Creative Director + Photos / Lauren Nakao Winn
Creative Producer / Dakota Griffin, The 199x New York
Video Director / Jiwon Choi
Stylist / Morgan Bienvenue
Stylist Assist / Haley Lux
Hair / Jefferson T
Makeup / Scott Osbourne
Photo Assist / Jovita Tedja
Story & Locations / Christine Terrisse
Shot at Unified Boxing Club
DAYOUNG’s maternal aunts were haenyeo, the diving women of Jeju island who hold their breath for sustained periods of time, working well into their golden years. The pop star was born and raised on the volcanic island off the southern tip of the Korean peninsula, but moved to Seoul around age 11 in pursuit of her dreams.
Now at 26, she no longer holds her breath, having come a long way from the precocious, quirky adolescent who auditioned in front of legendary K-pop executives on the competition show K-pop Star Season 1.
For the past ten years, DAYOUNG has been part of the ten-member K-pop group WJSN, also known as Cosmic Girls, under Starship Entertainment (IVE, MONSTA X, KiiiKiii ). The group became known for their futuristic concept, dreamy vocals, and classic girl group choreography.
Ten years in and WJSN remains together, but upon renewing her contract with Starship, DAYOUNG felt the time was right to try something entirely different.
Top & chaps, Leatheracci. Shorts, Haley Lux Archive. Necklace, Marland Backus.
“I decided I will prove myself.”
“Already this K-pop industry is packed with competition,” she tells me. It’s March, but there’s a freakish heat-wave baking Hollywood where DAYOUNG has dutifully shown up to a cafe to talk about her second digital album, “[What’s a girl to do].”
“It’s hard to stand on your own without members,” she continues, pointing out the industry is packed with talent.
Her label suggested she try on camera hosting, putting her magnetic personality to good use. And although she has dabbled in some acting and is open to opportunity, music is her first love. Not willing to leave her fate into other’s hands, at one point she brought out a PowerPoint presentation with her ideas to share with label exectutives.
“I decided I will prove myself to the company,” she cheerfully says. She would need some help she figured, and one person in particular came to mind: Eric Nam, whom she calls her sunbaenim (more established colleague). Nam, is a talented Korean-American multi-hyphenate and established star with a foothold both in the U.S. and South Korea. A pop star and songwriter in his own right, along with his brother, he runs the company DIVE Studios, which produces Gen Z-focused multi-platform content.
“I called him up and asked him, ‘Hey Eric, can you help me out with my solo project?’ And he said, ‘Can you come to L.A. next week’?”
DAYOUNG believed in herself as a performer, but it was harder to wrap herself around the idea of songwriting. At first, she struggled with perfectionism, labeling her first attempt as “cringe,” but Nam encouraged her to keep going.
“I always wanted to make a song, but I thought, like, I’m not good at that, and I didn’t have any confidence at all. But three years ago, Eric gave me, like, a chorus, and he told me that, like, you’re doing great, and you have an amazing voice, and you’re a really good writer. So like, keep going and keep pushing it. You can do whatever you want.”
The songs crafted during her Los Angeles writing sessions mark both a new sound and an aesthetic departure for the star. Most K-pop idols debut young; DAYOUNG was only sixteen when WJSN launched. Typically, both the music and the styling of young groups lean in a more demure direction. Later, as the artists mature, they might introduce more “girl crush” concepts, perhaps toward a sexy theming but typically more subdued than your typical American pop star.
Tops, Leatheracci. Shorts, Wiederhoeft. Boots, Niihai.
Number one rockstar
The launch of DAYOUNG’s solo debut song “body” in September of last year put the industry on notice that she was not interested in soft-launching a solo career nor in adhering to others preconceptions.
This was DAYOUNG unconstrained, free to explore and see how far she could go with a vision. It worked. “Body” is an infectious girly-pop bop. In its video, she leans into a fantasy of California. Tan and blonde, she and a coterie of diverse female dancers dressed in primary-colored streetwear, execute intricate choreography throughout a sun-drenched mansion.
The song sparked viral dance challenges, ran up Korea’s Melon chart, and won DAYOUNG her first music show win, one of the clearest markers of success in the Korean pop music scene.
It was an emotional time for her. “I’ve been working on [the songs] for three years, and I always wanted to be a solo artist, and I always wanted to find my own identity. And finally, the songs came out, and people are listening to my music.”
But it wasn’t the award show moment or other celebrities doing the “body” choreo on socials that made the success of the song finally sink in.
While near a bus stop back home in Seoul, she noticed a boy was listening to music. “When I passed by,” she says, sounding a little incredulous, “I accidentally saw his phone, and it was ‘body’! And then I was like ‘Oh my God, it’s me!’ But he didn’t recognize me. It was like living in a dream.”
“Number one rockstar” followed closely on the heels of “body” and saw DAYOUNG go into new sonic territory. The song is an emotional pop-rock ballad with a slight Avril Lavigne-esque emo tinge, and its music video shows the flipside to “body”— the hustle behind the dream.
