Talking about the visuals that made up the beauty standard of KPOP, of course anyone
can list out some real famous names like BLACKPINK’s Jisoo, TWICE’s Tzuyu, Red Velvet’s Irene
or BTS’s Jin. However, if you take a step back and look
objectively at the big picture, you’ll see one of the main reasons helping them widely
recognized on beauty charts, of course with the exception to their inherent stunning visuals,
is the reputation of their group and management company.
That means, besides the famous names that you’re already familiar with, there are
many hidden gems that should have received more recognition but ended up having nothing
just because their acts are not as famous.
Heejin (LOONA)
Debuting in LOONA and often referred to by the fancy name “the girl group with three
times more investment than TWICE,” it’s somehow quite unfortunate for Heejin because
she has never really had enough recognition for the impeccable visuals that ticked all
the boxes of South Korean beauty standard.
In fact, this has been quite a famous topic in the KPOP community and on Quora, there
was even a long post pointing out specifically how Heejin’s visual was all that netizens
wanted at an idol. You know the survival show MIXNINE hosted by YG Entertainment, right?
Back when she was still a contestant there, Knets had already voted her as having the
best visuals out of 98 girls but as the show was not as successful as expected, this title
was also quickly vanishing after her departure.
Anyway, back to the Quora post that I’ve talked about. Compared to the seven beauty
standards of South Korea, the OP pointed out that she checked all of them with the perfect
V-shaped jawline, thin high nose bridge, super small face, double eyelid, pale skin and of
course, her heart-shaped plump lips that many girls have to spend tons of money to have.
In fact, it’s not so hard now to find a female idol ticking all the boxes like Heejin,
but she still stands out with the naive puppy smiling eyes that immediately hooked people
at first sight. That’s why when putting Heejin and (G)-IDLE’s Miyeon—aka another
idol that also ticks all the boxes of the strict beauty standard, Heejin still received
more votes for the visual as pure as crystal.
The thing is, except for when you searched her ranking for visuals on purpose like this,
you’ll hardly see her names mentioned on any beauty chart of KPOP stars and the popular
opinion about Heejin is that her visuals are oddly underrated. What’s even sadder is
that because she often opens LOONA’s song and gets a fair amount of line distribution,
many people were also mad at Heejin and ended up disregarding her visual.
You know TC Candler right? Though Heejin has been in the industry for years, she has never
once had her name on the chart. Even when LOONA managed to be one of the nominees for
TC Candler in 2018, the member on the photo was actually not Heejin but Jinsoul instead.
Even for times she got to be on the chart Visuals Queen of KPOP hosted by King Choice,
Heejin has also never gotten into the top 10 and the highest rank she got was at 22nd.
However, if you pay some close attention to the number, you’ll see her votes actually
decreased after a year and apparently that wasn’t a good sign.
Younghoon (The Boyz) As Younghoon debuted under a not so big company,
Cre.ker Entertainment, his visual is also slept on for quite a long time.
Even just from his side profile, you can already see how Younghoon is literally a person stepping
straight out of webtoon and had he not debuted in The Boyz, he could have debuted under SM
Entertainment and be the genius face of the next generation.
His jawline is defined, nose bridge is prominent, eyebrows are sharp and if you take a more
comprehensive look, you’ll see all his facial features are perfectly symmetric. His surreal
visual is also so versatile that regardless of styles the stylists throw on him, he will
always kill it effortlessly.
The sad story is, despite that comic visual, Younghoon still hasn't received the recognition
he deserved. While having been in the industry for five years, never once has Younghoon appeared
on TC Candler's list of most handsome men around the globe.
Actually, in 2018, some fans did try to nominate him but as people didn’t bother to care,
he failed to get into the short list and unfortunately, that was also the last time his name had anything
to do with this list.
Even when he managed to get into a smaller-scale chart like Visual King of KPOP 2020 and 2021,
his rank was still pretty low and the number of votes even went down in time.
Even without these visual charts, many people can already see how underrated the visual
of Younghoon has been. Under the translated post from Pann—Male idols who aren’t as
known as they should be despite their good looks, Younghoon was named three times by
multiple netizens and not until The Boyz drew more attention after Kingdom had people started
to be crazy over the surreal visuals of Younghoon. Some even said that he is the heritage of
Songdo and they couldn’t stop searching for him after the show.
