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I started listening to K-pop back when NewJeans made their debut in July 2022. Like many, I was hooked on their distinct choreography and music and the five members’ fresh looks. Only recently though did I notice how young some of these members are. K-pop idols are debuting at younger and younger ages nowadays, which is not beneficial for their well-being.
With NewJeans, all their members are still minors, with South Korea’s age of adulthood being 19. Their youngest member is Hyein, who is currently 15 years old; she debuted when she was just 14. From her looks, I originally thought she was at least 20, along with the other members as well who are all just one to three years older than Hyein. My jaw dropped when I found out almost all of them were younger than me.
According to Nolae, Haeun of the girl group Lapillus became the newest record holder for the youngest K-pop idol to debut, at the young age of 13 years and seven months out in June of 2022, just a month before NewJeans had debuted.
As shown, it is becoming more and more of a trend for idols to debut at around the ages of 13-14. I think the ultimate goal of having younger idols debut is so they can stay in the industry for longer, which in the long run, attracts a wider age range of audiences for the group and their label. With the age these members are, they are just old enough for younger girls to look up to them and young enough be admired by older audiences, which brings me to my main concern. There are so many older people that idolize and sexualize younger K-pop idols; it’s perverted.
Some might argue that labels like ADOR (NewJean’s label) implement special rules in order to protect these younger girls, such as them having longer safety shorts (biking shorts length). But I think this is still not enough. Once you are an idol, you no longer have a private life; you always become being watched. For instance, I vividly remember a reel I saw the other day where a person ranked the five members based on the way they ate their food, with clips of them eating being filmed from a far distance. And this has not happened just once; when I go on Instagram or even YouTube, I always see invasive videos or comments being made about NewJeans members.
Not only is their safety something to worry about, there are other factors as well. What about their education? Many K-pop idols decides to drop out of school in order to pursue this career. Now I understand that these idols choose this life, however, I think that you should still be going to school if you are still 13/14 – or even younger – because let’s not forget that before you can become an idol, you have to endure months or sometimes even years as a trainee.
I respect the idol’s decision to debut at whatever age they do it at. However, I do feel that K-pop idols need to stop debuting at ages 13 to 14. At the end of the day, I will still continue listening to music from NewJeans, even though I hate the way how young these girls are.
