August 2018 | Clare Henney

Unless you live under a rock or have become a hermit, I don’t think that you wouldn’t know BTS. The Korean boy band has exploded like crazy in the past couple of years and has broken through the US and other international markets. Everyone knows them and practically everyone loves them, my niece included.

This is a group that is not a surprise hit. It’s not a group that just exploded into the scene. To give them credit, before they broke out internationally, they have been a group since 2012 and were launched in 2013. It still took the group a few years before they gained the success that they have today. I think just on that basis alone they are not a group that will just pop out and disappear. This is a group that has paid its dues and is now being rewarded for it.

Honestly, I didn’t know who they were until my niece became obsessed with them last year, which led me to an online search of BTS merchandise that I could give her as a gift over the holidays. That was when I realized how popular they were: there is so much merchandise and most of them are very VERY expensive! It’s crazy! The only items I have been able to get for her so far is the Army Bomb and a Barbie/Mattle-made doll of Jungkook.