![[SEOUL STORIES]: Carol Steinhart, Founder of HIT! Magazine, Connecting Brazil to Korea](https://facilityfun.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Screenshot202026-05-1420142828-2UiGa7.png "[SEOUL STORIES]: Carol Steinhart, Founder of HIT! Magazine, Connecting Brazil to Korea")
For those of us who are versed in the K-pop industry, be it writers, photographers, or those working behind the scenes, we know the many challenges that can come our way. One particular writer has gone and made a success of overcoming those hurdles by creating HIT! Magazine. This is, of course, Carol Steinert, editor-in chief and founder. We find media is digitalised to a point where we don’t really own anything physical. The day where we could collect, sit and read a magazine without the buzz of clout online felt like a nostalgic memory.
But Carol is giving fans exactly what they want. Collectibles. Her February issue, featuring TWICE as cover stars, went on to sell more than 5,000 copies. Showing that the fans still want physical media and the connection it creates.
Having featured artists such as Stray Kids and P1Harmony as cover stars, she knows how to create solid content that doesn’t rely on sensationalism or gossip. Instead, HIT! Explores the wider conversations surrounding K-pop. One where a psychologist analyses news stories and the parasocialism that often emerges within K-pop.
Carol’s perspectives on how things should be covered are a breath of fresh air and are something that I hope shifts the direction in how people report on K-pop and see it as a global force rather than a niche genre. Now expanding, Carol is bridging the gap between Brazil and Seoul successfully and going on to be the first Brazilian to be interviewed on the Weverse podcast her impact is on the rise. I speak with her about her early days with magazines, her relationship with K-pop, and advice to budding writers.
In a digital-first world, it’s refreshing to see print magazines making a comeback. What inspired you to launch HIT!?
Carol: Well, I’ve been working in K-pop for 13 years, but I liked K-pop for over 15 years. I used to try to get official merchandise in Brazil for myself, like albums, clothes, anything I could buy, but it was really hard. So I had to go to the Korean websites, try to find some translation for English, and then purchase it, which is really expensive, as the importation taxes in Brazil are really expensive. Also, the fees inside of Brazil are also very expensive. For our magazine, basically, we would pay 500 AIs, which is around $150, and we had to wait for, like, 6 months to receive them in Brazil. At that time, around 2008 to 2012. And as a fan, I was getting exhausted, and I had no money and couldn’t keep asking my parents for money to buy that.
Then I kept that on the back of my mind for many years, and then I started writing for one magazine that is Toda Chín in Brazil. I wrote for them for two years as a volunteer about K-pop. And then I decided to create something of my own if I wanted to make a company or anything that I could work towards in K-pop. And then I decided to create HIT! as a blog at first. Just so I could write and say everything that I was thinking, I was also a YouTuber from 2012 to 2018, focusing on K-pop, doing reaction videos, interviews, and things like that. And I wanted to monetise it, because I never wanted to work for someone else. I always wanted to work for myself. And then I decided to gather all those thoughts and see what I could find that would be not so expensive but official and in Portuguese, which is very important in Brazil because only 30% of the population of Brazil can speak English.
You sound like someone who was very determined to make K-pop accessible for the fans that needed it most.
Carol: Yes, absolutely. Brazil has a huge population, but only a small percentage speak English or even Korean content. So I wanted to create something that was 100% in Portuguese while still being official. I started researching what people actually wanted, and I noticed that fans were actually more interested in collectible items like vinyl, magazines, and DVDs. Vintage style became exciting again for a new generation, so I decided to create something that combined all of that with writing. That was the first step towards HIT!
Growing up, were you always someone who collected or bought magazines? Was there one publication in particular that really stood out to you?
Carol: I did, actually. I had a bunch, I had all the collections of Pokémon magazines. I’ve always loved anime in general. There was one magazine in Brazil, called Herói, that was aimed at children, and it focused on cartoons and anime. They had those albums that you can put stickers in, and they came with gifts, and it was always very exciting for me.
