ITZY’s Chaeryeong Opens Up About Her Struggle With Confidence

ITZY‘s Chaeryeong guested on rapper Lee Young Ji‘s My Alcohol Diary, and while the two were cutely chaotic with each other, there came a time when Chaeryeong shared her struggles.

Young Ji asked if Chaeryeong was the kind of person to be easily influenced by others, and Chaeryeong admitted that she was sensitive to the attention of others.

Chaeryeong hadn’t always been this way. When she was in elementary school, she thought she was the prettiest; during high school, many people asked for her number.

So I was always confident.

— Chaeryeong

However, while preparing for her debut with ITZY, Chaeryeong’s confidence fell to the ground.

Many incidents caused her confidence to fall, but the most shocking one was that someone had tried to stop her from debuting.

Another reason why her confidence dropped was that others would often misunderstand her. Chaeryeong always tries to think of others first, making sure her sincerity is felt through her interactions and taking care not to do anything that might make the other person uncomfortable.

But people would misinterpret her sincerity for sarcasm, leaving Chaeryeong feeling helpless.

If they don’t like my good actions and bad actions, I don’t really know what to do.

— Chaeryeong

While Chaeryeong’s confidence has grown since then, and she tries not to care about others’ hateful remarks about her, Young Ji encouraged her in a different way. Since Chaeryeong’s only human, it’s impossible not to care all the time, so it’s okay even if she cares. What matters more is that through it all, Chaeryeong knows her self-worth.

Just know that you’re an amazing person.

— Young Ji

Young Ji even had Chaeryeong repeat after her, telling Chaeryeong to compliment herself because Chaeryeong needs to know how precious she is.