Who can rival Wonyoung?

    (In terms of brand popularity, visuals, and overall presence)

    My thoughts:

    • Yuna – Visually stunning, and she could be a contender. But with ITZY’s current decline, she doesn't have the momentum right now to rival Wonyoung.

    • Bae (NMIXX) – Has the looks, and if she shifts her public persona toward a more elegant, composed image, she could be a major contender. Example clip.
    • Saebi (IZNA) – Out of all IZNA members, she feels like the most natural fit for a Wonyoung-style brand image, with a refined aura that works well for endorsements.
    • Sooin (MEOVV) – Similar to Bae, she has the visual potential, but would need to lean more into elegance and refinement to match Wonyoung’s brand-safe appeal.
    • Kasia (ifeye) – Still a rookie and from a smaller group, but if the group rises to A-tier or even strong B-tier, her visuals and presence could make her a surprise contender.


    🟪 If ITZY bounces back with a strong comeback, Yuna might rise as a true rival.

    But as of now — no one truly rivals Wonyoung in both elegance and mainstream popularity.

    Possible rivals can be from MEOVV or izna if they get traction. Or some B-groups but only if there will be miracle and their group gain lot of popularity boost.


    UPDATE: The post is more about brand reputation / deals than about skills or raw popularity.
    Jennie is way more popular but not brand safe.


    UPDATE2: Removed already big or people with antibias:

    • Karina – Close, but she lacks the soft elegance that Wonyoung naturally gives off. Her vibe is more futuristic and cool than graceful. Already have similar brand popularity.
    • Jennie – An icon in her own right, but her image leans too mature. The bold, sensual concept might not resonate with the same wide audience that embraces Wonyoung’s more wholesome appeal. Already bigger but not brand safe.
    • Chaewon – Talented and popular, but doesn’t quite have the same striking elegance or superstar aura in brand aspect. Strong antibias to LSFM.
    • Ningning – Amazing vocals and strong visuals, but her Chinese background may limit her popularity in certain markets due to geopolitical factors.
  • Go to Best Answer

    Jennie is already way out of Wonyoung's league so I don't see why she's listed.


    Anyway, my bet is on Karina and Yuna.


    A lot of people have a hate boner for any member of LE SSERAFIM so that automatically eliminates Chaewon.


    And yeah, Ningning is more talented than Wonyoung and is elegant but its impossible to become IT girl in SK. We already know she's IT girl in China.

    Quote from foreveraespaaa

    Both Karina and Jennie have passed WY tbh Wy was never in the same discussion when it came to Jennie!


    People only compare Karina to Jennie if anything…. That speaks for itself :!:

    Is Karina ahead of her in Korea? I always see Wonyoung and Yujin getting a new brand deal and Karina not so much. I guess she's getting more valuable or maybe SM doesn't want to push Karina like that.


    As an international fan, I agree that Karina is already ahead of Wonyoung but Wonyoung seems to be 2nd most popular 4th gen idol imo.

    Quote from StanGIDLE

    Is Karina ahead of her in Korea? I always see Wonyoung and Yujin getting a new brand deal and Karina not so much. I guess she's getting more valuable or maybe SM doesn't want to push Karina like that.


    As an international fan, I agree that Karina is already ahead of Wonyoung but Wonyoung seems to be 2nd most popular 4th gen idol imo.

    Karina got 2 brand deals within the last week alone! I don’t post them anymore because its getting quite repetitive ^^


    She’s also voted the most search idol (maybe just in 4th gen) in multiple Korean platforms :!:


    She’s always sort out by other celebrities/ idols too! Her brand recognition has skyrocketed!


    Imo Karina officially passed WY in 2024

    Quote from StanGIDLE

    Is Karina ahead of her in Korea? I always see Wonyoung and Yujin getting a new brand deal and Karina not so much. I guess she's getting more valuable or maybe SM doesn't want to push Karina like that.


    As an international fan, I agree that Karina is already ahead of Wonyoung but Wonyoung seems to be 2nd most popular 4th gen idol imo.

    She’s not they are delusional because Karina has one hit in Korea.

    Wony has like 5 new brands deals this year.

    Agreed that she passed her last year. I think Wonyoung might be ahead of her with the younger demographic. Correct me if I am wrong, but IVE is more popular than Aespa with the younger demographic. I think that group helps her but her overall Karina is more popular.


    I find it interesting that both SM and Starship doesn't fully push their respective idol. Starship used to push Wonyoung heavily but decided to give other members some shine. I liked that they did that because it overall helped IVE because it used to feel like Wonyoung, Yujin, and friends. Nowadays, IVE feels more like a unit and each member seems to be building a name for themselves. I think they have something with Rei and she would thrive in a variety setting


    I have the same sentiments above with SM because they dialed it back with Karina and Winter to give more chances to Ningning and Giselle. As a Ningning stan I still don't like how they treat her but I think it's an improvement from what it used to be.


    Overall, I think it doesn't matter too much who is more popular because both of them have brands chasing them. Both of them could be more popular but it would hurt their respective groups.


    I am curious how a Wonyoung solo would perform because we all know how well Karina performed with "Up". I wonder if Wonyoung can reach similar heights.

    Quote from killthisfenty

    She’s not they are delusional because Karina has one hit in Korea.

    Wony has like 5 new brands deals this year.

    ?


    No need to downplay Karina's success. She's more than just a chart topping idol.


    Her and Wonyoung have a similar amount of active brand deals, but Karina is working with bigger brands.


    She's also had at least 5 deals in the past 6 months.


    Not to mention most searched on Google and Naver in 2024. More Insta followers. More EMV in recent Milan FW.


    Won 3x solo brand related awards in 2025 including best female advertising model in Brand Customer Loyalty awards, and Female Idol Variety Star and also Female Solo Artist at the Korea First Brand Awards.


