A moment that changed me: I was shy and cared too much what people thought of me. Then a group of K-pop fans came into my life | K-pop

Y“Do you need to listen to this,” my friend Helen said during her birthday lunch in 2018. K-pop? “I did not know that Korean pop music was short, or around it, and it reminded me immediately, which is a family, just as there was a family.

Gradually, I started listening to more and more K-POP, until I took a diving and did something that I had previously rejected as “horrific”. With my twin sister, Hana, I went to a “Café Path” under the title K-Pop at the Gaza Café in Soho, London. Got-Togueher was characterized by Christmas of three members of BoyBand Got7. Their music videos were shown on TV and shown her album on the walls of the stairs. Bingso-Hills-Korean candy Slip ice-was served.

I was surprised when I found that the cafe event attracted a relatively mixed crowd – including other black girls, like me. I was expecting to go out and worrying that I might leave a feeling of rejection from a scene that I adore. But everyone were friendly and welcome, and soon we are associated with our common interest – albeit specialized -. I grew up, I was often preoccupied with what others thought about me; Here, no one seems to be interested.

When I was in teenage, I often felt that I stood, although my best to mix is ​​to mix. By the time when I reached the twenties of my age, I was “four -eyed” of excess weight, and I completely realized that. As a result, I did everything I could to make myself look smaller: I wore dark clothes, and I hung all the strands of my hair flat on my head and I barely speak at work. However, at the K-POP party, Black Girls wore bright makeup, band shirts and large smiles while participating in homemade lighting lights (trading cards, such as football stickers), and exchange and profitable badges when their favorite paths were played.

From there, the K-POP obsession began in the snowball. I started listening to BoyBands like Mondesta X, BTS and Exo, then girls’ collections like Mamamoo and Dreamcatcher. Helen, I, I have launched friends since high school, launched the K-POP podcast called UK-POP (Get It?). Fashion also ranked on: Black clothes stopped controlling my clothes cabinet when I added a red Moheer scarf here, which is orange orange Lukuzadi there; I even bought a bomber jacket with pink flamingo everywhere. I got silver braids in my hair and wore all of the ear holes at the same time – something I previously avoided, if it seemed “too much”. I spent more than 400 pounds at concerts, including a 160-pound ticket to watch Got7 at Wembley Arena that included “Hi-Touch”, where you can get the five group on the way out of the place (I can clearly remember the comfort of Colonia after that).

Be a K-POP lover, mixed in my job as a journalist; I met idols and showcased concerts. The other black women who were in the K-POP called me on social media, including Tasha and Shari, who have become intimate friends in a non-communication mode. With my sister and Hilin, we all started meeting regularly to discuss the latest K-Pop news, the vehicle we were and the scandals of the idol. We went to eat in Korean barbecue restaurants, and we went to K-POP shows, movies and festivals.

I finally found my tribe, a group of friends who I can messages day or day about anything-not only K-POP- and I feel completely supported. In the contract since I faced the K-Pop culture for the first time, we remained a coherent group, and we encouraged each other through new jobs, movement rotation, family Fujairah and many other big life decisions. We plan to visit Seoul together in the next two years-my last visit was in 2019, when my sister and I spent seeing the K-Pop signs headquarters including SM Entertainment and JYP.

Although my K-Pop obsessions are not as severe as it was, the Ateez party in January reminded me of why I fell in love with her. Yes, I enjoy music, but it’s also about warm and funny people who brought K-POP to my orbits, and my close friends who encouraged me to give up my shoes.

I am now in the thirties of my life and I am still looking forward to being more like hamper girls in a bright makeup that I met in the Gaza Café throughout those past years. I learned that people are not judging as I was afraid once – and if they were, what is that? As K-POP Megastars BTS says: You cannot prevent me from my love.