Teen Twitter (the most powerful force in the universe) has been hit by a bomb, and that bomb's name is Alex From Target. Who is this ordinary Target checkout guy, and why is Teen Twitter obsessed with him? Read on for more.

Alex from Target is a teenager, and a Target employee, and an overnight sensation. But he is also the latest thing that octogenarians and middle-age-genarians are confused about. "Who is Alex From Target really? Am I really that old? I've been working on my novel for fifteen years why isn't it finished yet!!!! I have to empty the dishwasher."

If you're on Twitter, you've seen him, you've heard of him. You may have even encountered impostor accounts that purport to be him, and you, the person who uses the internet to read Gawker and fuck about looking at paisley pillows on Overstock.com are confused. Hold on to your butts, here is the Alex From Target explainer.

What's up with this teen sensation "Alex From Target"? Explain it to me for I am old, as old as Shakespeare the playwright.

On Sunday afternoon, a girl shopping at a Target in Texas tweeted a photo of a hot boy at the checkout. By Sunday night, the photo had amassed enough retweets, faves, and general teen chatter that Alex himself (whom the teens had digitally tracked down) had reached over 300,000 Twitter followers. Girls and boys everywhere shared photos he had posted, learning about his life, his friends, his family, and his story.

By Monday morning, Alex From Target had made it to CNN, thanks entirely to a single handsome photograph.

(We still don't know who the first person to tweet the photo—patient zero—was. There's a decent chance that she is dead now, I'd say a 90 to 95 percent chance. If you are alive, Girl From Target, please join the discussion on Kinja.)

Alex From Target is a cute teen. I'm allowed to say that because I am also a teen, in terms of my attention span, and thought patterns. When one brave young woman was buying what women buy at Target like a good-ass Mossimo cardigan or Homer Simpson underwear or some chintzy jewel-encrusted item from the One Spot (the dollar store of Target [this has been the Target explainer portion of this explainer]), Alex was there, bagging those goods and making an impression. The brave woman captured his image on a camera phone and uploaded it to the web.

Teens, whose thirst for cute boys is unslakable, retweeted the hell out of that photo.

He's just . . . a cute guy who works at Target?

Yes. Sounds like someone is getting testy about employment I wonder why . . . no judgments or anything but . . . kinda crazy that you're so salty right now . . .

How did Alex From Target get over 300,000 followers on Twitter in under twenty-four hours?

This is a twofold answer. The first fold is: Alex From Target is a babyfaced angel (for proof, see the photograph emblazoned at the top of this post and also in your ~dreams~).

The second fold is: Teens are good internet detectives who love to follow babyfaced angels on Twitter. In an effort to truly get to know the living human man, who can speak and breathe and move around in physical space, teens undertook a dedicated web search for the cutest checkout boy Texas has ever seen. And Alex From Target, to the surprise and glee of the teen web, had his own dot-com presence on sites like Twitter.com and Facebook.com.

What is Alex from Target's Twitter handle?

Alex From Target's Twitter handle is @acl163, which could mean one of two things.

What are the two things?

Either Alex From Target's name is Alex Christopher LaBeouf (this is the correct answer) or he is very informed about the muscular makeup of his body and has torn his anterior cruciate ligament one hundred and sixty-three times which means Alex From Target is a success story of a man with legs like Gumby. A real hero who has faced adversity and punched adversity in the mug because fuck adversity, I am Alex From Target and my legs work! (This is a lie I made up.)

How is Alex From Target handling his fame?

Duh, he's lovin' it.

Is it true that Alex From Target has a girlfriend and that she NEEDS. TO. BE. STOPPED.

Teenagers are not happy about Alex From Target's girlfriend, Lindsey. But guess what she's a hot bitch so why don't you back off or maybe fave some of her tweets, okay? She could use the support right now, okay?

Btw, this tweet is about you:

You mentioned that there are Alex From Target impostors.

This morning, a national trending topic on Twitter—wait, let me say that again so that it really hits you, old person—a national trending topic on Twitter—was #AskAlexAQuestion. The wild thing isn't just that this was nationally trending on Twitter, it was that the hashtag was being addressed by a NOT EVEN REAL ALEX FROM TARGET. An impostor Alex From Target was fielding answers as if HE WERE ALEX FROM TARGET. The impostor Alex From Target sucks and that's all you gotta know about that.

Like, who is this tool.

Isn't it a little convenient that Taylor Swift's new album has a special promotion at Target and this kid comes out of nowhere and suddenly Target is all I can think about man I have been running low on laundry detergent maybe I'll pop over to Target real quick and buy some reasonably priced goods . . .

Taylor Swift is connected to this meme, yes. She is connected to everything.

But hey, Target approves of Alex From Target. Are you really surprised by this exceptional showing of brand enthusiasm? Shut up, Target. This isn't about you. You aren't a cute boy!!!

Hey, my friend's teenage son is pretty handsome. He works at Costco. Can I tweet a photo of him?

Do what you want, this is between you and your god.

[Photo via a mystery woman on Twitter, who are you?]