This is the story of how HUH YUNJIN became a member of LE SSERAFIM. A teenager living in New York State moves to Korea to become a K-Pop trainee. She enters Mnet’s audition show “PRODUCE 48” but her dream of debuting is delayed. But after she returns to life in the United States another opportunity finds her, the opportunity to become LE SSERAFIM. This story alone is dramatic enough, but YUNJIN’s life before that first decision to move to Seoul is another whole movie – a glossy teen movie – that runs on YUNJIN’s plucky energy. This is the story of a young woman with many talents growing up in New York State, making her artistic debut as LE SSERAFIM, writing the autobiographical single “I ≠ DOLL” which together show us the how YUNJIN’s trajectory arcs towards the current phase in her life.

Jennifer Huh’s School Years

YUNJIN grew up in New York State and during those years she went by “Jennifer Huh.” She describes her younger self as being “curious about everything, a ‘girl with ambition’ both then and now.” Each year she chose new challenges for herself. French, school choir, and hurdling one year, then acting and musicals in the school’s drama club the next. And on top of all this, YUNJIN became captain of her field hockey team. She has a special connection with musicals as an artform. YUNJIN’s grandmother is an opera singer who instilled in her granddaughter a natural interest in opera and musicals which she pursued in earnest in high school. In her first role as Carlotta in Phantom of the Opera, YUNJIN was nominated for Best Actress in High School Musical Theatre Awards for students in the State of New York. This is the stuff of teen films or novels. YUNJIN’s trademark bubbly yet laser-focused energy fueled her incredible high school years and carries over to LE SSERAFIM. During a special stage at the SBS Gayo Daejeon awards show YUNJIN sang an incredible rendition of “Habanera” from opera “Carmen” while in the same year at the Melon Music Awards she gave us a taste of her athletic talents with a walkover during LE SSERAFIM’s performance of “THE HYDRA+ TRAILER” that became the talk of the town. During an interview with Weverse Magazine YUNJIN looked back on her school years by saying “I want to say thank you to little YUNJIN for living so fully and fearlessly because I’m beginning to see how much all that experience feeds into the way I think, my personality, and my goals today.” And indeed, she has every right to. We see on “FIM-LOG” YUNJIN sharing with us book reviews where she also reads out loud passages. In addition to this consistent reading habit, YUNJIN also draws and paints, works out, follows fashion, has taken up photography; all part of an ever-increasing list of passions. She is also a fan of comics and animated films. Fellow LE SSERAFIM member SAKURA is a huge fan of this genre and she and YUNJIN’s knowledge is enough to have spirited conversations with SAKURA on this topic. YUNJIN is certainly a “girl with ambition” and many interests who appreciates the joy of endless learning. There is one more thing, YUNJIN drew the characters that appear in the “I ≠ DOLL” music video, too. 

K-POP IDOL

Of course a multi-talented “girl with ambition” has many dreams. At one time YUNJIN dreamed of standing on the professional musical stage and at another moment she mulled over entering the school sports program for field hockey. Then at last her heart told her to pursue music so as to become an entertainer both on the stage and as a songwriter. As she mentioned in the LE SSERAFIM documentary “The World Is My Oyster”, YUNJIN had to reckon with the reality of the American entertainment industry and how much opportunity it offered to Asian-American talent. It was at this moment when a sense of defeat was creeping up on her that YUNJIN saw BTS perform at the American Music Awards. She was re-invigorated. It was all clearer: “I wanted to be a great artist whose work can be a source of strength for somebody.” The next challenge for YUNJIN was now K-Pop. The road to eventually debuting as a K-Pop artist is exactly as we have seen in “The World Is My Oyster”. “Being given a small taste of what my life could have been, and then being forced to give it all up … that was tough.” After going through a training program, YUNJIN enters the “Produce 48” audition show for a chance to debut as a K-Pop artist. But it was not to be. Back in the United States, she pondered on alternative career paths, but in the end she became LE SSERAFIM. In the time leading up to the group’s official debut – as partially shown in “The World Is My Oyster” – YUNJIN throws her heart and soul into elevating her skills. The somewhat ungainly dancer we first met has acquired her own style of flow and sophistication to now pull off the unrelenting series of complex dance moves LE SSERAFIM is known for. The group won the Best Performance category at last year’s Melon Music Awards. In “The World Is My Oyster” YUNJIN says, “The moment they see me, I want people to say, ‘What’s with all this confidence?’, ‘Why so bold?’, ‘She ain’t playing!’” Mix natural talent with driven effort, and we arrive at this confidence. What appears on the outside as unflagging confidence hides a history of failed attempts and the unending grind. If this is not proper character development, then what is?

