visit.

The next tab is 'Gallery', and this is most likely to be the tab, which I use most. When you click this, a different image of Billie during her later pop career can be seen. This is one of my favourite images of Piper, definitely giving me hopes for the rest that are in store. Below this there are more links to take you to the sections of the gallery. I find that it has been quite neatly organised into all aspects of her life, such as 'Doctor Who', 'Movies', 'Theatre' and 'TV Appearances'. Below this there are some figures, which tell us that there are 458 albums, with 22474 images among them. Now I haven't actually sat and counted them all (!) but this data is most likely to be accurate. While that seems like a lot, I find that with a lot of areas, especially screen snaps, they upload images of her from shows every two seconds, so a show that lasts thirty minutes could provide at least nine hundred images. Perhaps they do not upload all nine hundred images, but they usually put on about fifty or so. Even I am not interested in seeing images of Billie's movement every two seconds. Other than that though there is a wide variety of images to browse through, which does take some time! If Billie means that much to you though then it is well worth it!

Coming out of the gallery, the next tab you reach is 'Fanzone'. This section is created for people to submit their fan art and icons/avatars etc that they have created for Billie. Now the initial idea behind this would appeal to me, and if my laptop weren't plastered with 'Loose Women', I'd certainly use the wallpapers provided. However there is part of me that gets jealous at this. I do consider myself Billie's biggest fan (though I don't like to use the word fan, I think it sounds too impersonal and cheesy). Just because I do not have the time to sit and make collages of her does not mean I do not care. She probably means more to me than anybody, and that is all that matters to me.

The next section on the site is 'Media'. The image at the top of the screen that comes up when you click this tab is definitely one of my favourite headers. It's quite a shiny image, with Billie's smile broad as she walks down the red carpet at an awards ceremony. Below this there are various mini 'sub' tabs, such as 'Videos', 'Audios' and 'Genres'. This section is mainly all about her pop career, with many of her songs uploaded to the audio and video sections. I have all of her songs on CD, so for me this section isn't really that exciting, but if you are not overly familiar with her pop days then it is definitely worth checking out. Once you start to listen you cannot stop - she's simply addictive!

The second last tab at the top of the home page is 'Online'. Upon clicking, this brings up a page with various links to other Billie-related websites on the internet. I find this quite useful as some of my other preferred sites have been listed here so if I ever forget their web address, instead of browsing for ages on Google, I can just come straight to this website and locate it from here. Other than that though, this part has no other use.

The final tab on the website is 'Site'. This gives you a section that tells you all about the Billie Piper Fan website, including information such as its history, the staff that work on the site, and also contact information so you can get in touch. This is quite a nice little feature - I hate it when websites do not display any form of contact so if you have any queries you have no way of getting in touch! It's definitely worth going to if you ever wanted to find out more.

In all I would say this is probably the best Billie Piper fan site going. There is another website which is also quite fantastic (www.billie-piper.net), for other reasons though, and is also well worth looking at if you enjoy this one. The other site does seem to be more official, though there is no evidence that this is the case, and it hasn't actually been updated since 2008. This website is definitely more frequently updated and provides a greater depth of knowledge into Piper's life. If you are a fan of Billie's at all or wish to find out more, then www.billiepiperfan.com is definitely the place to visit!

Amy 2009

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