Celebrity Superfans Have More Life Skills Than You

A hundred feather boas encased me on the platform in Macdonaldtown, Sydney as I made my way to an afternoon train, minding my own business. Dressed in cowboy hats, colourful clothing, incandescent eye make-up, jumping around frantically with whispers of “trying to get backstage”,  this could only mean one thing: Harry Styles was in town. 

A line at the top of the stairs to avoid a stampede-like altercation to get on the train to Olympic park stretched out of the station, and there was a slightly manic tinge to the air.

It’s easy to scoff at people in moments like these (if you’re a prick): the “hysterical”, “crying” and  “screaming” teenagers (pinned usually as “teenage girls”) that want nothing more than to be recognised as devotees to their favourite musician, film star or celebrity. And over the years they've been the fodder for articles and culture wars studied like some obscure alien race. 

But the public’s often negative perception of superfans has begun to swing in the opposite direction. Fans, once seen as superficial and frivolous, are now more accepted as a vital tool in any successful celebrity’s arsenal. They are a community; a place for connection and creativity. 

And…surprisingly…being a superfan could actually help you to be more successful in your career. That’s according to Kate Pattison, a PhD candidate (as well as a social media manager) studying at RMIT University in Melbourne, whose research surrounds the transferable skills developed during fandom into real world careers. 

Her main fandom focuses: Harry Styles, Taylor Swift, Delta Goodrem and BTS. 

“So, the main [skills] that the participants that I spoke to identified were writing, design, video editing, idea generation, social media and community management,” she told VICE.

“Coincidentally, some soft skills as well. Things like more confidence, or working well with others, those types of things.”

Pattison has always been a big pop music fan which led her to the world of fandom. According to her, celebrity – as well as the environments they create – is the perfect motivation to foster creative skills one wouldn’t normally touch. They become figures of incentive.

“So whether that's making a fan edit, or talking to other fans, or redesigning album artwork, they then go and learn the skills necessary to do what it is that they want to do,” she says. 

“Some people said that they were creative anyway, and probably would have still been creative in some way or another. But by having something that they're a fan of, it gave them a channel to do that. They may not have had as much inspiration to do otherwise.”

While some may read this and find the evidence between being better at your job – especially in the creative industry –and being a superfan hard to believe, Pattison says that perceptions muddied by gendered stereotypes, making these skills seem unimportant or flippant, could be to blame.

“Over 90% of the people that did the survey were women, or identified as female. But the recurring theme that seemed to come out was that being a “fangirl” is associated with screaming, teenage girls,” she says.

Because of that, the labour of fans and their levels of skill, especially when it comes to things like organisation might not be seen as legitimate as they would if they had been taught elsewhere.

At the MTV European Music Awards, for five consecutive years in a row since 2018, Korean superband BTS has triumphed over artists like Harry Styles for the “Biggest Fans Award”. It’s acculmination of fan devotion, organisation and various social media accounts like the BTS Voting Brigade.

“I think there can be the perception that it’s just a bunch of angry tweets online,” says Pattison.

“Opposed to learning how to use Photoshop, learning how to put a campaign together to support something. There's that classic BTS example of when they bought all the tickets for the Trump rally. And it's like, these are smart, young people. Sometimes those skills might get discounted because of the environment that they've been developed in, for sure.”

And superfans agree.

Febs is a Social Media & Artist Manager who once ran a 5SOS and One Direction fan account with 5 other girls located around the world. It chalked up over 60,000 followers.

According to her, the site took around the clock updating and the creation of social media engagement strategies – which they would stay in their bedrooms until 3am masterminding – when they were 15-years-old. One person was awake at all times to monitor the site.

“You had to keep up with the latest apps and trends to make sure you weren’t missing a beat,” she told VICE.

“Creating content was second nature. I learnt social media data and analytics at a very young age.”

Febs has now been working in audience development and digital communications teams for the last few years, creating social media growth strategies for rosters of up to 15 artists. 

“Having these skills has been tremendously impactful in my roles in the music industry. If I wasn’t a superfan and as passionate about the artists that I work with, I don’t think I would be where I am today.”

Similarly, Sunny Roger, a superfan of Tyler the Creator and an artist in his own right, told VICE that it “[helped] me navigate through mental, social and creative blocks I had.”

“Creativity is everything,” he said.

“It made me do things I thought I couldn’t. Started producing on Ableton, got really good at photoshop, started playing piano… learned to trust my ideas.”

Most importantly, in a social sense, it brought him out of his shell.

But according to Pattison not everyone is aware how these skills necessarily transfer. After interviewing over 237 fans, she said that most had never put two and two together.

“It was interesting, because I had a question in there that was around ‘Do you think being a fan has helped?’ And most people actually hadn’t thought about it before,” she said.

“There were some that said it definitely did help them. So it seems like until this point, not many people had really thought about where [these skills] had actually come from.”

Pattison’s research is set to be finalised at the end of the year. In the process, she hopes to change the perception around the misunderstood superfan.

“I was just really interested in seeing how [superfandom] could be beneficial. I think sometimes it can get a bit of a bad rap. Not to say that there aren't negatives of fandom but I wanted to see if there were any positive flow-on effects of fandom,” she said.

“And if you're not in a fandom, perhaps you wouldn't understand.”

Follow Julie Fenwick on Twitter and Instagram.

Read more from VICE Australia and subscribe to our weekly newsletter, This Week Online.