I was not aware of Noh Yunah's story until recently.
I only knew that she trained in Fantagio, a minor company , which makes her inferior to other members who trained under more major companies.
Noh Yunah's fellow Fantagio trainees include Dayeon of Kep1ler, Yujeong of Lightsum, Hong Yeji (an actress) and a couple others who debuted in other minor acts.
All of these did participate in the infamous Produce 48 series, and Yujeong got to join its most famous victim, but it is possible that Yunah's story might be even more desperate than their stories.
After that Fantagio released all of its remaining trainees and Yunah joined TS company, infamous for suing every single idol under its belt, and then around 2019 , when Source was just acquired by Hybe and Min Heejin also joined, Yunah became a trainee at Source.
so she trained with other Source music trainees, including Jennifer of Le Sserafim, and all of the NJZ members.
As everyone knows now, MHJ took the best trainees of Source and formed NJZ, and Source had to recruit Miyawaki Sakura and Kim Chaewon from IZOne to form a new group.
Jennifer Huh, Kim Garam and Hong Eunchae wer eadded from the Source music traiene pool, plus Nakamura Kazuha, recruited by So Sungjin, were added to that group.
So , Noh Yunah was passed by both MHJ when NewJeans were being formed , and also by Source when Le Sserafim was estabished.
And, when Kim Garam was cut, Noh Yunah was not considered as a replacement to her.
Normally, in this kind of situation when a trainee is passed over two times, he/she is released to seek another path in minor companies and Noh Yunah was 18 at that time, too late to find a position in larger companies.
Yet, for some inexplicable reason, Source still retained her, and she was moved to Beliftlab.
I won't repeat the story of R U Next. Wonhee , Minju and Iroha qualifeid in the top 5, Youngseo left, and they wer enot going to debut Bang Jeemin no matter what, so two spots remained.
Sakai Moka was the best scoring Japanese trainee after Iroha so she was added.
However, for reasons which puzzles me to this day, Noh Yunah was added, over arguably more deserving trainees.
And, when Youngseo left for unknown reasons, Yunah clearly became the odd person out in the group.
Although Yunah is the oldest, since she began her career in a minor company, Park Minju, a YG trainee, is the leader for all practical purposes, and Yunah has no authority over the members.
Like the leader of another Source act, Sowon who added nothing to the group and to the last day of GFriend just carried along like an excess baggage, Yunah is just carried along, not really fitting into the group (although since Illit will try a more mature image so it remains to be seen how she fits into there).
Why she was retained is a question but they might have seen that she has some merit. However, why she was selected , and why she was not cut when Youngseo left , might be because of sympathy; after being passed over in Produce48, NJZ and Le Sserafim, the head of Beliftlab might have felt some soft spot over Yunah, who was 20 when Illit debuted and too old to try her luck anywhere else by that point of time, and it was too cruel to kick her out although it now became unlikely that she would add too much to the group (she has always scored last in the fancam ranking, both in Korea and Japan).
Still, business is business, and Illit would have been doing much better if when Yongseo left they cut Yunah and put 1 or 2 other members more suitable to the current concept to follow up Magnetic's success.
