This article explores how the impact and organizing power of fandoms has spread far beyond digital fandom spaces to influence real-world political and social movements, using the BTS ARMY’s activism during the 2020 #BlackLivesMatter movement as a case study. It argues that although Western media tends to paint K-pop and BTS fans as a monolithic group, either as crazed preteen girls or socially aware progressive activists, listening to fans directly provides a more complete, nuanced picture of how and why fandom can become overtly politicized. Through analyzing public ARMY responses to Western media portrayals of ARMY #BLM activism, I demonstrate that fans and celebrities have a symbiotic and rhizomatic, rather than top-down relationship when it comes to encouraging fan activism. I argue that at first fans engage with political causes as an “activist who happens to be a fan,” b