- They wanted me to have a smaller butt,
but it's very hard to get rid of all that.
(upbeat music)
What is a K-pop trainee?
Someone who's a product of a Korean entertainment company.
- And then you learn skills,
and the end goal of a K-pop trainee is-
- Indefinitely becoming a K-pop idol.
- [Kathy] So how do you become a K-pop trainee?
Usually, it's by auditions.
I know like you sign up for one category,
so I signed up for singing.
- Most K-pop trainees range from
as young as like 10 years old.
- Well, I'm not Korean.
When I auditioned, I didn't speak any Korean.
I did speak Chinese and English
and I think that they really liked that
just because it was kind of like the global aspect.
So why did I become a K-pop trainee?
This is kind of embarrassing,
but I was like a huge EXO fan. (laughs)
I actually lived in Shanghai before this.
So for like Christmas break,
our parents decided to like take us to Korea.
And I think it was then when I was like, "Oh my God."
Like, just like K-pop in general,
like they seem to like live such glamorous lives.
And so I was like might as well try it out.
- Since I was young,
I always loved singing, and dancing, and acting.
I actually came to Korea for two different reasons.
One, because I was like in love with EXO,
like sickly in love with EXO.
But the main reason that I came to Korea
was because the language itself was just so freaking cool.
I went to a random casting call
for people to do YouTube reactions.
Somehow, someway, it came across the desk of some CEO
that was working for this entertainment company.
He contacted me.
And after a month of going back and forth,
I eventually signed with this company.
What is a K-pop trainee's daily schedule?
- This varies between like kind of what you're doing.
Like, are you like right before a debut
or are you still early on?
- [Kiya] Around 6:00 AM, I would start to exercise.
I would go to a class with my Korean tutor
and we would be studying Korean for around four hours.
- When I was in Korea, I didn't go to school.
I took a gap year.
So at least for my day-to-day basis,
I maybe like woke up at around 10.
I went to the studio
and from like 10 to like afternoon,
usually, you just work on like self-training.
- I would go to a dance studio to practice.
I would have to meet with my manager
so we can have dinner and discuss what needed to be done.
My stylist would show up to go through my closet,
put new clothes in,
kind of guide me on what was required of me.
- Usually at night, we have like group dance lessons
and singing lessons.
From then to like midnight or like even later,
we like go back into individual training.
- Maybe get about three to four hours of sleep.
- What is a K-pop trainee's typical diet?
Wow.
- I have been thin my whole life.
I just have like a little bit more curves.
They wanted me to have a smaller butt,
but it's very hard to get rid of all that.
What my company and I talked about as far as dieting went,
we just kind of agreed that I wasn't going to be pigging out
all the time.
- Usually, we aren't allowed to eat carbs.
Well, we can but like it's not really recommended.
So a lot of K-pop trainees, we would substitute it
with sweet potatoes, hard-boiled eggs.
We eat a lot of vegetables,
usually like cherry tomatoes, cucumbers.
We had to weigh ourselves every two, three days
in front of like the teachers,
in front of the other trainees.
Are Korean beauty standards imposed on trainees?
- Yes, because we're in Korea.
- The beauty standards, just like in Asia in general,
is just like insane,
and I think trainees are like the epitome of that.
Like we have to be like the skinniest of the skinniest.
- They would be trying to push me more
towards a Korean style with my clothes,
like my stylist, the first day
that I moved into my new home
and she threw away all of my clothes.
But it was fine because the company bought me
like brand new wardrobe.
But it was just so sad.
- Are there differences between how male and female trainees
are treated?
Definitely.
The weight part, like the diet part is very different.
- With the women they're judged more harshly.
- I think for females,
more of like criticism is usually like verbal criticism
while like male, it's more like physical.
Maybe like if we didn't lose enough weight,
like for females, it's like, they would say like,
"Oh, you're fat."
Kind of try to humiliate you.
But for it's male, it's like,
"Okay, do you like 20 pushups right now."
- [Kiya] Can trainees have social media accounts?
- This is a funny one.
(laughs) Okay.
Technically, no, but I had one.
As long as they don't find it, it's fine.
- I was not allowed to have social media.
I remember my current Instagram,
I deleted all of the pictures.
- [Kathy] Can K-pop trainees date?
- I remember part in my contract that said like,
I can't have a boyfriend, which is standard.
- It's mostly forbidden.
I've known people who've like dated the like male trainees
in their company and that didn't end well.
The male trainee was like fired.
How much do K-pop trainees get paid?
I got paid zero bucks.
Made absolutely nothing.
- My company at that time paid for my housing.
They paid for my food.
I had an allowance.
I had pretty much my life handed to me.
- How K-pop trainees work
is that, like, you dance, you sing
and then like, obviously, the studio,
there's like a renting fee and all that.
But the company pays for it
because technically they're investing in you.
Like when you debut, hopefully,
and then, hopefully, you make a lot of money
you have to pay back the company.
- How do you go from trainee to idol?
Well, it takes a heck of a lot of practice.
- Usually, the company maybe has like 20, 30 girls
and then every month there's like a monthly exam
and then they cut like a few girls each month.
- You have to be able to withstand
all of the company's demands, rules, schedules.
You have to be okay with not being able to see your family.
- And then, usually, right before debut,
I think a lot of them would have like free concerts
where like trainees like travel around
and like give free concerts,
just kind of like to build a fan base.
- You have to be okay with having your privacy invaded 24/7.
- In the recent years,
ever since like Produce 101,
I think a big thing was like these competition shows
where you can like gain exposure.
I think that's pretty popular
where like trainees go through that before they debut.
- You have to be sure
that this is something that you truly want
and not just because it seems fun in the moment.
- What do trainees do if they don't debut?
I know a lot of my friends who haven't debuted.
They're into like musicals now,
or they go back to college
- Or some don't stop.
Which in my case, that's deems to be true.
- For me, I left just because I didn't finish high school
and so I was like, "I need at least a high school diploma
in our society today."
- I ended up just making my own music.
I didn't realize that I didn't need a company
to do what I love to do.
- Another reason why I left
was just because I didn't really like
the trainee-idol culture.
It was a little toxic in my opinion.
- You really have to be very, very careful
in any entertainment industry,
whether it's Korea's, whether it's America's.
- Some people train so long
and then they never end up debuting.
It's crazy to me that how, like, some girls
they are willing to give up everything.
- [Kiya] The most valuable thing I think I've gained
from the training experience...
- Definitely like taught me how to be independent.
Taught me like what the entertainment industry is like.
- I am so much more confident
and I feel like I had to develop some thick skin
and I learned how to be a better person from the isolation.
So I'm very happy for that.
And I don't regret any part of my experiences.
- It is right for some people
but I don't think it's right for everyone.
Not right for every K-pop fan.
It's not right for me.
(gentle music)