all the members have trained for many years - the member with shortest training time is yeoreum and she still trained for 3 years, seola trained for 10 years, (being there even before sistar debuted) and whilst she initially felt embarrassed, she never acts bitter, and believes it was worth it to get where she is now
cheng xiao was practically bullied into leaving china to join starship, being told that if she didn’t join now then she’d never get the opportunity again, so at a young age she left her family behind before she felt ready to
all the members trained in preparation for a strong concept, but quickly had to adapt to fit to a cute concept (which they got criticism for)
they infamously only sold 11 copies of their first mini album on the first day of sales and their debut didn’t chart, they were quickly written off as flops by many
they promoted momomo on music shows for almost three months, performing at any venue they could without rest, and went straight into filming their reality show as soon as promotions finished after five months
cheng xiao didn’t have a single line in the whole of the first mini album, and when they would perform without choreo she had to stand there with nothing to do
had a disastrous stage in the rain in which a number of members fell, but instead of complaining or getting upset, they still to this day hail it as one of their most fun stages
they admitted to not all being that close before debut and were sad that they were so busy that the MT trip was one of the first times they spent non-schedule time together (and even that was a part of their reality show), soobin cried as she spoke about how happy she is that they’re all becoming closer - particularly with members she didn’t know well before
cheng xiao performed a flip every catch me stage and had to get treatment for her back but she never once complained
seola and exy got so criticized for their weights that they started skipping meals and eating only one meal a day
the korean members always help the chinese members as particularly cheng xiao and xuan yi still struggle with the language, (so much so that up until recently cheng xiao could not pronounce her own name), and in turn the china line help the korean members learn chinese
yeonjung was supposed to debut with wjsn but was instead put on produce 101 and went on to receive so much hate from her promotions with IOI that she wanted to quit starship, but it was the wjsn girls who comforted her and asked her to consider joining cosmic girls
yeonjung revealed that she was worried about joining the group late because of what she’s missed and was worried about being accepted by the others, but actually said that she’s been so welcomed by and is happy to be in wjsn and they all take care of her now that she’s their new maknae
dawon was asked whether she was upset at the addition of a new main vocalist but she strongly denied this, she was instead so happy to have another bright personality and strong voice in the group
china line hadn’t seen their parents in years and thus were in pieces when they were reunited with their family this summer - so much so that even the korean members got teary
strong leader exy broke down and revealed that she has such a hard exterior because she’s had to watch so many trainees come and go that she stopped getting close to people and she worries that she isn’t a good enough daughter because she wouldn’t even show her vulnerability in front of her parents (seola and exy have known each other the longest, and seola cried when exy was reunited with her mother earlier this year)
during the reality show yeoreum cried as she admitted that she missed her parents because they live so far away, so much so that she lived with her grandparents whilst she was training, and she was even more sad that she no longer had time to see her grandparents
a week before their comeback yeoreum’s grandmother passed away, and yeoreum was told in the middle of a schedule which she had to leave to fly to the funeral, (when eunseo saw yeoreum’s missing place on stage she became emotional)
seola (the eldest) was forced to face her extreme fear of water for ‘entertainment’ during the reality show, all the members comforted her though it was the second youngest yeoreum who stayed with her and held her hand until the very end of what was quite a traumatizing experience
cheng xiao didn’t sleep for 5 days before her performance on ISAC and even had to be on an IV drip just so she could make it through her schedules every day
(the members began crying 10 seconds into her performance and didn’t stop until long after she had been crowned the winner)
when cheng xiao became very popular she always spoke of how she wished the other members could be with her - she didn’t want to do all those schedules alone
similarly they all prefer to be ot13 to individual schedules, when members are missing they make sure to call out to all of them or leave spaces on stage for them (every momomo peformance eunseo did without xuan yi she would hug the air and cry)
^ when they were asked what is on their mind recently, yeoreum said xuan yi and mei qi because they’re in china filming and she misses them,
china line were away during mei qi’s birthday thus she couldn’t celebrate with her other members, so xuan yi and cheng xiao surprised her with a cake and expressed how they’ve been together since the start and feel like it’s destiny that the three of them have debuted together
dayoung’s father bankrupted her family and her parents divorced when she was young, she has little money and when she wanted to get a watermelon for the other members, she asked her mother for the money, saying she would not need a birthday present if she could just get a watermelon for the others
they’re not allowed to have their own phones, they’re currently hoping that they’ll be allowed once they get their first music show win but starship is yet to confirm this >:(
despite everything, they’ve achieved:
best selling debut from a non-big 3 girl group in 3 years, won mcountdown’s new star/rookie of the year award, won asia artist award’s rising star award, 10th best selling girl group of the year (physically - despite having the least number of albums out)
i’m proud of wjsn because whilst they have not had explosive immediate overnight popularity, their hard work and struggles are beginning to pay off and they always stay so bright and humble and honest no matter what
they don’t pretend to have been a close-knit group from the start, but it’s clear that their unique bond grows and grows every day, to the extent to which they feel incomplete unless they’re 13, and that’s just :’) (“a family aside from my real family” - soobin)
they already have two awards under their belt and they intend to come back in early 2017 - let’s hope for continued success (and for those mobile phones!!), wujusonyeo fighting!
turnnoffyourmind
gummygunk
blakekathryn
jacobvanloon
