She shows off her quick wit on “Radio Star,” nails three ascending high notes on “2025 MBC Gayo Daejejeon: MUT,” and proves she’s a “GLLIT lover” on Weverse. ILLIT member WONHEE wears her affection on her sleeve, works hard to reach as close to perfection as possible, and doesn’t hold anything back onstage. The things that make her gentle and friendly but equally fierce come together to make her shine—that almost indefinable WONHEE-ness you won’t find anywhere else. Here’s just a handful of highlights, from her time on “R U Next?” to the past two years with ILLIT, that GLLIT can’t help but love about WONHEE.

WONHEE the entertainment seedling
Back in January, WONHEE appeared on “Radio Star” on MBC, saying she wanted a chance to clear up her nickname, “the nation’s little sister.” She explained how, even though it was bestowed upon her on that prestigious show, she’s really just one of many aspiring to the title. Instead, she asked people to call her the nation’s ant, weed, or seedling. The way she handled the situation with both humility and humor even disarmed the “Radio Star” hosts—who typically rely on blunt comments to get laughs—and turned the studio into a sea of laughter.

WONHEE only grows brighter and bouncier from there. One of the best things about becoming a legal adult in Korea, she says, is how she can go watch horror movies with the other older members of ILLIT, and proudly puffs out her shoulders as she adds that her spending limit on payment apps is gone now that she’s no longer a minor. Apparently feeling suddenly self-conscious, she wonders aloud if she’s become a runaway train of excitement, only for a giddy look to cross her face as she shares in hushed tones how she recently bought alcohol for the first time. The panelists can’t help but grin ear to ear when she eagerly reveals how hard she tried to play it cool when the convenience store clerk asked her for ID. Even though she’s an idol showered in love from fans, she humbly takes the labels attached to her and turns them into variety show fodder and opens up about little stories like that that capture all the excitement of becoming an adult. That’s what makes WONHEE the entertainment seedling so magnetic—she’s less an idol separated by the TV screen and more like a friend or little sister who’s right by your side.

And WONHEE shines even brighter when she’s paired up with other people. When she kept losing on the tvN show “Amazing Saturday” while playing a snack game, TAEYEON from Girls’ Generation stood up for her by exclaiming, “This kid’s getting dizzy over here!” The way she watched WONHEE dancing to ILLIT’s “jellyous” with a proud smile particularly resonated with viewers. Over on the YouTube series “Hyell’s Club,” WONHEE’s asked to deliver lines from “Spring of Youth,” the TV drama that marked her first foray into acting. Asked to perform them intensely, nervously, and more, she dives right in and pulls it off without a moment’s hesitation. When Hyeri tells her she’s doing so well, WONHEE thanks the host in her unique way: “Among all the celebrities I’ve met, I think you’re the warmest.” On her YouTube channel Follow REI, IVE member REI points out how unadorned and naturally charming WONHEE can be when she’s expressing herself and how direct and honest she is with other people, and shares her hope that WONHEE will keep it up in everything she does. With the way WONHEE draws out people’s friendly sides and lays her own feelings bare with such refreshing honesty, it’s easy to see why people can’t help but love her.

WONHEE the beauty fanatic
WONHEE said back when she was on “R U Next?” that she was so into makeup that she could guess the shade and name of a product just by looking at it. Now she’s a full-on beauty fanatic. ILLIT’s YouTube channel is filled with videos all about cosmetics that reflect her taste, from get-ready-with-mes and beauty recommendations to makeup ASMR. “While doing [my] makeup, when it gets those cartoonish elements, it’s so much fun,” she explained on RISABAE’s YouTube channel. “I think blush can also be a cartoonish element.” In a video called “WONHEE’s GRWM for Festivals,” she deviates from her usual style by using tint on her cheeks instead of blush and sticks flashy rhinestones all over her face, reminding the viewer that “it’s festival makeup after all!” For WONHEE, makeup is her playground—a sketchbook where she’s free to draw whatever she wants.

If there’s one thing any true beauty fanatic can’t go without, it’s a personal color analysis. The way WONHEE talks about it in an interview with “Weverse Magazine” reveals her refusal to let her tastes be put in a box. “I actually really want to try a personal color analysis, but I feel like, if I do, I’ll end up losing all my confidence,” she says. “I mean, what if I want to put on brown lipstick, but then I end up thinking, ‘Oh, this doesn’t really suit my personal color’? I feel like it’d gradually make me want to stop experimenting and really restrict the selection of makeup I use.” Instead of being limited by what’s said to best suit her, WONHEE focuses on what she likes. For her, makeup is an exciting adventure of self-discovery.