Had you always been writing from a young age as well? Was that, again, a progression through finding things that you enjoyed, and you just naturally wanted to write about them?
Carol: Yes, absolutely. Since I was a kid, I always loved collecting things that I loved, and that is a big part of why I started the magazine. Because I think it’s something so cool, and it’s not harmful, like some hobbies these days.
I think that most of the K-pop community would agree that collecting photocards or albums is fun. It’s not harmful.
Carol: Exactly. The only thing it is harmful for is your wallet (laughs). But I do think it’s really important, especially as I have a younger sister and my cousins too, I noticed many of their hobbies were spent online, or just watching TV. Meanwhile, when I was at that age, I was outside eating dirt (laughing).
What was your main goal behind creating HIT! Was the main goal always for accessibility and giving fans something to hold and actually own?
Carol: Yes, and my main goal was actually to always be working with something that I genuinely loved. Every birthday candle I blew out growing up, that was always my wish. I’ve always loved music, entertainment, and movies. I was also a K-pop dance teacher for two years, around 2018 and 2019, so I already connected to K-pop. After that, I launched 1004 Collective, which became the parent company for HIT! media, as my consulting PR and booking company, all related to K-pop.
How is the K-pop industry represented in Brazil? In the UK, we have events, but compared to places like America or Japan, it’s minuscule (laughs). Are more things like albums, merchandise, and events more accessible for fans?
Carol: I’d say it’s only really starting now, because the first official K-pop, pop-up store only opened last year, and it was for BTS. Now they’re doing another event with Spotify as well. Most official activities will be around BTS.
I think most of the other events are made by fans, and that’s why I actually started HIT!Fest, our own festival. It started as a celebration for our Stray Kids cover because we were the first magazine in Brazil to feature them on a cover.
I felt we needed to create something big, because Stray Kids are such a massive group. So we decided to organise an event at the biggest Ferris wheel in Brazil, in São Paulo. It was a free-for-all event and open to everyone, and more than 600 people attended. We had over 20 fan-run and official stores for CDs and photo cards, plus dance classes and random playdances. It just became a really big celebration. We’re planning another two this year. That’s another reason we started these events, as there weren’t enough official events for fans.
Surely in this day and age, companies would be investing in bringing more official experiences to more fans globally.
Carol: We definitely try to push it, and we work hard to bring the labels, stores, and brands into the space. But in Brazil, it’s still difficult. Many companies and especially brands haven’t fully invested in K-pop yet. Things are starting to slowly change now because of the BTS comeback, but it’s been slow progress and has only been for one group.
I was going to say, if you’re not a big fan of BTS, you’re kind of stuck between this place of welcoming it and also wanting that for your own favourite group. Do you think it’s just because BTS is bigger to market, and so it’s easier to market, perhaps?
Carol: Exactly, that’s exactly why. Even when I show numbers, it can be hard to change that perception. For example, Stray Kids have held multiple stadium concerts in Brazil, two in São Paulo and one in Rio de Janeiro. ATEZ also performed at a stadium show. The issue is that promoters often assume every group will draw in the same size crowds, and that is unrealistic. Now Enhypen is also performing in a stadium show. So part of the problem is promoters, and it might make them hesitant to invest in future K-pop events when the demand is not met. Sometimes think that all of them are big like BTS, so that is part of the problem.
Do you think K-pop companies underestimate fan power when it comes to merchandise and events? Do they overlook the fandom culture?
Carol: Absolutely. One of the biggest challenges is finding the right partners in Brazil who can help bring official merchandise, events, and projects to fans. When I visited Korea for meetings, I always asked the same question because I’d been a K-pop fan for so long, I was like, “Why don’t we have anything in Brazil?” “Why don’t you bring merchandise?” The answer was always the same – that they don’t have any trustworthy partners in Brazil. So that’s when I decided, okay, I need to be that company they could trust. That’s one of the reasons I started 1004 Collective.
