LE SSERAFIM’s Yunjin Unveils The Actual Meaning Behind “I ≠ DOLL”
LE SSERAFIM‘s Yunjin recently released her second self-produced song “I ≠ DOLL” that explains the harsh realities of idol life. In a recent interview with Consequence Sound, Yunjin explains the process of creating the song from its creation in the middle of the night to the moment it was released.
Yunjin explains that there wasn’t a single experience that inspired her to write the song. Instead, she wrote it to express her feelings and what she experienced going from an “onlooker” to a “player” in the industry.
Rather than saying a single experience catalyzed this song, I want to say it was inspired by a collection of things I felt between being an onlooker to being a player in the entertainment industry. It was not inspired by a single moment that came to me after debut.
I think regardless of fame, gender, age, class, race, etc., the cruelty, superficiality, and contradiction of online hate is something everyone has experienced at least once. Treating people with fairness and kindness has always been crucial to me. And this message that people you see on screen are still in fact people like you has been something I’ve dreamt of talking about since I was a trainee. I decided to release it now simply because I’ve been waiting to.
— Yunjin
She revealed that, like many great ideas, inspiration for the song hit her in the middle of the night.
I remember writing this track in my bedroom at 2, 3:00 a.m. The lyrics and melody to the chorus just came to me out of nowhere, and like a bolt of lightning, I got to my desk and started writing things down. It was actually my first time writing an original song in Korean, so I was scared I wouldn’t be able to be as honest in comparison to English. But, you know, I ended up swearing in both languages so I guess I proved myself wrong [laughs].
I’ve been waiting to release this song since last year, so the moments leading up to its release I was so excited, screaming and running around the room — we were getting our hair and makeup done at the time — telling all the staff, “There’s only two minutes left!” And when it was released, we just listened to it altogether on speaker on repeat. I am just glad if people recognize the message, because that is my only goal.
— Yunjin
As her second self produced song, Yunjin shares how she loves to create and create a positive influence from a potentially negative situation.
I am not a very good thinker. I mean, I think a lot and have a lot of ideas, but I can never seem to make sense of them. But through creation, I can not only make sense of myself, but can also potentially help others make sense of themselves as well. I think that is very cool. It’s not that producing makes me feel powerful, or that it’s influence that I am chasing. It’s more so that producing empowers me to channel a good influence. Also it’s just genuinely fun to create something beautiful with something that could start off not so beautiful. It’s my passion.
— Yunjin
As Yunjin has previously she stated, she shares that she hopes to have an influence on the idol industry and impact even one person to challenge that harsh standards that idols face.
My dream is to bring healthy change to the world. I do not think highly [enough] of myself or feel entitled to speak on behalf of a whole industry, or claim that transformation will happen by my hand alone. I simply dream in hopes that someone will hear my voice because change can only happen when someone actually listens. And that first step for me was “I ≠ DOLL.” I don’t expect it to make a drastic change, but hopefully the lyrics made at least one person think and include themselves in the narrative.
— Yunjin
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