WONHEE doesn’t keep this kind of free-spirited, passionate exploration to herself, either—it’s a point of connection between the idol and her fans. “Don’t my lips look amazing today?” she’ll say. “Hurry up and ask for the deets!” “There’s this blush I really love, and I finally hit pan”—the bottom—“on it. I was so proud of myself that I had to share my info.” She talks makeup with GLLIT every time she’s on Weverse LIVE—almost like she’s doing roll call. “What’s on my lips today, you ask? I knew you would, so I kept my pouch right next to me,” she says with a laugh. As if she’d already predicted all the beauty fanatic questions GLLIT would have for her, WONHEE comes into the conversation fully prepared to share more about what she loves. She knows that sharing the things you love with the people you cherish is a surefire approach to making everybody feel good.

WONHEE the evolving vocalist
WONHEE was on the JTBC reality audition show “R U Next?” just one month into becoming a trainee. With people calling her the baby duckling, her yet-to-be-honed skillset made for an uphill battle. After performing “Dreams Come True” for the first round, she was told she looked too concerned, while she got harsh feedback about how shaken she was when she hit a note off-pitch singing “FEARLESS” in round two. But by the time she performed “Across the universe” in round four, she was using her short trainee period to her advantage—her vocal delivery felt natural and earned praise from coach JO KWON. By the end of the show, she received the most votes and became a member of ILLIT.

Even though she’s already debuted, WONHEE continues to put effort into her vocals. She nailed the famous three ascending high notes in “Good Day” by IU—a song that’s a test of skill for new artists—on “Gayo Daejejeon” in December. She took to Weverse DM after the performance to talk about how she actually cried while practicing for the song, but she put on such a good show despite the pressure that IU herself gave her a shout-out for her vocals and stage presence. She’s long proved her vocal chops, from her ability to hold high notes in songs like “Almond Chocolate” and “Good Day,” to how she can capture pure emotion without flash or pizzazz in songs like “Square” and “Love is No Sin.” “I wasn’t a trainee for very long” compared to the other members, WONHEE says on “SUPER REAL ILLIT,” the limited series documenting the group’s debut album, and as such received “much more feedback. … I also had more questions to ask [so] I organized everything I learned in my notes app so I could understand and absorb things better. I’m doing my best.” It just goes to show how much she’s put into self-improvement so she can be her very best onstage despite the relative brevity of her training.

In a behind-the-scenes look at the group recording their first Japanese single, “Toki Yo Tomare,” we see WONHEE subtly going up at the end of the line “with this lipstick,” then trying it again with more verve, fine-tuning it until she’s fully satisfied. Once she locks in the overall tone, she focuses on improving the take further by following the Japanese teacher’s guidance on pronunciation down to the tiniest detail. When they get to the technically demanding chorus, the producer asks her to sing it however she likes, and the idol jumps at the chance to go with the flow until she finds the sweet spot. You can see how relaxed she is by the time they wrap up early and she jokes, “My skills have improved!”—and it’s a sign of the sheer amount of hard work she’s put in.

WONHEE the GLLIT lover
At the stroke of midnight on January 1, when she officially became an adult in Korea, WONHEE, having wrapped up her “Gayo Daejejeon” performance, immediately rushed over to Weverse DM. Even though she’d been full of worries while getting ready for the performance, she packed her messages full of gratitude for GLLIT. “All those thoughts disappeared once I got onstage,” she said. “Thanks to GLLIT.” WONHEE’s said before that she tries her best not to cry in front of other people or on camera, but she doesn’t hold anything back when it comes to telling GLLIT how she feels. She starts out every Weverse LIVE with an affectionate shout-out to her fans. From there, she and GLLIT might pull gacha together or she might introduce a bunch of toys she used to play with as a kid. Whatever the stream has in store, you can be sure she’s sharing her interests with her fans and making lasting memories with them. GLLIT famously says that talking with WONHEE at fan sign events is practically girls’ talk time between friends—that’s how enthusiastic she is, gesturing animatedly as she chats. She treats her fans not as some remote source of support but as friends who can talk about everyday things together.

Most of the time she’s as easygoing as a friend, but when it comes to showing love for her fans, WONHEE turns into a dream idol. On an episode of the second season of HYOYEON’s YouTube show, “BabSaHyo,” featuring the ILLIT members as guests, WONHEE confesses how the group often talks about how cute GLLIT is. Her love and sincerity come through even when she’s joking around through Weverse DM, like when she references the Korean Dubai chewy cookie trend, saying, “I can live without Du-chew-coo now. As long as I have GLLIT!” Shortly after debuting, she explained on Weverse that the fans are “the ones who shine brightest in ILLIT’s eyes, and the ones who can make ILLIT shine,” adding, “I reached for my dream seeing other idols performing brilliantly onstage, but once I got up there myself and looked out at our fans, I realized I was getting so much energy from them cheering their hearts out with our light sticks, just radiating energy.” Every day, WONHEE’s wish that she and her fans can be a guiding beacon of happiness for one another proves more and more to have come true. Whether through the energy she shows onstage and onscreen, the hard work that goes into it all behind the scenes, or the emotional openness she reserves for her fans alone, every minute of it comes together to remind us of the uniquely beautiful brilliance behind the name WONHEE.