That’s incredible. I love that instead of waiting for opportunities, you make them yourself. Would you say that’s one of your strengths? Seeing a gap and making it happen?
Carol: I think so, yes. Determination is one of my strongest qualities. Because once you work within K-pop, and you’re dealing with people’s passion and emotions, it can get competitive out there. I totally understand that, but when you’re trying to build something professionally, there will always be people who doubt or try to break you. Honestly, I think that’s the same in every country, and across the media industry in general.
I think a lot of people want that big moment, but not everyone is actually working towards a common goal. As we mentioned earlier, you’ve featured major cover stars like Stray Kids and P1Harmony. With projects of that scale, do you think people only see the finished project and think, ‘Oh, she has this really fun life’? They don’t realise the hard work and months that go into securing a cover, booking interviews, or even getting a reply from a PR. Do you think people see K-pop as a glamorous, fun side and don’t realise the reality of it?
Carol: Oh my god, absolutely. That’s a really good question, because people tend to think that I’m in this just to get a Korean boyfriend (laughing). If they knew the reality of how long projects or ideas take to even come to life, they’d be shocked (laughs). Take JYP, for example, who is now one of our biggest partners. We’ve worked with many of their artists for the cover. But it started with me talking to them, trying to get a cover for over 6 months, and communicating with them to secure our ITZY digital cover issue, and that wasn’t even for print. We now have a really good working partnership with JYP, which has led to meetings in Korea and ultimately helped secure the Stray Kids cover, because a lot of people were fighting for that cover.
I bet that felt incredibly surreal to get the go-ahead to do that.
Carol: Yeah, it was, but it is exactly like you said. People don’t see those 6 months of being persistent behind the scenes. They don’t see the emails, meetings, and conversations of trying to convince them of what we can do. When I eventually showed them photos from our events and our audience we have in Brazil, they were really impressed and very happy.
And considering you’ve only launched in 2022, right?
Carol: Yes, it was officially launched in 2022, but back in 2018, I started it as a blog.
Having done so much, how do you balance creating engaging content while dealing both editorially and also with commercial partners while trying to stay authentic to yourself?
Carol:I have a huge group of people working with me, which is really good, but also it comes with challenges. And it’s really difficult for me to tell them exactly how they should write. I want them to have their voices. I’m not saying, like, take away your vision, but just be yourself, as I have a strong vision for the magazine. We love K-pop but we also are realistic, and we don’t want to romanticise Korea or portray Korean men as perfect. (laughs) We fight that a lot on HIT! Magazine, as we want our content to be responsible and respectful. One of the ways is we work with psychologists, who create content with us, as they always post videos with us to explain the parasocial aspects to fandom. For example, when a dating rumour involving idols circulates, we try to bring this human aspect and people down to earth. You can love K-pop and be passionate, but it’s important to not be too involved or attached in that way.
You need a certain level of detachment and to remember it’s a hobby and to just enjoy the music. I think that can get lost, as it is just music, and when it gets to that level, it’s not a hobby or fun anymore.
Carol: Yeah, exactly. I always try to remind my team that we are not a fan base, we are not going to talk about the artists that we all personally love. We need to be open and cover every artist. We try to have a meeting every month to remind people that, okay, we’re dealing with their passions and people working on HIT! Magazine always loved K-pop. But being in a professional setting, we must tone it down. So my work is basically trying to find this balance between what I think is best and what our writers want to write about. So yeah, it needs to be taken seriously because otherwise it just ends up being a fan base or part of gossip culture. That’s not what we are trying to be.
And another aspect for writers is we don’t get taken seriously as media outlets. I think that’s why it’s important to avoid sensationalism and gossip that’s not quality content.
Carol: Exactly, and we wouldn’t have booked a Calvin Klein-partnered shoot with Rocky in Brazil. We have a vision and a voice, and we’ve built a reputation on being professional and being serious that can be trusted. It needs to be real.
