What a cool origin story! I realized that I was assuming you went to boarding school or something, just as you called out.
Your story reminds me of this girl I loosely was aware of on Tumblr. She was a big fan of Kpop and actually learned Korean to perfect fluency so she could run fan blogs, which then became massive. I think she got into some Ivy League college because of the skills she picked up from fandom.
The thesis that fangirls are undervalued still holds true :)
That's such a cool story! I was never into kpop enough to learn the language but it did tickle my curiosity a bit ahah
The sad thing is, you can't put on your college application for an Ivy League that you run kpop fanblogs (or at least you couldn't when i was that age), so you kinda have to invent a cover story. Otherwise you end up like Elle Woods' Harvard Law admission, except irl they don't let you in ://
I hope the culture will change and that it'll be as acceptable as say, having built a robot because you're a science nerd!
If you’re a man yelling at a screen for hours over a goal, you’re passionate. If you’re a woman who spent hours learning Harry Styles’ songs, you’re obsessive.
Sounds like a Taylor Swift lyric!
I have no idea who One Direction is! But my fan boying is very similar...
I think that's part of why i love reading your posts about music so much. Even though i don't know your bands, i see myself so much in all your memories and emotions <3
I LOVED this! You wrote it so well, Rose! I was nodding along and mentally noted what I’d say in response.
Firstly, I totally agree with you on fangirling setting us up for life. I wasn’t as obsessed with anything early on but I got into a short obsessive phase for BTS with my friends in college and it was a great experience. I made so many friends and had a ~community~ for a while, born out of nothing but love for people in a different country who don’t know us. The fact that we banded together online and in movie theatres and easily supported one another was magical.
I picked up the British accent from Zoella and her friends too! I used to watch their collab videos a lot, I liked their dynamics, which helped me understand the British accent a lot. Often, I’d come out of watching a few videos with a British accent which would last for a few hours or days and my friends used to tease me whenever it was present. The funny thing is, after not following them for a while, I’m back to watching their videos as their vlogs now are so nice, but I don’t pick up the accent! Maybe it’s because I don’t watch a lot at once and it’s not with full concentration? It’s like background videos now.
Anyway, watching all the videos and tv shows online definitely helped. I have a German counterpart team now and the rest of my team always turn on live transcriptions in meetings while I can easily understand and keep up. I totally understand how you’re excelling at work because of your communication skills, love that for you! I’m glad to hear that you’ve got something that sets you up to do well and gives you an interesting introduction quip.
About getting more opportunities due to the accent which doesn’t come with the negative connotations that you’d get otherwise—snap judgement about people is done all the time and whatever we have is used for or against us. The British, generally, are well-off and well-mannered due to which everyone is friendly (unless there are deep seated issues like colonialism…). I don’t see Americans getting the same level of response, it’s still warier with Americans. It’s great to hear that your accent has opened doors for you! There’s a lesson in there about not judging by the cover and subtle gatekeeping but that’s a whole another topic.
Fangirls unite hehe! I'm so glad i could find someone with the same background :))
I think part of why i'm getting more opportunities, even with the Americans, is that i'm super super white. So i'm foreign, but not the kind you can be racist too. The worst i get is a ww2 joke, but i can comeback to that lol.
I tried to use the fangirl method to pick up German more recently, but it's not working as well. We were so young, our brains were a lot more elastic for learning languages ahah!
This was so fun to read Rose :) I’m surprisingly clueless when it comes to noticing accents so as I was reading this I was like oh wait, she’s right haha. I loved going down this memory with you. It’s so fun to see how “random” things in our childhood shape us so much in unexpected ways. I particularly love the One Direction obsession and mimicking the YT girlies. I’ll be in Paris next week!
Rose this is SO GOOD. “By 13, I was tossing out words like “knackered” and “bloody hell” in chat rooms with the confidence of a Brighton-born girl.” I lived in Brighton for a decade and I can SEE the person you’re describing.
Fan movements are brands on steroids (know how you love sales chat 😉)
What a cool origin story! I realized that I was assuming you went to boarding school or something, just as you called out.
