RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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A hugely popular character in the Disney parks, Peter Pan has a large internet fan base and is beloved for his spontaneity and playful interactions with guests as well as his sharp-tongued, often bratty personality. Kulusich, a 27-year-old Los Angeles native who goes to Disneyland about once a week on her annual pass, loves making videos of herself with Peter, posting videos of herself playing tag with him or skipping around the parks.
Kulusich, who uses her middle name online for privacy reasons, never thought there was anything problematic about her Peter Pan content until August 2, when she saw that a video in which she’d gifted Peter a crocheted duck keychain was getting a lot of attention. As the views grew from 10,000 to a million, the negative comments started to pile up. “Slice that duck open and make sure there’s no AirTag inside,” one commenter wrote. “Imagine being known for being the creep that follows Peter Pan around,” another said. As the controversy unfolded, her TikTok following more than doubled, from about 50,000 followers to 125,000.
Kulusich was surprised. She knows about the internet’s antipathy toward so-called “Disney adults,” or people obsessed with the Disney movies and theme parks, with many accusing them of being self-indulgent, overgrown children. But she also doesn’t think her Disney fandom has crept into the rest of her life in an unhealthy way. She has a husband of four years and a full-time job as the manager of a big-box retail store. She has no formal affiliation with the brand and just makes Disney content as a hobby. “It’s not like I’m going to the store or to my job and thinking about Peter Pan,” she says. “It’s just that when I’m inside Disney, I’m able to release my inner child and the kid who doesn’t want to grow up. And that’s what [Peter Pan] stands for.”
But that’s not what the people combing through her Instagram and TikTok accounts thought. They unearthed 10-year-old videos of her meeting Peter at Disneyland as supposed evidence of her obsession, even circulating a Change.org petition to have her banned from the parks. They analyzed Peter Pan’s body language in the videos, saying it reflected his discomfort with her; they commented on her wedding video and expressed sympathy for her husband, accusing Kulusich of secretly being in love with Peter Pan. (Kulusich’s husband, a marine, is a more casual Disney fan but is “really supportive” of her content, she says, though he prefers Cars’ Lightning McQueen to Peter Pan.)
Worst of all, Kulusich says, someone figured out where she works and posted the address, prompting her manager to change her hours for security reasons.
“It’s definitely taken a toll on my mental health,” she says. “Imagine waking up to thousands of comments saying you’re a crazy stalker lady every single day.”
By the end of last week, Kulusich was known worldwide as the deranged “Peter Pan Girl,” the Baby Reindeer of the Disney influencer ecosystem (a reference to Netflix’s 2024 black comedy series about a Scottish comedian’s stalker). “People really just took a five-second video of me with Peter Pan out of context and ran with it,” she says.
The internet obsession with “Peter Pan Girl” touches on a few different internet culture flash points: the rapid spread of social media misinformation, the hysterical nature of TikTok armchair analysis and dogpiling, and of course, the widespread loathing of Disney adults.
But Kulusich is not the first Disney content creator to be accused of violating the boundaries of popular “face” characters (Disney’s term for characters who appear in the parks outside a full-body suit, unlike Mickey and Minnie). In the mid-2010s, a similar fandom crept up around “Spieling Peter,” a Peter Pan character performer so named for his ability to “spiel” with park guests, with Tumblr fangirls documenting his every move. And in recent years, as the Disney influencer ecosystem has exploded on platforms like TikTok and Instagram, there’s been extensive social media discourse about Disney fans potentially making “face” characters uncomfortable, even accusing them of encouraging them to break character by asking them inappropriate questions on camera, potentially putting their jobs at risk. (When they are in the parks, actors must behave like their characters at all times.)
As a Disney content creator, Kulusich is well aware of the rules and guidelines governing character behavior in the parks, sometimes referring to the actor playing Peter Pan as a “friend of Peter,” using Disney-approved terminology.
“I would never put him in a situation that would harm him or his role or his career or his character integrity,” she says of Peter Pan. She also refutes the popular accusations that she spends an inordinate amount of time chasing Peter around the parks. To bolster this point, she showed me a “Disney Unwrapped” post, her version of Spotify Unwrapped, revealing that she only “met” Peter Pan seven out of her past 30 visits to the parks.
But it’s also clear that Kulusich’s interest in Disney—and for that matter, Peter Pan—extends beyond that of the average fan or even the average Disney adult. She says the actors playing Peter know her name and recognize her from week to week, remembering the gifts she has given them and their previous interactions. “I do think people know that Peter Pan and I have a special friendship,” she tells me.
Disney did not respond to a request for comment.
Since the online backlash started, Kulusich has briefly considered whether some of her critics may have a point. “I've been asking myself: Why do I go meet him? Why do I go out of my way to try and find him? Why do I want to go and meet Disney characters and have these interactions with them?” she says.
And she has landed on a very simple answer. “Seeing him makes me happy; dressing up makes me happy; going to Disneyland once a week makes me happy,” she says. “If people are going to hate on me, I’m not going to let it stop me. ...
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