Some girls use earrings or a nice scarf as a fashion accessory. Twenty-three-year-old Jacqueline Cardoso has a set of fangs.

Miss Cardoso is one of many young women in Bermuda bitten by the vampire bug.

Although stories about blood drinking beasties go back to Greek mythology and beyond, the current vampire epidemic started with the release of Stephenie Meyer's novel 'Twilight' in 2005. She went on to release several more novels, and Twilight the movie premiered in 2008, 'New Moon' (2009) and 'Eclipse' this summer. Eclipse's domestic gross total at the box office was more than $300 million.

In case you've been living under a rock, 'Twilight' is about a teenage girl, Bella, who moves to Forks, Washington, and falls in love with a vampire, Edward. Eventually, Bella decides that she wants to become a vampire too, so that she will not grow old while Edward remains a teenager for eternity. She also has a really hot (literally) friend Jacob, who is a werewolf.

When the Twilight movies came out, at least one teenage girl saw the 'Twilight' movie three times in one day. It was a school day, and it involved her ditching a field trip.

Now there are TV series like "True Blood" based on Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse novels about a psychic waitress. Revlon has released a lipstick line called 'Just Bitten' and if you are intellectually inclined, you can now take a "Vampire In Literature and Film" class at the Harvard Extension School in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Miss Cardoso said: "I think vampires are awesome. I am not even sure what the attraction is. I liked 'Twilight', but I am not one of those crazy fanatics like you see. I like Richelle Mead better. She writes the Vampire Academy series."

She said that although you can physically get your teeth sharpened to look like fangs, she prefers to wear caps.

"I got these from Amazon.com," she said taking a fang out of her mouth and showing us. "People sometimes ask me about it. I get a lot of people saying they are so cool. They don't fall out. I have to actually pull them out, so there is no danger of choking on them. They are well-made."

She is a big fan of the 'True Blood' HBO television series, and she also enjoys books by Sherrilyn Kenyon who wrote 'No Mercy' and 'Infinity: Chronicles of Nick', among other books.

"I want to read about heroines who are not weepy or weak," she said. "In the novel 'Twilight' Bella drove me nuts sometimes, but she would stand up for herself most of the time. I can't read books where the main characters don't stand up for themselves. I like to read about women who are warriors themselves."

According to Miriam Kaye, of the Bermuda Bookstore, "everyone was obsessed with 'Twilight'". "Well, everyone female, teens and their mothers. Then there are other vampire series that are selling very well too."

She said now the 'Twilight' craze is beginning to die down, but paranormal romance remains popular, in general. And many fans of the 'Twilight' novels have moved on reading other vampire novels and series.

So what is the attraction to what amounts to a walking corpse apparently wearing a pre-teen's body glitter cream?

Waverley Moran, 15, of Berkeley Institute, said she thought the attraction was the immortal life and strength of vampires.

She has read each of Meyer's novels four times and seen the movies about six times. But she said the movie version of 'Twilight' disappointed her.

"I did enjoy 'New Moon' and 'Eclipse' though," she said. "I know many other girls who are into the vampire genre."

Inevitably, vampire mania has produced a reaction from those who have reached the vampire saturation point and comedians have begun to spoof the vampire craze. A Facebook page titled, 'The count from Sesame Street is a better vampire than Edward Cullen' currently has more than 38,000 fans. Comedian Claire Hooper has brought out 'Love Bites: 101 Tips for Dating Guys With Fangs'.

In an interview with Red Carpet Injection Entertainment Magazine (www.redcarpetinjection.com), Claire Hooper touched on the vampire-human-werewolf love triangle which is the basis for the Twilight novels.

"Are vampires a more suitable dating alternative to werewolves?" she was asked by Red Carpet.

She responded: "God no, but at least with a vampire you're less likely to cover your nice black clothes with fur. A more suitable dating alternative would be a real man with no desire to bite you, but women today don't want to hear that."

Check out your local bookstore or alibris.com to find Claire Hooper's book published by ABC Books.