From her small town to selling out stages across the country – who is the Pink Pony herself? Chappell Roan, born Kayleigh Rose Amstutz, is an American singer-songwriter who has coined herself as the Midwest Princess. She is an artist whose music has been inspired by 1980s synth-pop and early 2000s pop hits. Roan’s music blew up on TikTok over the summer, most notable with her songs HOT TO GO!, from her debut album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, and Good Luck, Babe!, released as a single earlier this year.

Over the summer, Roan performed at music festivals Lollapalooza (Chicago, Illinois), Hinterland (St. Charles, Iowa), Bonnaroo Music Festival (Manchester, Tennessee), Governor’s Ball (New York City, New York), and multiple others. According to CNBC, Roan is produced by Dan Nigro and works under Atlantic Records, most notable for producing music for Olivia Rodrigo, Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, and Cardi B. Roan was born in Willard, Missouri, on February 19, 1998, and is twenty-six years old (Courier-Journal). She is known for her elaborate makeup looks and outfits, which she only wears for one show, her beautiful voice, and the amazing energy she brings to the stage. Roan has also appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon earlier this year.

On March 17th of this year, I saw Chappell Roan perform at Val Air Ballroom in West Des Moines with my sister, Emma, and other friends. On the day of the concert, Emma and I got ready in our pink outfits and headed to West Des Moines. Her show was general admission and it was packed. This was before her big blowup on social media. Tickets started off fairly cheap and got more expensive as the date of the show got closer, so my sister and I paid $35 each. One unique thing about Roan is she posts themes for her show; ours was Pink Pony Club, named after her song. Doors opened at 6:30pm, so we arrived at 6:00pm and the line to get in wrapped around the building. The energy in the ballroom was phenomenal; there was so much excitement and enthusiasm. Roan played all the songs from her album, her single Good Luck, Babe! (which had not been released at the time), Bad Romance by Lady Gaga, and her single Love Me Anyway (released in 2020).

Then, Roan announced seven more performances for this fall including, New York, Washington, Tennessee, Arkansas, Iowa, and Texas. She announced the shows on July 16th and had a pre-sale the next day on the 17th. Before the queue even opened, tickets were sold out for the show in Council Bluffs, Iowa. When general sale started, resale tickets were going for almost $300.

On August 19th, Chappell Roan posted a video to TikTok. The video laid out a series of questions including: if you saw a random woman on the street would you yell at her from the car window? Would you harass her in public? Would you go up to a random lady and say, “Can I get a photo with you?” Would you stalk her family? Would you assume everything you’ve heard about this person online is true? She then posted another video where she acknowledged that abuse, harassment, and stalking are a normal thing that happens to famous people and that it is “part of the career field she has chosen to work in.” She expresses how it is not okay, and she does not want it nor does she like it.  Since the video has been posted, many fans have stitched the video or made their own talking about how she seems entitled.

Then, on August 23rd, Roan posted to Instagram. Her post clarified that she is not asking for people to not approach her at concerts or press events, she is asking for a personal life, with her friends and family. She specifically addresses predatory behavior, disguised as “superfans”, and how it should not be normalized because it has happened in the past to other famous women. She has requested for people to stop touching her, being weird to her friends and family, to stop assuming things about her, and for people not to call her by her birth name.

Roan acknowledges the love that she has received but that it has come with her feeling unsafe. She ends the post by saying, “There is a part of myself that I save just for my project and all of you. There is a part of myself that is just for me, and I don’t want that taken away from me.”

Chappell Roan’s post raises the question: Can celebrities set boundaries with their fans; and how should they go about it? In 2017 Emma Watson expressed dislike for fans taking pictures with her and how she is very calculated with interactions in public. She told Vanity Fair, “For me, it’s the difference between being able to have a life and not. If someone takes a photograph of me and posts it, within two seconds they have created a marker of exactly where I am within 10 meters. They can see what I’m wearing and who I’m with. I just can’t give that tracking data.” Watson has been in the spotlight since a very young age because of her role in Harry Potter and in December 2018 stepped away from acting. In 2023, Doja Cat expressed how she was uncomfortable with fans. She said, “My theory is that if someone has never met me in real life, then, subconsciously, I’m not real to them. So when people become engaged with someone they don’t even know on the internet, they kind of take ownership over that person. They think that person belongs to them in some sense. And when that person changes drastically, there is a shock response that is almost uncontrollable. … I’ve accepted that that’s what happens.” Doja Cat also expressed how she felt so expected to be someone for her fans that she just wasn’t. That is why we saw such a drastic change from her in the last year.

In my mind, it is important to remember that these are real people with lives outside of entertainment. These are people that we look up to and that we idolize. But is it fair to put them on a pedestal all because of their jobs? Celebrities, in our minds, are not humans because we see them on television or on social media. I believe we should keep parasocial relationships with celebrities. This is a relationship that means you care and look up to a celebrity but they, essentially, do not know who you are. Yes, they chose this profession but they have lives outside of work. Imagine you work at a restaurant and one of your regular customers shows up at your house. You freak out because that is weird, but you chose your job. This is the same type of relationship Chappell Roan is asking for. When you are at work, you are okay with seeing this regular customer, but you would be freaked if you saw them in public, let alone if they asked you for a photo.