The Backstreet Boys are really out there. You can't channel surf past MTV, VH1, or the Box without catching one of their hit videos. You can't switch on your car radio without singing along to their single of the moment. And you can't walk past a newsstand without seeing them on the cover of some magazine. In other words, the Backstreet Boys are hot! Wherever they go, they attract crowds of loyal fans just trying to get a glimpse of AJ, Brian, Howie, Kevin, or Nick. For the five Orlando, Florida-based boys, it's definitely been a life in the spotlight, and they seem to thrive on it.

But it might surprise you to know that the "baby" boy, Nick Cater, is something of a loner. Onstage, Nick is definitely the wild one. He dances up a storm and seems to bask in the heat of the spotlight and roar of the audience. But once he finishes the last notes of the final song and dashes offstage, nineteen-year-old Nick prefers to keep everything low-key and down low. Unless it's a business must, Nick would rather take a pass on a party and go back to his hotel room and challenge himself with a few Final Fantasy VII games on his ever-present Sony Playstation.

It's not that the blonde, six-foot-one-inch cutie is unfriendly. It's just that Nick has always marched to a different drummer. "When I was a young child, I wasn't a very social person," Nick mentioned in an interview. "I tried to stay focused. I wasn't one of the popular people in school. I was very UNPOPULAR. Other kids were more mature than me in a way. More grown-up......Actually, maybe it was the other way around. I always liked school, but I had to leave school because I was acting and singing. Since I was around grown-ups a lot of the time, maybe I was a little more focused than the kids at school. So they didn't understand me."

Nick wasn't complaining; he just knew from early on that he had a master plan for his life and nothing was going to distract him. And nothing did. When Nick was only thirteen, he joined the Backstreet Boys. Not only did he find four new best friends, but Nick was finally surrounded by peers who shared his make-it-to-the-top dreams. It was a lot more comfortable for Nick in this enviroment, and he was really able to be himself. As for school, since the Backstreet Boys were on the road so much, Nick traveled with a full-time tutor. In May 1998, he recieved his high school diploma in a very unconventional "ceremony"--his tutor handed it to him in a hotel room.

Nick doesn't feel as if he really missed out on his high school days. No, he didn't go to his senior prom and didn't attend his graduation, but to Nick these were easy sacrifices to make. He was doing exactly what he wanted to do: performing for millions of people all over the world.

His Backsreet buddies understand just who Nick is. He doesn't get grief from them if he doesn't join them for a party-hearty night. It's not that he's a dud, it's just that Nick has his own way of doing things. In a very revealing interivew with "Big!" magazine, he explained: "Offstage I don't like to go to clubs. I like to keep myself to myself! The guys like to go out to parties and nightclubs, but that's not the sort've person I am. [Could it be because you too young to get into nightclubs?] I like to play video games and spend time by myself. But onstage I beccome this wild person; it's not bad--in fact, it's kinda cool. But yes, I do have a kind of Jekyll and Hyde thing going on. I love to get onstage and do all this sexy dancing, but I could never go to a club and dance like that!"

Even when Nick is back home in Tampa, he's anything but a party animal. There he likes to let his hair down and just be Nick Carter, not Nick of the Backstreet Boys. If you don't find Nick playing video games or fooling around with his pug puppies, William and Michael, he's usually enjoying the turquoise waters of Tampa Bay or the Florida Keys. Nick's prized possession is his motorboat. "A lot of the time, I go out on the boat alone. Being on my own, with just the silence of the sea, is such an escape from the constant screaming of fans on a Backstreet Boys tour. It's something I need to do--just to get away from it all....... The ocean does something to me that is unexplainable...... To me, the Florida Keys are paradise on earth."

The point is that very early on Nick knew who he was and what mde his happy. He may have even been different from his classmates, but that didn't make him a bad person, that didn't make him wrong. It only made him NICK. He understood that if he gave into peer pressure to be someone he's not, he wouldn't be happy. Sometimes, it takes courage to set yourself apart from the people around you. But Nick knew he could not live up to an image that other people might have of him--not his school friends [He had friends? For real? Are you sure we're talkin bout the same person? I'm kidding guys!] and not his fans. He knew that there is an age-old saying that he could always follow: Be true to yourself.