Excerpt and Photo from teenvogue.com
For Boba, a 20-something living in Auckland, New Zealand, K-pop goes beyond just listening to music — it’s a form of community that helped them find comfort and acceptance growing up.
They have always been a fan of K-pop — they loved SHINee, Wonder Girls, and Girls Generation and are now a BTS fan — despite being bullied for their interest in the genre. After the passing of their dad, Boba, who is of Tongan descent and identifies as non-binary and lesbian, joined a K-pop dance group that helped them not only work through grief, but connect with a community that encouraged self-love.
Boba is featured in K-POLYS, a new documentary from New Zealand exploring the unexpected relationship between Pacific Islander youth and the K-pop community. K-pop is, of course, a global phenomenon, and consists of countless artists, but director Litia Tuiburelevu found it fascinating that its power has reached even the most remote parts of the world, helping youth in these places find both solace and community. Inspired after going on holiday in Fiji and seeing how impactful Korean culture has influenced the islands, Tuiburelevu felt there was a story that needed to be told.