    There's more too.


    Just because you don't like or follow her doesn't mean she's doing nothing.

  • AllKill VIP
    Quote from StanGIDLE

    Is Karina ahead of her in Korea? I always see Wonyoung and Yujin getting a new brand deal and Karina not so much.

    Lmaooo

    karina was announce as the global brand ambassador of MLB just last week


    2-3 weeks ago she was announce as the new ambassador for Musinsa


    And 2 months ago she was announce as the new ambassador of Sprite


    And sprite is getting a high spike of sales because of karina PC card, her sprite can are sold out in most of shops and online


    Korean medias even wrote an article about Karina advertising power

    Because she broke an unwritten rules in advertising in korea

    LG household & Lotte are rivals in korea

    Because LG household manage a lot of brand like coca cola, sprite etc...


    And they are rivals so they never pick similar models for their brand


    And yet Karina is currently representing a brand for LG household ( Sprite) and a brand of Lotte Chilsung beverage ( Krush)


    External Content twitter.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.


    And there's people out here trying to say that karina isn't dominating koreans advertising world

  • AllKill VIP

    Anyway i'll take people saying "wonyoung is currently more popular than karina"


    The day one of Wonyoung ad is able to bring so much people in one place under the snow just to look at her ad


    Till this day comes karina is still more popular


    External Content twitter.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.

    It must've been early morning because I now remember all of her deals ^^ Plus, she's making moves in the fashion world. I take back what I posted earlier because I now remember

  • AllKill VIP
  • AllKill VIP
    • Best Answer

    This is the number of brand wonyoung is currently representing


    Let me remind you that most of them like miu miu, eider etc... Are brand that she started to represent years ago so it's not recent brand deals that she got


    External Content twitter.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.


    And in a span of just one year ( the moment aespa started solo promotion) this is the number of brand deal karina got in just a year


    And her recent one with MLB isn't counted, so she got 11 brand deal in a year


    External Content twitter.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.


    So karina got 11 brand deals in 1 year

    Vs Wonyoung having 12 brand deal currently and most of them being old brand deal that started in 2022


    But people are still trying to push the narrative that Karina isn't bigger than wonyoung now

  • AllKill VIP
    Quote from StanGIDLE

    It must've been early morning because I now remember all of her deals ^^ Plus, she's making moves in the fashion world. I take back what I posted earlier because I now remember

    Yeah i hope you take back what you said


    Cuz i can bring back the video of Karina ad almost making traffic jam in seoul because of the amount that came to watch her lotte ad on billboard


    Testimony of people going through all the MLB shop in seoul to get the cap karina is wearing on MLB ad and not being able to find them anywhere


    Or the article of Lotte saying that they sold Millions of krush beer when they launch the brand in just a few days just because Karina was the face of the brand


    Or i can bring the pictures of koreans showing that the subway is full of Karina face for sprite ads

  • nasdadwg

    Selected a post as the best answer.

    Let's talk about these baby It Girls after a decade or 2. 99% of them are finished after 5-7 years. I don't think I've seen a REAL It Girl since the 2nd gen. Pretty much all of them lost their popularity after a couple of years.

    It's still Wonyoung. But like i predicted years ago, Karina is her most dangerous rival. Karina is a complete package with her vocal tone, obvious visuals, and a 5 star personality, she is literally the only idol i would prob accept in a future Izone reunion project as a special guest star.


    Just look at her, not only is she glowing visually but singing this epic "Weird Al Yankovic" typa song with her honey vocals and her trademark humor shining through... :flower-cutie:

    External Content www.youtube.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.



    Both Aespa and Ive would be seriously damaged if WY and Karina were lost...Aespa in particular cause they dont have anyone remotely close to Karina while Ive has Yujin who is popular in her own right and would help mitigate the damage.


    Jennie is old news, older ahjummas and ahjussis glom onto her the way they do to GD but the trendier younger population are all about Wonyoung and Karina.

    Quote from nasdadwg

    Suzy?

    Exactly! Also, Yoona and IU! All 3 of them It Girls basically, but I think using this term for them is not accurate anymore, they're way above this title.


    In the 3rd gen, we can only mention Jennie and Hwasa, but I don't think they're in the same league with the first 2 gen It Girls. Even tho Jennie is massive and Hwasa is the only female Idol who has the "Queen of Queens" title officially.

    The way Wonyoung was never on Jennie’s level lol nice sneak.


    Wonyoung is the same type of popular as Irene. And this type of popularity that’s so tied to the group’s promotions and existence without anything else will eventually lose to others. You either need to go into acting and become a hit there or you need solo song releases have hits that way.


    If you do nothing your popularity will just drop year over year if your group starts losing popularity (which all groups do with time)


    Imo right now it feels like WY and Karina are both very popular and I don’t think there is any credible way of distinguishing their popularity. But in a few years if Wonyoung doesn’t do anything and IVE starts to become less shiny, she will be forgotten.


    To answer OP’s question : right now probably Wonyoung is #1 but it would be surprising if she will be remembered as the absolute #1 in 5 years or so if she doesn’t do solo activities.

  • AllKill VIP

    External Content x.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.


    However, as I posted in another thread might be 14 instead of 15?

    Quote

    External Content x.com
    Content embedded from external sources will not be displayed without your consent.
    Through the activation of external content, you agree that personal data may be transferred to third party platforms. We have provided more information on this in our privacy policy.


    Think they counted 2 Woori Bank CFs?


    So 14 with Jim Beam beer?

  • This thread contains 11 more posts that have been hidden for guests, please register yourself or login to continue reading.

Participate now!

Don’t have an account yet? Register yourself now and be a part of our community!

Register Yourself Login