STAYC has brought back the school aesthetic seen in teen movies of the early 2000s for their “STEREOTYPE” performance, complete with plaid outfits, headbands, and hair clips—all the trappings of the preppy look. “People always say Yoon is like a 2D character, so we took a sleeveless top that fits in with Y2K fashion to emphasize her long, slender limbs and paired it with bold accessories for her neck and wrists, while for J we did a 180 or put her in a vest to give her a more modern look,” Lee Soo-ha, production team head at STAYC's label, High Up Entertainment, explained. They arranged the costumes for the performance such that they could assign “each member their own student feel or character in line with the story.” Y2K fashion is a recent trend that calls back to the individualistic, confident protagonists in teen movies of yesteryear. In “STEREOTYPE,” STAYC adopted the Korean version of the teen movie image, wearing costumes to whet the curiosity people in their teens and 20s who are eager to see what fashion for the movie characters of the times looked like while simultaneously giving each member a chance to show off their own persona.

Lee says STAYC’s style was the result of choosing “to express their personal character and values using the independence that comes from within as a starting point and to show more respect for diversity than anybody else.” Yoon, for example, looked to game characters to try a number of hairstyles, including twinkling hair extensions, highlights, Pippi Longstocking braids, double buns, and a three-layered cut. According to the idol, this process was the start of finding her own style. “It’s scary and it’s fun,” Yoon said. “Seeing as they’re styles I never tried before, sometimes I think, Can I pull this off? But other times I think, This will really suit me!”—a choice between finding your own individuality and what others would call your safe choice. While Yoon’s style is the most experimental among the members of STAYC, the others are simply being themselves. For example, ISA didn’t use concealer on her line of freckles, nor did J on the one on her cheek, while they varied the color of their eye makeup and amount of eyeliner to bring out their uniquely characteristic, visibly deep-set eyes.

The combination of styles that emphasize individuality and album design with an eye for diversity is at the very crux of STAYC’s push to be in step with modern sensibilities. The TikTok dance challenge, which invites users to copy the iconic cat kneading dance in the group’s “ASAP” choreography, went viral with over 34.6 million posts (23.9 million tagged “ASAP_challenge” and another 10.7 million under “ASAPCHALLENGE”). “I’m not just enjoying it as it is,” Sieun said, reflecting on the dance challenge, “but doing this iconic dance with other artists and making changes to the same song to make many different versions of it and then filming them, and I think that makes the song we’re promoting right now all the more enjoyable.” J, who is in high school, describes how comfortable her classmates are with technology, saying there’s “lots of people in my classes who use a laptop or an iPad instead of a paper notebook and tons of people who spend their breaktime using TikTok or making a vlog on their YouTube.” It's typical for those who are a part of the generation of digital natives like STAYC to express themselves publicly to countless people. But their generation isn’t only intent on emphasizing how different they are from others; on the contrary, because they live under the watchful gaze of other people, they also tend to be very interested in the issues that affect them. For example, STAYC used their STAYC challenge to promote environmental awareness by eating healthy and reducing waste. ISA suggests making vegan food part of a healthy diet, gives a definition of veganism from the Internet and checks out a nearby vegan bakery to show some of her favorite items on the menu. “Just a few years ago, even I found vegetarianism and veganism unfamiliar and difficult, but more and more people were becoming vegan to be socially responsible, so I tried it out of curiosity,” she said, explaining why she made the video. “When I tried it myself, I realized it helps the environment in many ways, and most importantly I could feel myself becoming healthier, so I tried to help more people become familiar with the vegan lifestyle through different media in hopes of us all becoming healthier together.”

Their challenge to reduce waste was later moved to the YouTube channel MMTG in a video where they showed off tumblers and bamboo toothbrushes, proving the environmental movement is ongoing and sustainable. When Seeun was jokingly asked in the video if it’s all just for show, she answered that they “have to show something like that” to ultimately benefit the environment. “There are many alternatives to disposal products you can use now, but people who aren’t very interested don’t know about them,” Sieun said. “So we wanted to make the environment a little healthier, even just a little bit, by showing us using them and letting people known about them.” Environmental movements and ethical consumption principles, like zero waste, zero plastic, challenges to use eco-friendly packaging and veganism have long been suggested as ways to solve some of the various problems the world faces, but when such an idol group as focused on individuality as STAYC takes to the same stage as these socially responsible practices, it really shows the character of Generation Z, the people who are currently in their teens and 20s. Self-expression is important to Gen Z, and they are quite skilled at doing so through social media. That’s exactly why getting a reaction over social media is so important to them and why they pay attention to the issues they feel are important to them. It seems clear, then, that this is what STAYC is trying to convey in their recently released STEREOTYPE. In the trailer for the album, some of the members don’t even show their faces, and at the end the members, clad in dresses, run forward with the camera at their backs. In the lyrics to the title track, as well, they sing of being “still afraid even I look fancy,” but vow to try and be themselves and not pay attention to other peoples’ stereotypical views of them. The song goes on to encourage listeners to have respect for their own individuality as well as the diversity of others because it will eventually bring them to accept every part of themselves just the way they are—in other words, the ability not just to declare oneself as an individual, but to recognize that everyone is different. STAYC is slowly creating their identity the same way young people these days do—a way that may seem typical and laid back, but is actually entirely new.