Saerom (Fromis_9)
Despite debuting under Stone Music Entertainment, the home to many big names like AOA, T-ARA
and project groups like I.O.I and IZ*ONE, Fromis_9 somehow still has to struggle in
raising their popularity and as one of some regretful results, Saerom’s impeccable visual
was also neglected.
Even just with a glance, I bet you can already tell how Saerom checks all the boxes in the
strict beauty standard of South Korea like V-shaped jawline, fair skin, big eyes.
However, as she lacks one big crucial element—aka the luck to debut under a famous group, her
dazzling appearance was hardly ever appreciated.
In 2019 and 2020, she was luckily chosen to be in the official short list of TC Candler
but all she ever got was to stop at the “nominee” position both times. For the following year,
Saerom was also nowhere to be seen and even with the recently famous visual chart “Visual
Queen of KPOP” of King Choice, Saerom has also never been on the list once.
Saerom’s visual was so stunning that after her randomly catching the eyes of a netizen
in 2019, the person went straight to HallyuPlus and complained about how that living doll
beauty is "criminally underrated" and should have received more recognition.
Not long before that, netizens on OneHallyu also noticed her unappreciated visual and
believed that she stood a pretty high chance of becoming another top tier face in KPOP—which
obviously hasn’t become a reality but let’s hope she will soon be.
Some even said that as Saerom looks like a younger version of Han Chae Young, they hoped
she could soon become an actress as that’s what she deserves.
Jeonghan (Seventeen)
While Jeonghan possesses an ethereal visual that can effortlessly nail all styles, from
cool to cute, and from masculine to feminine, his visual is somehow still slept on despite
being the member of a group with a large and stable fanbase.
If you haven’t taken some time to admire the handsomeness of Jeonghan then well, this
is probably the most suitable time to do so. It’s also not hard to see how Jeonghan has
a super small face, slim nose, prominent double eyelids yet an extremely defined and sharp
jawline.
However, that’s still not enough for him to be in famous visual charts like TC Candler,
King Choice and many other small-scale charts voted by netizens. Actually, for TC Candler,
he was once chosen to be in the official nominee line-up in 2018 but failed to get further
and for the other years, his name was sadly nowhere to be seen.
However, on many K-forums, Jeonghan’s visual is quite frequently mentioned because netizens
just found it hard to accept how people keep ignoring him though years have passed. That’s
why back in the beginning of this year, many fans have flocked to a post on Hallyu Central
and upsetly complained how those not recognizing the visual of Jeonghan all have bad eyesight.
On other platforms like Quora, it’s not hard to see comments saying how Jeonghan’s
visual is super underrated and he should have gotten more credits for striking the perfect
balance between delicacy and masculinity in his look. Or on We Heart It, he was also the
first idol to be named on the list of Underrated Visuals and if you spend more time searching
the Internet, of course you’ll see many more similar results like this.
Bona (WJSN)
While fitting to all the requirements of a typical KPOP idol, Bona sadly still struggles
to find a stable spot on the visual chart of the industry. Just at a glance, you can
already tell how Bona gives off a pure and soft vibe quite similar to Suzy with those
big dreamy eyes, full plump lips but still has a charm of her own with the cute little
mole on the nose.
However, as WJSN hasn’t been doing so well, many people believed it has negatively affected
the credits Bona should have received for the past several years.
Needless to look for anything far, just consider how she managed to be the official nominee
of TC Candler for three out of five years active in the industry but never once got
to climb further and you'll see how criminally underrated her visual is.
Or if you still search for more evidence then well, just go on some famous K-forums like
Amino, Hallyu Central, theqoo, Allkpop and you’ll see the overwhelming number of people
upsetting over Bona’s visuals being unappreciated. In this poll, she was chosen by more than
41% people as an extremely underrated visual of gen3 and in another post on Quora, a netizen
also picked her as the most underrated visual that should have gotten way more attention.
Or another time when netizens were asked about some most unappreciated visuals of girl groups,
her name was also there with a bunch of dazzling photos and warming comments wishing she would
soon thrive to become another I.T girl of KPOP.
After this video, do you still believe some visual charts out there can speak loud and
clear about who is the fairest of them all? Comment down below to share your thoughts
with us. Also, don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe to BeBossTV for more interesting
content. Thank you for watching!