A line wrapped around the block with people waiting for hours to taste the store that took the internet by storm: Seaside Bakery in Newport. 

My friends and I were part of this group of future customers who had stopped by after our day at Newport Beach this past summer. Although various chatter flowed through the long line, I could make out a particularly prominent conversation between a couple of teenagers around our age in the back. 

“Is this ABG heaven?”

Coined sometime from the 1990s to the early 2000s, the term ABG stands for Asian Baby Girl and ABB stands for Asian Baby Boy, according to a September 2021 article posted by The Michigan Daily. Stereotypically, ABGs and ABBs refer to a group of Southeast Asians living in the West Coast who all enjoy doing the same activities such as drinking boba, listening to similar artists like Keshi and 88rising and partying. 

Recently, through the explosion of Asian influencers like Eric Ou (@ericcouu) on TikTok, Southern California [SoCal] was marked as the hotspot for ABGs and ABBs with endless influencers posting skits mocking the SoCal Asian trope. 

Although the usage of this term is mostly used in a humorous context, continuing to generally stereotype SoCal Asians into this single criterion can carry more harm than good. 

Especially in recent trends, the concept of ABGs and ABBs has become a symbol of SoCal Asian monolithicity.

In the eyes of many on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels, SoCal Asians hold a superiority complex over other Asian Americans living in different states as seen through various parodies and videos. 

In a TikTok posted by The 949 Podcast on April 2, the all-Asian speakers discuss how SoCal Asians think they are “that Asian” and feel superior to those who live in other states simply because they live in California and have this digitally popularized culture.

The comments on the video strengthen stereotypes with remarks such as “[SoCal Asians] try to gatekeep the Asian American experience,” and, “Why do SoCal Asians have egos like they got no connection to their ancestors? They [are] practically white.” 

Still, what’s even worse is that such attacks on SoCal Asians and their identity happen mainly among the Asian community itself. From what I’ve seen, most TikTok videos poking fun at the ABG and ABB stereotypes are created by fellow Asians, whether they live in SoCal or not, and videos titled “pov: abb and abg go on a date,” to “How to summon ABGs” fill my For You Page. 

Even though making self-deprecating jokes about one’s own culture can lack ill intent, if it goes too far, it can end up strengthening a negative stereotype already set in one’s community.  

During the summer, I attended a retreat with a couple of other small churches. There, I remember meeting a fellow Korean girl from a visiting church on the East Coast. When I told her I was from Orange County, she proceeded to ask if I liked to drink boba, take pictures of the sunset and if Keshi was a top artist on Spotify. 

To make it worse, she told me a lot of people from the East Coast saw Asians from the West as these slightly empty-headed people who all essentially loved the same things.

Yes, some Asians living in SoCal do fit the definition of an ABG or an ABB. In fact, many may argue that it’s their own fault the stereotype was popularized since mostly Asians themselves created a plethora of the viral TikToks making fun of the term. Nonetheless, just because some people in a community fit a description doesn’t mean it should be applied to everyone else in that group.  

Of course, nothing is wrong with wearing Stussy or making late-night stops at Seaside Bakery, but the negative stigma created among the terms ABG and ABB and the appliance to all SoCal Asians makes it a problem. Instead of acknowledging the unique identities of Asians in California and their culture, this stereotype has made popular interests among the group a weapon to harm them. 

To combat this negative stereotype, it’s important to listen to TikToks making fun of the SoCal Asian identity with a grain of salt and for creators to stop making these videos at all. 

In fact, the joke has gotten old. So, when I heard that group of teenagers laughing about where the ABGs were at Seaside Bakery, I couldn’t help but look around as well, only to find barely any. 

The truth is that not every SoCal Asian has the same monolithic interests, and it’s time to recognize that.