Aespa Open Up About How They Were First Inspired To Become K-Pop Idols

Girl group aespa is the first K-Pop group to be featured in Paper Magazine, where they unveiled their new digital capsule collection, featuring items designed and worn by the members.

In their interview for the magazine, aespa opened up about what inspires them as artists, including how they feel motivated to “work really hard” for fans since they “know what it’s like” to be fans.

That’s what motivates us to work really hard at what we do because someone else can look at us and build their dream around us. We all grew up as fans of other artists, so we know what it’s like.

— Karina

Of course, aespa have become an incredibly skilled group that most recently showed their tremendous impact at their first solo concert since the group’s debut. At the concert, aespa showcased unreleased songs and unexpected talents, leaving fans in awe of their performances.

But to become such a talented group, aespa had to train diligently for years, which, while training may have been grueling at the time, NingNing explained that it has since become “a very significant and meaningful part of [her] life.”

As we were preparing for the concert, I realized that the training period was a very significant and meaningful part of my life. It’s an opportunity for artists to grow individually as artists, where they work on their skills and develop certain assets.

— NingNing

Aespa also opened up about their personal reasons for enduring the training process to pursue a career as K-Pop idols. For NingNing, it was all about having “opportunities to perform” since the idol grew up performing on stage.

The thrill of being on stage and doing what I like in front of a crowd is what motivated me to become an idol. When you’re a K-Pop idol, you definitely have a lot of opportunities to perform.

— NingNing

Giselle has a similar reason for wanting to pursue performing, having focused on art in school and discovered her passion.

[Art] was the only thing I enjoyed doing in school.

— Giselle

Karina also grew up with music but was only inspired to become an idol after watching Girls’ Generation perform “Into the New World.”

When I think of the word ‘idol,’ I think of the verb ‘idolize.’ When you idolize someone, you look up to them and you’re often inspired, or you look up to them out of admiration.

When you think of a star, which is what idols are often called, they shine and sparkle. They can be cold and also hot. There’s an allure, but also a distance. So an idol is someone who expresses all of those emotions, good and bad and happy and sad. To the fans, we sparkle, but we’re not always as bright as we seem to be.

— Karina

Winter, like Karina, was also inspired to become an idol because of a Korean celebrity, but for a completely different reason. The idea of becoming a celebrity was first brought up by Winter’s mom, who pointed out that if she wanted to have a chance to date her childhood celebrity crush, actor Kwon Sang Woo, she needed to be a celebrity too.

I grew up watching a lot of television. And I had a huge crush on the Korean actor Kwon Sang Woo. I told my mom that I wanted to marry him; she insisted that you have to become a celebrity if you want to marry another celebrity, so that really motivated me.

— Winter

But more than simply being motivated by her childhood crush, Winter quickly realized that she also wanted to perform on stage, which encouraged her to follow her passion.

I’ve also always been fascinated by people on stage, so eventually I realized I wanted to be there as well.

— Winter

There’s no denying that aespa have become a successful group with immense talent, and their recent concert shows how much they love performing for their fans.

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