Celebs That Have Gone Above And Beyond With Fans

Celebrities have pretty hectic schedules, so it's nice when they take the time to reach out, respond, and make lasting memories for the people who look up to them. Growing up I was known to be a big and vocal fan of my pop culture obsessions. I dreamt about being one of the little girls who got to hang out with the Spice Girls on the Spice Bus from their hit movie Spice World, I went to tons of concerts, and I rarely missed an episode of the television shows I loved, most notably One Tree Hill. I once took a bus from Toronto, Ontario, to where it was filmed in Wilmington, N.C. It was there I experienced the joy most fans get when they meet their favorite stars.

There's nothing like the feeling when a celebrity goes above and beyond for fans. Check out these celebs who have done just that (and more) to support and give back to their fans.

Taylor Swift is one celeb who is extremely generous to her fans with her time and her money. She donated $1 million to Louisiana for flood relief, donated $5,000 to contribute to the funeral costs of a fan, and she even sent another fan money to pay off her student loans. Whether it be a big or small gesture, she shows her fans how much she appreciates them with individually wrapped gifts and personalized notes.

Over the years she's surprised her fans in the sweetest of ways: she's dropped in on a couple's wedding, stopped by to perform for a 96-year-old veteran the day after Christmas, and invited fans over to her apartment to hang out one-on-one. Some lucky Swifties have not only met her, but got to go to her house to listen to her album 1989 before anyone else for the 1989 "Secret Sessions."

David Beckham has fans all over the world that have been following him for as long as he's been in the spotlight. In 2015, one of his longtime fans, Andy Moss, was battling a stage four cancer diagnosis, and meeting Beckham was at the top of his bucket list. Thanks to the help of other fans around the world, Beckham saw the posts being shared on social media and arranged to have their families meet, making Andy's dream come true.

Beckham also makes many trips abroad to raise awareness for issues affecting children as a UNICEF ambassador, meeting some of his young fans along the way. He spends some of his spare time meeting soccer fans as far as Tokyo to playing a few matches with his fans, like he did with students from Nepal after the 2015 earthquake. In 2016, on a cold day in London, Beckham was walking down the street when he passed a paramedic treating a patient. Ten minutes later, he came back to treat them to a coffee and a tea. It seems like whether you're a fan or not, if you stumble into David Beckham he'll likely go out of his way to be nice to you!

It's always really exciting and joyous to watch Ellen treat her fans. They probably love her for all the swag she hooks them up with, but her warm, generous, and infectious personality is just as much a gift. She's been a role model to many LGBTQ fans, she's given students and schools thousands of dollars towards learning, she's given families the chance to rebuild their lives, and she's even just given them a moment to show off their skills.

In 2014, Samsung agreed to pay a dollar for every retweet of her famous Oscar selfie to go to the charity of her choosing. The tweet raised $3.3 million and was split between St. Jude's Children's Hospital and the Humane Society. At the 2016 People's Choice Awards, she received the humanitarian award, which came with a $100,000 donation from Walgreens to go towards any charity of her choice. We also learned that she's given away $50 million dollars to date to her fans. She really should be renamed Ellen DeGenerous!

Chris Pratt is a celeb who is a superhero on the big screen, but an even bigger one to kids who are struggling through their own health care battles. Over the years, Pratt has made many trips to the Seattle's Children Hospital, visiting young fans and stopping to spread some love in the NICU. Pratt, along with Chris Evans, also put smiles on many faces when they made good on their Super Bowl bet and visited Christopher's Haven children's hospital in Boston.

During the filming of Jurassic World, Pratt even spent some time teaching children how to train raptors at Our Lady of the Lake Children's Hospital in Baton Rouge.

When he's not out in public meeting his fans, he's still chatting with them online. He's very responsive to his fans, from encouraging them to do well on exams to agreeing with how much they loved his wife, Anna, in a movie to retweeting them for doing something fun and silly.