How many writers do you have with you on your team?
Carol: We have around 15.
Is it scary to have that many people? That requires a certain amount of trust.
Carol: Yeah, it is (laughs). We divide the team into coordinators for design, news, press, and different departments because there is a lot of work to do. So I need a good team.
You can’t really approach K-pop the same way you would with other music genres. I think I’ve found that out, as you have to learn a new approach to the K-pop world and its audience. Is that the same for yourself?
Carol: Yeah, definitely. It can be a struggle to start with, especially those who aren’t journalists or from a media background. There tend to be a few flaws when it comes to that, so what we do is we organise workshops and lectures. I was actually invited by the Korean government to attend a lecture about the Latin American audiences in 2024.
For those who want to write in the K-pop field, what advice would you give? Because, like we’ve said, it’s tricky to navigate, especially if you’re new to it.
Carol: Like I mentioned before, it’s really difficult when you’re dealing with passion, and you need to tone it down, but also you need to find out what you want to do, because you can do anything when it comes to K-pop. Now, companies are hiring foreigners a lot, so there’s room for everything. If you want to be a photographer, a designer, or a stylist you do need to study, and not only is English important, but Korean is valuable too. You need to understand Korean culture and etiquette. Small details matter, for example, knowing you shouldn’t give a gift with only one hand. People can enter the industry wanting to be near idols more than being professional, and that’s something else to take note of.
Who was the first K-pop group you got into?
Carol: SHINee. (Laughs) Taemin was my first love. (Laughs) Even with that bowl cut? Terrible. But boy was I in love. I was young, and I was foolish. (Laughs) But it was a really fun time for me, because I’ve always loved talented performers and dancers, which made sense later when I became a dance teacher. After that, it was BTOB, and I was lost forever (laughs).
Since launching the magazine, what has been your proudest moment? I imagine there’s quite a lot.
Carol: Professionally, it is definitely the Stray Kids cover, as that was insane, especially as I have been a STAY for such a long time. And well, I can’t say just yet, but soon, there’ll be some fun news!
HIT! Fest was also something that I was really proud of. It took so much work, and I actually fainted during the festival because I was exhausted and it was such a hot day (laughs). But with it being a free event and with so many people in attendance, it was really hard to take care of everything, but my team helped, and they were great. I think those two are my proudest moments, and if we’re talking personally, then when I interviewed Ilhoon from BTOB was a big moment for me. As I used to run a fan base account for them.
Oh, wow, so that must have been a big full-circle moment.
Carol: Yeah, I went from being a fanbase owner to working with them, and it was pretty insane. I could ask everything that I wanted to know.
That’s why more fans should be interviewing idols (laughs), as they need barely any preparation. That’s when you know it’s going to be a good interview.
Carol: Exactly. So that, for me personally, as me, as Carol, was the moment. But professionally, Stray Kids and HIT! Fest were the most amazing time.
When it comes to Brazilian fans, I think they’re probably some of the most passionate, wouldn’t you say?
Carol: I would say they’re passionate, for sure. You can see it on their body physically. They’re shaking, trying to get close, wanting to hug them, taking photos. It can be a bit much, but it’s something that comes from within.
Where does that stem from? Is it, like, a cultural thing?
Carol: I think so, because we’re very warm people, and in our day-to-day, we are always hugging and kissing. People kiss on the streets, it’s not like that in Korea. (laughs)
So with more people having discovered K-pop, most either stay in the K-pop bubble or they tend to look outside that. Like a gateway to other music genres, K-dramas or learning about the culture. Do you think that’s a thing happening in Brazil as well?
Carol: Yeah, actually, it’s really huge. K-dramas are really popular in Brazil. People are in love with K-dramas (laughs). What’s interesting is that a lot of the fans are older audiences who really enjoy them. The K-drama fanbase is very different from the K-pop fanbase. So different, not even close.
