Cosmopolitan UK – September 2019

84 ·^ COSMOPOLITAN

seat, or sitting in the first
coupleofrows,”says
Natasha.“Wonderland, the
previoustour,wastwo
yearsago.I puteverything
oncreditcardsanddealt
withit later.I thinkit
musthavebeenabout
£12,000intotal.”
Neneh’scolleaguessee
a charismatic,smiley
woman,whoseabilityto
talktoanyonemakesher
idealforherjobasa studio
tourguideata popular
touristattraction.But
shekeepsheridentityas
a BTSsuperfanverywell
hidden.She’sblocked
colleaguesonsocialmedia
sothatshecanskipshifts
toseetheK-popboyband,
butalsotoavoidbeing
teased– shewasonce
mockedsomuchthat
sheendedupcryingin
thetoiletsatwork.
Previouslyshe’sfallen
outwithherbestfriend

because she flew

toKoreatosee

BTSwithout

Neneh,andher

mumdefinitely

doesn’t

understand:

“She’snever

lovedanything

asmuchasI love

boybands,”

Nenehtellsme.

LikeNatasha,Neneh,

27,hastravelledtheworld

forBTS,goingtotheir

concertsinParisandNew

York.“Iwaslike‘YOLO!’

andboughtplanetickets.

WhenI camehome,I was

instantlypoor.”Sheonce

spent£5,000onflightsto

Korea,nottoseetheband

perform,butsimplytosee

thecountrytheyhailfrom.

“IdidtheBTSTouraround

Seoul,whereyoucangoto

placesthey’vebeenand

restaurantsthey’veeaten

at,”shetellsmebefore

thrusting a

digitally altered

photo of her

cuddled up next

to her favourite

BTS member,

Suga, into my

hands. She has

not met any of

the BTS boys

in real life, but

thisCGIpicture feels

specialtoher. She travelled

toa studioin Paris for it,

andtellsme many fans

queueovernight for the

sameprivilege.

HOPELESSLY DEVOTED

AsI waitinvain for Miley

toemerge,people come

upandaskus what we are

doing.When they hear,

mostrolltheir eyes before

walkingaway. Ever since

theBeatlemania of the

’60s,fandom has been

dismissedand sneered at.

Everysuperfan I’ve spoken

tohastalesof being called

“pathetic”,“stupid” or

“crazy”.Most were reluctant

tospeaktome at first, as

theywereso used to being

portrayedin the press in a

badlight.When I confessed

oncea superfan, they

n toopen up. I spent

wodays before my

E English exam

dled behind a barrier

side a five-star hotel

Manchester hoping

catch a glimpse of

e then-whole) One

irection. Three years

ter, I would finally

chieve my dream

f meeting Harry

tyles, spotting him

outside Radio 1 in

London. I’d waited since

6am, informed of his

location by myriad Twitter

“update” accounts I’d

programmed to send

notifications directly to

my phone. I was powered

by a night of broken sleep

(and pure excitement)

and four years’ worth of

impatient anticipation.

Neneh was also there

on that day. Before she

became dedicated to BTS,

she had routinely camped

outside Harry’s shows,

once for six nights at a

time. Somehow, being

a superfan is less about

the actual stars – they

can be interchangeable.

(When Take That split, for

example, the Jonas Brothers

filled the void for Natasha.)

Rather, it’s more about the

action of dedicating your

time to someone you

idolise, having somebody

to cling to when things get

tough. It’s no different to

buying a season ticket to

the football or queueing

overnight for the release

of a new computer game

• things that thousands of
  people do across the globe,
  rarely attracting the same
  judgement and dismissal
  that female music fans do.
  For Natasha, becoming
  a superfan coincided
  with the breakdown of
  her relationship. “When
  I split up with my ex,
  apart from my family,
  I had no one – no friends
  whatsoever,” Natasha tells
  me. “ Joining [online] Take
  That discussion groups and
  finding like-minded people
  was part of the attraction.”
  It’s a sentiment echoed
  by Meg, 30, who travelled

Meg with^

Baby & Ginger

Meg with her

autographed Spice

Girls plaque

“I was like

‘YOLO!’ and

bought plane

tickets”