Miley is known for using her fame to speak out on political issues like supporting immigrants, Planned Parenthood, and, most vocally, LGBTQ rights. She also puts her money where her mouth is. In 2015, the sometimes controversial celeb started the Happy Hippie Foundation, an organization that supports homeless, LGBTQ, and other vulnerable youth. In 2014, she donated half a million dollars towards AIDS research at the amfAR LA Inspiration Gala, according to The Huffington Post.

In 2013, she told Jimmy Kimmel about how she was so impressed with a fan's social media skills that she actually hired her to fly out and work with her for the summer.

She is uncommonly open with her fans, freely discussing her body and gender fluidity to promote inclusiveness and positivity. When Miley isn't entertaining her fans, she's marching alongside them to fight for the equal rights and attention they deserve.

Over the years, Tom Hanks has done some really cool things for his fans and for random strangers. He has been a spontaneous photo bomber on more than one occasion, like at a couple's wedding in Central Park and with a couple of guys at a diner. He's been known to help return student IDs, help a group of Girl Scouts sell some cookies, and help a woman settle a bet with her friends. I find my face bursting into a smile every time I read another fan encounter with Hanks, evidently the nicest guy in Hollywood.

One day, a New York City cab driver picked up Hanks without realizing who he was at first. When it finally dawned on him who he had picked up, they had a great exchange, and Hanks affectionately dubbed him Mr. Ferrari from the hat and shirt he was wearing that day. One day, Mr. Ferrari was driving around and got a text from someone he had previously driven saying that Mr. Hanks was inviting him to come backstage and see his Broadway show called Lucky Guy.

Beyoncé is another celeb who, despite being one of the busiest entertainers in the business, takes time out for her fans. Laurent and Larry Bourgeois, a.k.a. the Les Twins, came across Beyoncé's radar after she found them dancing to one of her songs on YouTube. The twins told i-D magazine that she wanted to work with them that so much that she spent a few years trying to track them down.

One time at a karaoke bar in Miami, a couple of fans were singing her song "Party," and unbeknownst to them she was partying in the room next door before popping over to join them for a song.

Earlier this year, a fan named Ebony was battling a rare cancer and wanted to meet Beyoncé as one of her last wishes. Her wish came true when Beyoncé FaceTimed her after hearing about her wish on social media. Unfortunately, she passed away four days later.

Bill Murray seems like he's always ready for a good time. If you're lucky enough to be in the same place as him, you might just be lucky enough to have one of those special encounters. There's even an entire website dedicated to people sharing their unbelievable stories.

He could photo bomb your engagement photos, join in on your karaoke party, play a game of kickball with you and a group of friends, or even tag along to a house party.

In 2013, super fan Branka Delic from Australia was getting married in Las Vegas at the same time that Bon Jovi's Because We Can tour was in town. Leading up to the big day, she started a petition and messaged him, and to her joy and surprise he actually showed up to walk her down the aisle.

He also showed up at a karaoke bar that year undercover, disguised with a fake beard, hair, and glasses, to surprise some fans belting out some of his songs.

Plus, he surprised a woman battling stage four cancer who had been a fan of his for 30 years by inviting her family to his restaurant for dinner and then hanging out with them for two hours.

It should go without saying that celebrities are just like the rest of us. They may have high profile jobs that come with lots of pressure, money, and excessive travel, but at the end of the day they are only human. As fans, we look up to them, admire them, and support them, so it's a real treat when we hear about them returning the sentiment, whether the gesture is big or small.

When Ellen DeGeneres accepted her People's Choice Humanitarian Award in 2016, she said something that can resonate with anyone, famous or not: "It's a little strange to actually get an award for being nice and generous and kind, which is what we're all supposed to do with one another, that's the point of being a human." She went on to say, "I don't think you need to have a talk show to be nice to people and to do what I'm doing." While these stars and several others go above and beyond for their fans, DeGeneres is right when she says we all should be more generous to people in our own lives every day.