Besides that, we have a lot of Korean restaurants here, and Korean barbecue places are popping up everywhere. People are loving Korean culture in general. A lot of Brazilians travel to Korea because of K-pop and K-dramas, so the tourism is huge. There are even travel agencies that focus on trips to Korea. Our president, Lula, has been building a closer relationship with the Korean president. They are trying to build a lot of bridges, because they know the results are coming. One thing I thought was fascinating for me was when a Korean girl bought HIT! magazine, she posted about it on her socials and said how she was trying to learn Portuguese, which I thought was just amazing.
So many good things have come from us. The media industry is much tougher than I think people realise. Obviously we all write the articles, but you’ve got to manage a team of people, then it’s social media, and then we have to try and avoid easy clickbait gossip articles in order to stand out. For you, what has been the biggest challenge or learning curve while navigating all of this for yourself and now with a team? I can imagine it’s quite a difficult thing to do.
Carol: Yeah, I think there are two things that are the hardest. One, I’m going to say, which is the easier one to discuss, is fans. The fans are really difficult because they’re very passionate.
So, I understand fans, because I ran a fanbase and I was a huge fan, so I understand, and those companies don’t take it seriously, so they get what they deserve, but it’s difficult. Sometimes the fans don’t want to listen. If an idol that we like very much does something bad, we don’t want to listen. But the other part, which is, for me personally, the hardest, is that, like I was mentioning, brands in Brazil, companies, or publishers in Brazil don’t take K-pop seriously, and they don’t take me seriously. Especially because I have a bunch of tattoos and coloured hair, I’m a girl, and I’m 31, they don’t take it seriously. Even if I show numbers for them, it still doesn’t matter.
Do you think those on the outside are confused by K-pop and the soft power it holds? I imagine running a media company is incredibly difficult as it is.
Carol: I think because most of the companies in Brazil, and I think probably everywhere, are mostly run by men, and they do not take women seriously. You also see that fans are passionate and want their members represented here in Brazil. But promoters need to also be aware of the culture and take it more seriously. They make a small mistake, and the fans will react strongly online. So, I see both sides, but companies really need to take the industry we’re in more seriously.
And with the main demographic of K-pop being women, the struggle continues (laughs).
Carol: Exactly. (Laughing) So it’s really difficult for me, even when I show numbers, and I even have someone who works for me, and she does public research, and she’s really good at it, and we show all the numbers that we can get. And even with that, it’s still difficult. So, for me, that’s the hardest part.
So, finally, having done so much, do you feel you have to keep making bigger goals and keep reaching and building higher? Is there a pressure attached to that?
Carol: I do feel pressure, yes. The fans keep pushing us, which I think is really good, because they want to see more. But they are always asking, “When is BTS going to be on the cover?” or “When are you featuring this artist?” It’s great that they want that and that they also believe that we’re capable of doing it (laughs), but it’s really difficult as well. I think my role now is to make HIT! more international and eventually build it into a magazine franchise. In the future, I hope I’m not only working on just the magazine, as I really want to focus on consulting, lecturing, and running workshops to help bring the Korean Wave and HIT! magazine to people and make K-pop more accessible.
Because I think we could do this everywhere. Because most countries still don’t have a product like HIT! Magazine. That’s why we sell so many copies internationally in places like Korea, France, Japan, China, the Philippines, and the UK. Every time we get the same feedback, we don’t have any product like this in our country.
This is the thing, you’ve hit the gold there, because there’s no dedicated K-pop magazine in many countries. We might see groups on the cover of Rolling Stone occasionally, but when it comes to K-pop-focused content, we also don’t have that. There are so many gaps in every big music market. Europe is left out quite a lot, much like Latin America.
Carol: Exactly that! And I would love to bring HIT! magazine to Europe, especially because it’s more than just a magazine. We make it an official product because we have, with the big magazines, the posters and the photo cards. Even in the smaller version, the photocard is still there. Each time it’s quite exclusive because each one features a unique group selfie. So, I really want to bring that to other parts of the world as well.
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