Allyson Tollett is a K-pop enthusiast who spends almost her whole day absorbing all the newest K-pop content. After spending all of her college years in LA’s Koreatown. she now works between LA and Seoul.
© ril2chaphotos
As a K-pop enthusiast, Allyson spends almost her whole day absorbing all the newest K-pop music and content. After listening to K-pop for the first time in 2008, she was immediately addicted to replaying the music videos, learning the dances, and going to any K-pop related events she could get into. Spending most of her high school weekends driving 40 minutes to LA’s Koreatown to visit the only store nearby that had K-pop albums, she realized that it was a lot harder for K-pop fans to consume music than it was for kids who liked American music. On a newfound mission to work to make K-pop easier for overseas fans to access, she set out to build a career working for Korean entertainment companies. She applied to every college in the US that offered Korean as a major (at the time, that was only two).
© Allyson and her sister at KCON 2019
© Modeling for Allkpop merch, 2016
In 2020, Allyson graduated from UCLA with a bachelors in Korean. While attending UCLA, she lived in and explored Koreatown. While living there, she was able to start her career by gaining experience at Korean entertainment and content production companies. She is also spending half of 2021 living and working in Korea. Now, Allyson dedicates her work life to seeking out the most innovative ways to make K-pop more accessible to new K-pop fans looking for content to obsess over just like she was.
© BLACKPINK Rosé watercolor portrait, 2019
© Spring in Jamsil, Seoul, Korea 2021
In her free time, Allyson also paints K-pop portraits, models for her K-pop photographer sister, and loves Karaoke. She is still spending most of her weekends in Koreatown.
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