Your story reminds me of this girl I loosely was aware of on Tumblr. She was a big fan of Kpop and actually learned Korean to perfect fluency so she could run fan blogs, which then became massive. I think she got into some Ivy League college because of the skills she picked up from fandom.
The thesis that fangirls are undervalued still holds true :)
That's such a cool story! I was never into kpop enough to learn the language but it did tickle my curiosity a bit ahah
The sad thing is, you can't put on your college application for an Ivy League that you run kpop fanblogs (or at least you couldn't when i was that age), so you kinda have to invent a cover story. Otherwise you end up like Elle Woods' Harvard Law admission, except irl they don't let you in ://
I hope the culture will change and that it'll be as acceptable as say, having built a robot because you're a science nerd!
If you’re a man yelling at a screen for hours over a goal, you’re passionate. If you’re a woman who spent hours learning Harry Styles’ songs, you’re obsessive.
Sounds like a Taylor Swift lyric!
I have no idea who One Direction is! But my fan boying is very similar...
oooh you're right, it could totally be a TS song!
I think that's part of why i love reading your posts about music so much. Even though i don't know your bands, i see myself so much in all your memories and emotions <3
I LOVED this! You wrote it so well, Rose! I was nodding along and mentally noted what I’d say in response.
Firstly, I totally agree with you on fangirling setting us up for life. I wasn’t as obsessed with anything early on but I got into a short obsessive phase for BTS with my friends in college and it was a great experience. I made so many friends and had a ~community~ for a while, born out of nothing but love for people in a different country who don’t know us. The fact that we banded together online and in movie theatres and easily supported one another was magical.
I picked up the British accent from Zoella and her friends too! I used to watch their collab videos a lot, I liked their dynamics, which helped me understand the British accent a lot. Often, I’d come out of watching a few videos with a British accent which would last for a few hours or days and my friends used to tease me whenever it was present. The funny thing is, after not following them for a while, I’m back to watching their videos as their vlogs now are so nice, but I don’t pick up the accent! Maybe it’s because I don’t watch a lot at once and it’s not with full concentration? It’s like background videos now.
Anyway, watching all the videos and tv shows online definitely helped. I have a German counterpart team now and the rest of my team always turn on live transcriptions in meetings while I can easily understand and keep up. I totally understand how you’re excelling at work because of your communication skills, love that for you! I’m glad to hear that you’ve got something that sets you up to do well and gives you an interesting introduction quip.
About getting more opportunities due to the accent which doesn’t come with the negative connotations that you’d get otherwise—snap judgement about people is done all the time and whatever we have is used for or against us. The British, generally, are well-off and well-mannered due to which everyone is friendly (unless there are deep seated issues like colonialism…). I don’t see Americans getting the same level of response, it’s still warier with Americans. It’s great to hear that your accent has opened doors for you! There’s a lesson in there about not judging by the cover and subtle gatekeeping but that’s a whole another topic.
Fangirls unite hehe! I'm so glad i could find someone with the same background :))
I think part of why i'm getting more opportunities, even with the Americans, is that i'm super super white. So i'm foreign, but not the kind you can be racist too. The worst i get is a ww2 joke, but i can comeback to that lol.
I tried to use the fangirl method to pick up German more recently, but it's not working as well. We were so young, our brains were a lot more elastic for learning languages ahah!
This was so fun to read Rose :) I’m surprisingly clueless when it comes to noticing accents so as I was reading this I was like oh wait, she’s right haha. I loved going down this memory with you. It’s so fun to see how “random” things in our childhood shape us so much in unexpected ways. I particularly love the One Direction obsession and mimicking the YT girlies. I’ll be in Paris next week!
Thank you Michelle! We should grad a coffee after work while you're here :))
Rose this is SO GOOD. “By 13, I was tossing out words like “knackered” and “bloody hell” in chat rooms with the confidence of a Brighton-born girl.” I lived in Brighton for a decade and I can SEE the person you’re describing.
Fan movements are brands on steroids (know how you love sales chat 😉)
More of this please 🖤
ahah thank you Claire! I'm glad you enjoyed it :))