She’s shown struggling over lyrics, working in the studio (Nam makes a cameo), pushing through difficult dance moves, eventually emerging triumphant. Having reached her goal as she gazes out over the lights of L.A. At the song’s climax, a glimmer of hopefulness flashes across her face. The music cuts, and she’s seen walking down the street. Looking up, she sees herself on a billboard: the most quintessential Hollywood sign of “making it.”
“You got this girl.”
DAYOUNG is about to enter the next chapter of her artistic genesis. Her second digital single album [What’s a girl to do] picks up from the previous releases, also both mostly in English, but with a slightly more effervescent quality. The lead single, “What’s a girl to do” is a sparkling pop song with a light tropical house vibe against a hip-hop beat.The video, filmed in L.A., features DAYOUNG at her effervescent best, working out her frustrations of love in captivating choreography.
Dancing beside her is a talented band of talented dancers including Alyssa Santos who featured for j-hope of BTS on his solo tour last year. But it’s another one of her dancers that made headlines. Right before [What’s a girl to do?] a short teaser of the video came out, with a screenshot of one of the dancers receiving an unexpected amount of attention. As it turns out, one of DAYOUNG’s female dancers in the video is Shiloh Jolie, Angelina Jolie’’s daughter. DAYOUNG’s video is her debut.
In an official statement, DAYOUNG’s company said “Starship Entertainment held an open audition in the United States for performers to appear in DAYOUNG’S music video. Among a group of performers affiliated with MOONHWA, Shiloh was ultimately selected in the final round.
With her strong dance skills and commanding presence, Shiloh contributed to enhancing the overall quality of the music video.”
Headlines aside, DAYOUNG remains the main attraction, reaching through the camera—effortlessly enticing.
With this release, she continues to stretch her songwriting prowess. Speaking of ‘What’s a girl to do’,” she says, “There’s an intro sound. I recorded it with my voice, and then I made it into some instrumental, guitar sounds, yeah, but it was my voice, so I’m really proud.”
The second song, “Priceless (kaching kaching),” is a dreamy mid-tempo ballad with lyrics that playfully liken her worth to a life of luxury. “So expensive like a Birken bag,” she sweetly sings, but follows up with “Look at, look at myself, baby I’m shining.” It’s all fun, she seems to say, but don’t forget the real treasure can’t be bought.
DAYOUNG is stunning up close, easily charming with a megawatt smile. When not working, she prefers sweats, and no makeup. However, not unlike one of her pop role models Sabrina Carpenter, she relishes a fully-made-up diva mode and loves to play with fashion.
“Okay, I will manifest it”
Hat, Nana Jacqueline. Top & shorts, Leatheracci. Shoes, Jeffrey Campbell. Bracelet, Stylist’s own. Necklace, Frou New York.
Although she was confident from the beginning, for a brief moment, she lost her way.
“I was insecure and feeling small,” she says about the transition to her teenage years. “But I started finding myself, and I started finding my energy, and now I have so much confidence. And always in the morning, I tell myself, ‘You got this girl!’ I literally say it out loud. ‘You’re going to have an amazing day’.”
We’ve moved to Unified Boxing Club down the street from the café where DAYOUNG is getting ready for the photoshoot. She trades laughs with the hair and make-up team as they explain the concept of “getting a full beat.”
Her tight-knit team is present, one composed of long term staff from Korea and newer staff based in L.A. She prides herself on taking care of them like family. She also works hard to take care of her health, eating well, working out, and even training her voice while she runs. Outside of work, her only hobbies are music. “Seriously,” she insists, “I’m obsessed, because I really like singing and dancing. I’m always inspired by great artists, and I really enjoy watching other artists perform…I’m always thinking about music. Yeah, that’s my life, boring.”
But she knows that “boring” is simply the grueling process of manifesting a dream.
“Okay, I will manifest it,” she said earlier when speaking of future goals. “I really want to go to the Grammy Awards one day, and Coachella and Lollapalooza.” But first, she wants a solo concert. “I’m thinking of starting small,” she says, thinking of her core fans. “To start with a very small venue and then, after, maybe an arena or something. Manifest, manifest!”
But for now, she is content to step into the boxing ring on set. Her iconic transformation complete, she poses expertly around the ring. The photoshoot channels another powerful vocalist who defied societal expectations. Back in 2002, Christina Aguilera released her album Stripped. with the controversial “Dirrty.” Its accompanying music video was a gritty and sexually-liberated pivot from the sweet pop princess box she had found herself in at the time.
Like Aguilera, DAYOUNG has stripped down to a core sense of self, one that allows her to reach for global dreams of stardom, and to perhaps defy what it means to come from an idol system. Despite the fact her solo music is in English, and that she’s found a second artistic home of sorts in Los Angeles, and a visual pop identity that aligns more with the West; the mechanism that drives all of it runs straight back to her Korean roots.
“Jeju women have to live for themselves,” she points out. “They’re always diving into the sea, catching something, selling it, and they earn money to feed their children…a Jeju woman is super independent.”
