Being an adult K-Pop stan can have its ups and downs just like everything else. We all remember what it’s like to be a teenager and have minimal responsibilities while we love our favorite groups. As adults, we still love these groups. But with the added responsibilities we have, life as an adult stan can be almost tiring.

The biggest perk (of course) is having a job, making our own money, and being able to spend it on whatever we want when it comes to album releases, merchandise drops, and concert tickets—no more running to our parents to beg for an album or to go to the concert. While we have the financial freedom, it sometimes can also be a big stressor, like deciding on buying an album versus bills being paid on time if you’re on a stricter budget, or having to buy cheap concert seats instead of getting as close as possible and spending more money. Being an adult still has the added responsibility of paying bills, and we can’t always drop money on our favorite idols right in the moment like others. 

This topic has been brought up more recently as newer groups begin to debut—stanning groups with minors in it. Many would argue it’s not the best thing to actively stan a group as an adult if there are minors in it, and it just will encourage companies to continue to do so. The biggest argument many stans will use about the minors debuting now are the idols from the second and third generations who debuted as minors, but that still doesn’t make it okay (if you ask me, at least). Many of the idols from the older generations wish they hadn’t debuted so young, especially from the second generation. The other side of the argument is if these younger groups make good music, it doesn’t matter if the group has minors in it; the entire point of K-Pop is simply the music.

Being an active stan on social media is also not as easy as an adult stan. With many of us working jobs, it takes away from the time we used to spend as teens online. Many adults are usually okay with this, too. Being chronically online is tiring, and in turn results in a lot of online stans taking breaks from it to begin with. It’s okay to not be online all the time as it is.

The teen fangirl/fanboy to adult stan pipeline is still very real—many of us carry the love we have for groups and idols as teens well into adulthood and are able to still put a lot of our lives into it as it allows us.

Edited by Kelly Sipko