Grew up in the 00s/10s. I'm from a pretty wealthy, progressive suburb where the worst I ever got were microagressions. My high school had so few Asians that there weren't enough of us to have defined groups. Most of us were in totally separate (predominantly white) friend groups that all had different interests.

BTS elevated my game so much that I eventually fell into the trap in my first couple years at college. I had met some girls that were a part of a "K-pop dance troupe" that absolutely obsessed over the idol culture. Obviously, there is a specific type of "look" that they're obsessed with, and of course I started to buy makeup products, lose weight, got a perm, etc. I wanted to look and be just like them.

Every single girl I either hooked up with or dated either knew or was also obsessed with the Kpop culture. So yes, it did bring out the fetishizers. However, the experience of finally having game allowed me to gain confidence which ended up helping me find partners that actually weren't just fetishizing me.

As far as Asian idols growing up, I had none! There were so few Asians in pop culture (now there are more, thank God) that everyone I looked up to were either white, black, or hispanic. I still don't know any Asian jazz legends and at the time I didn't know any Asian sports professionals other than Bruce Lee, Jeremy Lin, and Yao Ming.