Did anyone say idols?
Okay, for real though, if I've been looking up to people or admiring them in the past several years, they've almost always been close friends of mine. I think it's really hard for me to connect with people if I view them as better than me (because I both have social anxiety and don't view myself in the most positive way) so while I think people like successful artists on social media or idols performing live on stage are incredibly talented in aspects I wish I had, I don't really think I look up to them. I don't find myself aspiring to be like them.
With friends though, it's a lot easier for me to connect with them and have deeper conversations, and their words are more important to me. If a friend is talking about an aspect of themselves I admire, I feel close enough to be able to tell them "Wow I admire that" and it's easier to aspire to be that way myself, thinking "well if my friend can do that, so can I". I think that personal connection is really important to me when it comes to this sort of thing.
They don't have to be real people either! I'll look up to fictional characters that I can relate to a lot. Setsuna is a great example. If I can relate to things they'll say or how they'll feel it'll inspire me to be just as good as how I view them. Maybe there's something I don't like about myself but fans of this character would go "It's cute how she does this!" and it'll help me view that as something good about myself rather than something bad, and that's a lot of what looking up to someone means to me.
Some of the first examples that come to mind are Ayumu Uehara, Setsuna Yuki, Hotaru Ichijou, and recently, Junko Konno.
Ignore the coincidence that three of those happen to literally be idols