Leading K-pop girl group Twice have gone through some difficult times during the past 12 months.
Many South Korean fans accused Sana – one of the outfit’s nine members – last May of being insensitive towards the country’s history as a Japanese colony, after she posted on Instagram about the abdication of Japanese Emperor Akihito.
Then Mina, one of Twice’s main dancers, pulled out of the outfit’s world tour after experiencing anxiety and insecurity about performing on stage, according to the group’s agency.
And earlier this year, Nayeon, the main face of Twice, was given police protection after a man tried to approach her multiple times while she boarded a plane in Japan.
Twice’s agency sought a restraining order and criminal charges against the man.
After the incident, Nayeon told Time magazine that the members of Twice had been feeling the pressures of fame and the higher expectations that comes with it.
Here’s a look at her life so far.
Her early life
Nayeon was born Im Na-yeon in 1995 in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. As a child, Nayeon entered a child modelling contest and was ultimately cast by idol agency JYP Entertainment, but her mother refused to let her start training for a career in show business straight away.
However, when she was 14, Nayeon auditioned again for JYP without telling her parents. Wearing her school uniform, she performed a version of By Myself by Tiffany from idol group Girls’ Generation, and won second place with them thanks to her audition.
When her parents found out Nayeon intended to train to become a K-pop performer, they tried to convince her to pursue a different career, she said during an interview with TwiceTV. But her passion for singing, dancing and being on stage proved how much she wanted to be an idol.
Three years later, when Nayeon was 18, she was set to make her debut as part of a group called 6mix. But 6mix’s debut was cancelled when two of the group’s members left the agency. Nayeon told TwiceTV that she was devastated and lost her motivation to practise, but kept going by reminding herself what it felt like when she first became a trainee.
In 2015, Nayeon took part in the JYP idol competition show Sixteen, which selected the members for Twice from a pool of JYP trainees. She ranked second at the end of the competition and made the cut for Twice.
Her role in Twice
Although Nayeon is the main face of Twice, she is not the group’s leader. But as the group’s eldest member, she has said she wants other the members to be able to rely on her. She told fashion magazine Nylon that she tries to live a faultless life because the other Twice members are younger than her. Performance-wise, Nayeon is one of the group’s lead vocalists and dancers.
Her solo career
Nayeon has yet to debut as a solo artist, but she is already one of the most popular stars in South Korea. In 2017 and 2018, she was ranked sixth in Gallup polls of the country’s most popular idols, and was ranked fifth in the same poll in 2019.
Nayeon had her first solo photo shoot for the August 2019 issue of the South Korean edition of Nylon, in which she showcased a catalogue of mainly pastel-coloured casual wear.
Her image
Nayeon is known for her warm and casual image, and is often dressed in bright, colourful outfits. However, she told Nylon that some fans saw her as cool and mature, which made her worried about her image.
Nayeon has also said she found it difficult to make new friends and it was even hard for her to send greetings during Christmas and New Year, but was comfortable opening up to people she had spent a long time with.
In her words
“There are many pretty people, and many are prettier than me … I think I’m great, even though I think a lot of people look good,” she told Nylon.
“In the past, there were many times when I thought, ‘This photo doesn’t look good with a low angle, or this part bothers me’. But nowadays, I think that’s just me. I’m sometimes surprised by myself: no matter how much time has passed, I wasn’t able to accept my inferiority complex. But I did. I don’t look so good here, but so what? Isn’t it great to think like this?”
