AKMU's Lee Suhyun Opens Up About How Negative Comments Affected Her Self-Esteem

AKMU‘s Lee Suhyun opened up about how she deals with negative comments, and she also gave advice on how to keep your self-esteem up!

Suhyun recently made her solo debut with the digital single “Alien”, gaining attention for her fun hair and super catchy song!

As part of her solo promotions, she appeared on YouTube channel ODG, where she interacted with kids, starting conversations with them about self-esteem, and what it means to each of them.

Suhyun asked one of the kids about whether or not their self-esteem was good. The interviewee opened up about her feelings of insecurity and also what made her self-esteem low.

I don’t think it’s that high. Because, I’m in middle school right now. I know more about the world, and I’m starting to face reality, and naturally, I think my self-esteem is shrinking.

Things like, when my friends are good in school and I don’t think I’m doing as well. I think, ‘Why is she so charming, and why am I not?’

— Interviewed Student

Suhyun comforted her and opened up about her own feelings of self-doubt and low self-esteem. She began by talking about her first appearance on K-Pop Star, where she and her brother Chanhyuk gained attention after performing an original song of theirs, titled “Don’t Cross Your Legs”.

I think I went through the same thing. When I went on the audition program, I had no idea how to make myself look pretty. I had no makeup on, and I don’t even remember if I washed my hair that day or not. I just put on what I had and went out the door. I went and sang “Don’t Cross Your Legs” that aired through television, and eventually the internet.

And so many people saw me like that — more than I could ever imagine. How I look, how tall I am, whether I have double eyelids or not. Everything about me was let known.

—Suhyun

She continued, opening up about her experience with hateful comments, and how they “numbed” her.

But everyone has different standards of what is beautiful. And there are standards where I don’t fit into. But there were a lot more of those than I imagined. I saw so many comments like “Yeah, she has a nice voice but if she was prettier, I would have liked her more”. I saw so many of those that I became numb to them. So, although I kept telling myself that it’s okay… it’s not okay.

I was mad at one point, but I also had times when I started to believe those words. “Am I really that bad? So bad to be treated like this?” I think there were a few times where I thought of myself like this.

—Suhyun

Suhyun then finished by talking about how she kept working at her self-esteem so that she could always keep the “real” her, and also talked about how she’s had to learn not to pay too much mind to the haters!

I had to work really hard to keep my self-esteem. Or else, I would lose the real me. What kind of person I am, or if I deserve to be loved or not. If I’m not careful, you can forget about all of that.

And if that person really left that comment because they didn’t like me, then that’s too bad! What can I do about it? I can’t live my life just for that one person to like me. That’s being stupid. But I still think there’s a limit.

Enough is enough!

—Suhyun