Kim Jung-ah reveals why she dropped from 55kg to 48kg as a trainee

Kim Jung-ah, a former member of Jewelry, has opened up about her experience undergoing harsh weight management during her trainee days. She confessed that even when she was 168cm tall and weighed 55kg, she was evaluated as having 'some flesh' and had to reduce her weight to the high 40kg range. Lee Ji Hyun, who promoted alongside her, also revealed experiencing extreme dieting pressure before and after her debut, prompting a reflection on the past appearance management practices of the idol industry.

On the 27th, a video titled 'Jewelry's Unnies Park Jung-ah & Lee Ji Hyun | Finally Revealing the Behind-the-Scenes of Jewelry's Activity Days' was released on Lee Ji Hyun's YouTube channel 'Hyunsaeng Mode Queen Ji Hyun.' The two spoke candidly about everything from the audition process before debuting in Jewelry to their memories as trainees.

Kim Jung-ah began by mentioning how she personally attended the audition for the multinational group Circle, which Lee Ji Hyun was a member of. She recalled, "I cut out an article from a newspaper, took the application, and went to visit them in person. I went through three rounds of auditions and think I sang a song called 'Soho-dae.' I passed, but they said my image didn't fit, so I didn't end up doing it."

The conversation then shifted to the idols' costumes and weight management at the time. When Lee Ji Hyun joked about her time in Circle, recalling the outfits and saying, "Unnie, you hit the jackpot. Could you have performed in those tight pants?" Kim Jung-ah reminisced about her trainee days.

Kim Jung-ah said, "When you were active, I was a trainee, and the CEO made me wear tank tops and tight pants and weighed me once a week." She explained that regular weight measurements were part of the trainee management process.

The weight she revealed at the time was 55kg at 168cm. When Lee Ji Hyun expressed surprise, saying, "That is already thin," Kim Jung-ah revealed that she had to lose even more back then.

"It was close to 50kg, in the 40kg range. It was like 49kg, 48kg," Kim Jung-ah confessed. "That was how it was back then. It would probably be the same even now. You have no idea how much I struggled trying to lose weight that just wouldn't budge."

Looking strictly at the numbers, the 168cm and 55kg Kim Jung-ah mentioned corresponds to a Body Mass Index (BMI) of approximately 19.5. This figure falls within the normal range in general adult BMI classifications. Nevertheless, in the entertainment industry, there have been many cases where even lower weights were demanded, separate from general health standards, due to the physical image exposed to the public, costumes, and camera screens.

This is precisely the point that draws attention from Kim Jung-ah's testimony. It suggests that an appearance suited for stage costumes and the image set by the agency took precedence over objective standards of health or physical build. Especially for idols performing in tank tops or tight-fitting clothing, weight acted as a condition that dictated debut and activities, moving beyond the realm of simple personal management.

Lee Ji Hyun also shared similar experiences. Looking back at her time in Circle, she said, "The Chinese member was tall and her body was nothing but bones. Since I also debuted after gaining weight during puberty, I felt a lot of stress from dieting whenever I stood next to her."

The two women's reminiscences serve as examples illustrating the characteristics of the 1st and early 2nd generation idol industry that spanned from the late 1990s to the early 2000s. At that time, the physical uniformity of members was considered as important as systematic performance and musical capability, and the demand for thin physiques was particularly strong for female idols.

The problem lies in the fact that these standards do not necessarily align with an individual's physical differences, growth process, or health status. The numbers '168cm and 55kg' recalled by Kim Jung-ah symbolically show how much the physical standards demanded by the industry at the time could deviate from general health standards.

The methods of appearance management in the idol industry have continued to change since then. Recently, there is a trend emphasizing management that considers physical strength, performance, and individual physical characteristics rather than weight itself, but the reality that an entertainer's appearance and body are still consumed as part of the content has not changed significantly.

This is why the testimonies of Kim Jung-ah and Lee Ji Hyun attract interest beyond being simple stories of the past. For the two, dieting at that time was not merely a choice to become pretty, but was closer to the industrial pressure they had to endure for their debut and activities.

As time has passed, the two are now able to talk about those experiences relatively calmly, but within those memories remain traces of a time when they had to constantly monitor their own bodies just to stand on stage. The memories of the scales and dieting repeated behind the glamorous stage are among the invisible costs paid during the growth of the K-pop industry.