Because You’re the Sunlight

When to her dismay the sun suddenly hides behind a cloud just as HONG EUNCHAE attempts a selfie, “It’s because you’re the sunlight,” says YUNJIN, without missing a beat. For the LE SSERAFIM fandom, FEARNOT, this is one of many famous quotes. Again, when KIM CHAEWON laments her puffiness-prone face and exclaims in the mirror, “What should we do about this?”, YUNJIN is ready with the perfect response: “We gonna love that face, that’s what we gonna do.” Hers is the main-character energy of romance novels, inasmuch as YUNJIN feels like a shot of bright energy to the whole team. YUNJIN’s spontaneous mini-concert – holding onto a crepe throughout – in a dessert crepe shop in Japan when “FEARLESS” comes on shows the part of her personality that certainly channels that bubbly and cool personality. KAZUHA points to the “energy that she exudes” as YUNJIN’s biggest strength, and CHAEWON appreciated that “YUNJIN raises all our energy levels,” as YUNJIN hypes up the crowd for LE SSERAFIM at college campus festivals with her powerful voice. But YUNJIN’s main-character aura of cheerfulness, boldness, and good humor that feel almost like manufactured movie magic actually becomes fully three-dimensional when she reveals an unexpected side. In “LE SSERAFIM’s DAY OFF Season2 in JEJU” which follows the group traveling in Jeju Island after wrapping album promotion, YUNJIN listens intently to KAZUHA’s vulnerable confession of breaking down and crying alone in her room and when CHAEWON leans against her, YUNJIN adjusts the seat height of her own chair so CHAEWON can better lean against her. So there is this person who can shine and dazzle, but she can also bring out the “sunlight” in others. If an author had set-up such a character, the critics would have called it ham-handed overkill. 

YUNJIN’s Music 

In her appearance on the Leemujin Service YUNJIN performed a shortened version of the musical number she sang in high school and also “Think of Me” from “Phantom of the Opera” re-arranged as an opera aria. She shared with the viewers her songwriting process that involves the piano, the guitar, and the ukulele. We are told the story of how her pursuit of the arts and music led her to LE SSERAFIM. Among her wide-ranging interests in music, songwriting and writing lyrics are her biggest interests. When YUNJIN was ten she first became interested in pop music after hearing Taylor Swift. She has also previously said that she began writing her own songs since high school when she was struggling with the limitations of being an Asian trying to become a musician in the United States. Unraveling the threads of her life’s story to weave together music was a remarkably moving experience and her emotions expressed as her very own melody and words became her solace. This continued into her LE SSERAFIM career. YUNJIN worked on “Blue Flame” in the group’s debut album “FEARLESS”, and on “Impurities”, “No Celestial”, and “Good Parts (when the quality is bad but i am)” in the second EP, “ANTIFRAGILE”. To celebrate the 100-day milestone of the group’s official debut, YUNJIN dropped her first original song “Raise y_our glass”. 
 

“Raise y_our glass” was written as a thank you to her bandmates and their shared dream, the fans for their love and support, and to her past self for never giving up. It was completed before the group’s debut in one sitting when she was in a vocal practice room of LE SSERAFIM’s music label when she spontaneously decided to face the swirling thoughts and emotions inside herself and sublimate them into song. “Even I recognize that I think too much, have all this inside me I want to say, and when this confusion is gently teased apart through music it feels the most genuine. Aside from music, I really don’t have much else that helps relieve stress. Songwriting is my only emotional outlet so the words pour out.” This quote is from the behind-the-scenes look that we get through “[FIM-LOG] YUNJIN V-Log #3 l A Candid Peek into a Typical Day and What Happened at the 100-Day Milestone After Debut”. From it we begin to fathom what music means to YUNJIN. On Leemujin Service we hear her “dream is to become a versatile vocalist comfortable performing any genre” which dovetails with her personal desire to be able to perform her songs in exactly the way that she wants. Becoming a LE SSERAFIM member with outstanding control of artistic expression is the path YUNJIN has selected from her countless talents and the many opportunities they represent. 

“I ≠ DOLL”

On the 9th, YUNJIN released “I ≠ DOLL”. Following “Raise y_our glass”, this is the second single completely written by YUNJIN. The first few months after the group’s debut as seen through her eyes and those of a more objective third-party are the inspiration. She puts on the spot the prejudices people show towards K-Pop idols through lyrics such as, “How yesterday you called me a doll, and today you’re calling me a bitch”, “She gained weight”, “When’s she gonna lose that fat?” But despite it all she will not be silenced : “Don’t ignore my voice”. YUNJIN says “when writing the words honesty is top priority.” Such a commitment to realness most likely comes from the promise she had made to herself. “I wanna change the idol industry” was the intrepid statement we heard in the first video introducing YUNJIN as a LE SSERAFIM member. This change is likely for an industry where K-Pop idols like herself can be real about their desires and inspirations in their songs, and not so much about worldly success. One can say this is certainly a massive, serious, and intricate ambition, exactly what should be forged from the flames of youth.