HYEJIN'S BACKGROUND °•°•°•°
% early life ------
hyejin was born in new york city in 2000 on february 15th.
she is the youngest of four siblings : her twin eldest brother and sister , taehyun and nayeon ( a popular social media influencer )and her other older sister , chaeyeon , who is an idol as well.
her family moved to korea in 2006 , shortly after her sixth birthday , due to her mother’s job. a year later , her parents divorced but her mother quickly remarried.
she sung in the choir of her church and school which initiated her initial love for music. this paired with her admiration of chaeyeon made her pursue the choice to becoming a idol. her mother and stepfather were completely against the idea but with the support of her siblings and father , she would secretly go to a vocal coach so she could improve her vocal talent
% being a trainee -------
a former sm trainee ;in 2013 , she went to an open audition to support one of her friends. while originally , she didn’t have plans to audition , she friend managed to persuade her last minute. she sang ‘ please don’t ‘ by k.will and was accepted while unfortunately her friend wasn't.
she moved to seoul with her father , much to the dismay of her mother , so she could begin training. she was in sm for a little over a year before she was added to smrookies and announced that she would be debuting with sm’s new global group project.
with the announcements came comparisons to her older sister since she was an artist under sm as well. the pressure to be as good as her was so overwhelming that she ultimately decided to leave the company in may of 2015 but it wasn’t long before she was scouted by a recruiter for jyp after a concert held at her school.
hyejin and ryujin would both participate in the survival show , ‘ mixnine ‘ , where the two were displayed as a power duo , ryujin excelling in dancing while hyejin as a vocalist. throughout the program, she would be praised for her vocal talents and would almost always lead any vocal heavy performance for the female teams. she placed second right behind ryujin.
% debuting with itzy -----
korean netizens were initially excited hyejin’s debut but with dalla dalla’s were extremely disappointed. most felt that her talents were being wasted or that she simply didn’t fit the groups concept but after the release of icy , the opinion slowly shifted as her stage presence grew.
after debuting , she had gained more and more attention for her growing stage presence and dancing abilities.
she frequently posts covers on itzy’s youtube