Quoted from the opinion piece:
'Within a few months I had devoured their back catalogue, smitten by that auspicious combo of Morrissey’s wry lyrics and Marr’s distinctive melodies and guitar-playing. As teachers droned on about quadratic equations, I was dreamily doodling their song lyrics in my A4 refill pad.
I clung to their songs with an embarrassing teenage fervour that has still not fully abated. At 21, I had the title of one of the songs — Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me — tattooed around my wrist, a constant reminder of my abiding love for this band (almost 20 years later, I only slightly regret it.)'
I always find it...interesting...how some Smiths fans unfortunately buy-into the notion that their Smiths fandom is/was something to be embarrassed about. That kind of passion, I think, isn't something to be ashamed of, and the funny-though-old joke that 'Everyone grows out of their Morrissey phase...except Morrissey' only has merit if one accepts the false received wisdom that a) the Smiths solely created songs for angst-ridden teenagers/young people, and b) to be passionate about something or someone is something automatically undignified or embarrassing - 'Oh no, our unthinking peers might think that we're uncool!'
TL;DR Smiths songs are for people of all ages and all frames of mind. And peer pressure is for idiots.