In this article, I am going to talk about NewJeans member debut behind stories.
Uklele Girl – Hanni
Hanni became a trainee through the Hive Plus Global Audition in 2019 after CEO Min Hee-jin joined Hive.
The video of Hanni playing the ukulele in “We are NewJeans” was one of Hanni’s audition application videos.
Hanni, a Vietnamese-Australian who was born and raised in Melbourne, Australia, was a girl who loved music from her childhood.
At the age of 8, she loved One Direction so much ans she even went to concerts in Melbourne.
In 2014, she participated in The Voice Australia’s children’s audition program, “The Voice Kids Australia”.
She also worked on the KPOP cover dance team “Aemina” with her friends in Melbourne, Australia.
Hanni applied for the audition because she wanted to share her feelings with everyone through music.
Mo Ji-hye (모지혜) – Danielle
Danielle’s Korean name is Mo Ji-hye (모지혜).
Danielle was born in Australia.
Her mother, who is Korean, made Danielle live in Korea for three years when she was five to help her learn Korean culture.
At this time, Danielle worked as a kids model in Korea and she appeared in many TV shows.
When she was in her first year of elementary school, she went back to Australia.
Daniel grew up listening to a lot of music and dreamed of becoming a singer.
Danielle participates in the Plus Global Audition held by Hive in 2019 and came back to Korea.
Hanni also participated in the same audition.
More senior than CEO – Minji
Minji was the first member of NewJeans to join the company as a trainee.
She even joined Hive before CEO Min Hee-jin, who joined Hive in 2019.
Minji saw a performance at a college festival as a child, and her heart pounded in the heat of the performance hall and dreamed of a job on stage.
Minji was a student who came to a practical music academy in Chuncheon about 5 years ago.
She learned guitar as a hobby, but the director thought that Minji’s very pretty visual was a waste to just play the guitar.
So he recommended Minji to the Source Music‘s audition, and Minji passed in one try.
Fans speculate that Minji became first member of NewJeans when CEO Min Hee-jin was preparing a girl group with Source Music in 2019.
The reason is that Minji came out as a promotional model for the Plus Global Audition in which Hanni and Danielle participated.
A kitten who even dropped out – Haerin
There are many testimonies from alumni that Haerin was famous for being pretty in school since middle school.
According to her alumni’s writings, she was quiet and kind.
She was so pretty and famous that she received many love calls from agencies.
Another classmate of Haerin said Haerin thought a lot about what will happen if she became a celebrity after the agency cast her.
But she said that as a singer, she thought it is so cool, when people recognize her, so she dreamed of becoming a singer.
Haerin dropped out in 2020 when she was in her second year of middle school, and the decision was to focus on her trainee life.
Hyein, the youngest but most famous before debut
Hyein is the youngest member of NewJeans, but she is the member with the most videos related to her past.
This is because she was a member of Pocket TV’s ‘Play Me Club’ for a long time in the past.
At that time, Hyein made a lot of efforts to become a singer, such as attending a dance academy.
Hyein said that she started learning dance in earnest when she was about 10 years old.
Many fans think that she was the first to join NewJeans because of her broadcasting career, but Hyein was the last to join NewJeans.
It’s not known how Haein came to join NewJeans, but it’s clear she’s not from 2019 Plus Global Auditions.
A video was uploaded on the Pocket TV channel on May 3, 2021, saying that Hyein will be graduating.
That’s why many fans speculate that Hyein in might have been cast since then.
Or that she might have been chosen at the Adore Global Audition held at the end of 2021.
