“Squid Game” Fame Lee Yoo Mi And Aespa Named Next Generation Leaders By TIME Magazine
Recently, TIME Magazine released its list of “Next Generation Leaders” for 2022, and the only two South Korean names on the list were Aespa and Lee Yoo Mi. The magazine publishes this list every year after analyzing the impact of younger generation personalities. The project focuses on “elevating young people from across fields and around the globe who are working to build a better world.”
The magazine praised the outstanding career graph of Lee Yoo Mi, who quickly became one of the most popular faces in South Korea after the success of Squid Game, where she played the character of Ji Yeon. Audiences loved her performance so much that her fame skyrocketed almost overnight, her Instagram following shooting up to 7 million from 40,000. But before Squid Game, Lee gave an impressive performance as Na Yeon in another Netflix hit, All Of Us Are Dead.
On the other hand, Aespa was named one of the next-generation leaders for spearheading the metaverse-native artist concept in K-Pop. The SM girl group debuted in 2020 when the COVID pandemic had the world paralyzed with immobility. The metaverse concept not only captured the imagination of audiences but also brought a time-relevant freshness to the way K-Pop content is presented and consumed.
Other notable personalities who accompanied these two names on the list include famous TikToker Khaby Lame, beauty influencer Deepica Mutyala, and Bridgerton star Jonathan Bailey.
