Let’s Just Make Certain To Hold The whole lot Enjoyable

Six ladies, clad in slate gray schoolgirl uniforms, stand on stage, eyes watery and extensive. Their tears are well-founded. Sophia Laforteza, Manon Bannerman, Daniela Avanzini, Lara Raj, Megan Skiendiel, and Yoonchae have, for the previous two years, labored to disprove the age-old adage that stars are merely born and never made. At this second—mid-summer 2023—they’ve simply been formally ordained as popstars by means of a Netflix-sponsored aggressive actuality present. They at the moment are a part of a model new international lady group that may handle to entrench itself within the pop cultural zeitgeist virtually instantly.

It’s uncommon to have the ability to pinpoint the very inception of a cultural phenomenon; it’s a heady factor to know that, out of your sofa, you’re partaking in a second that can be related to popular culture for years to return. For higher or worse, we have been all voyeurs as Netflix turned the desires and aspirations of teenage ladies everywhere in the world into an interactive recreation courtesy of their collaboration with HYBE X GEFFEN for Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE. We watched as the ultimate six have been introduced, standing onstage in schoolgirl uniforms, and KATSEYE was born.

Two years later, we’re nonetheless watching. Successive hits, a social media presence so endlessly memeable it rivals that of working comedians, and a plethora of viral stay performances have turned KATSEYE into the very factor they educated for years to change into: stars.

Those identical six ladies now sit in a random dance studio (I’ll be taught this later when the women unceremoniously choose up no matter system they’ve been staring in any respect morning to supply me a tour of the area), clad in what appears to be like like rehearsal gear—tank tops and darkish joggers stark towards the white industrial-looking wall they’re sat in entrance of. We’re doing this over Zoom, me in Leicester, UK, them in LA. It is, in some ways, an interview of two halves. The first is marked by an uncharacteristic demureness, half muted politeness as they attempt to suss me out, half press tour-aided exhaustion. They’ve labored tirelessly on the rollout of their second EP Beautiful Chaos; not even Manon’s birthday places a dent of their promotional schedule. When I ask her what she’s achieved to rejoice her twenty third, her reply is coy.

“Oh, you know. This and that.”

We get all of the formal questions out of the way in which on this first half: What was the method like for placing this physique of labor collectively?

As is usually the case when the women discuss music, Lara takes the wheel. “This is just how we work as of right now, but we’ll get demos, we’ll cut them in the studio, and add our own flair. A lot of the creative work really goes in[to] the performance. We spend a lot of time every day in the studio, dancing and practicing everything like our facials. I can’t even explain how much work goes into us all synchronizing well. Just lots and lots of hard work.”

It is alleged that the one honest take a look at of a musician’s artistry is the stage. Curated earworms and catchy hooks are heightened in KATSEYE’s arms due to some extraordinary performances. Take, as an example, the discharge of their song-of-the-summer, 2025’s “Gnarly.” The erudite hyperpop observe stirred up dialog virtually instantly, with its intricate choreography and cheeky hooks. Unsurprisingly, my point out of “Gnarly” appears to be the factor that jolts the women awake.

“We really saw so much potential with the song,” Megan tells me. “We wanted to make it ours. And then when we started practicing, we had so much fun…especially with the dance. The most iconic thing about ‘Gnarly’ is the performance. We were going crazy. When we put it out, there were a lot of mixed reactions because it’s so different from what we’ve done before. I feel like [people] were just shocked. When we performed it for the first time with the dance, with the whole vibe, everyone switched up and we saw it happen in real time. It was actually so crazy, but we knew it was going to happen.”

The irony right here is that Okay-pop followers will typically lament the deadened, formulaic output of pop acts in the identical breath they deride any music that dares push the needle ahead. There is not any pleasing the faceless mass on the web hell-bent on shoving a bunch as allergic to labels as they’re to dangerous performances into handy little bins. Female artists have needed to take care of this compulsive mantra of keep neat, keep fairly, keep predictable from the very begin. Looking to these girls like guides has helped preserve the group’s spirits up.

“Not to compare ourselves to Lady Gaga, but her journey is such a beautiful one to look at in our position and really any artist’s position,” Lara notes. “People hated her [at the start] because they didn’t understand her, and it was uncomfortable. We kept talking about her and saying that Gaga is the person who will get us through this.”

Manon and Sophia chime in with the title of one other lady who knew the best way to ruffle some feathers: “Madonna too.”

Sophia captures their dilemma. “We’re learning that it’s hard to be ahead.”

There’s a defiance within the KATSEYE ladies that makes it very easy to root for them. While loads of their predecessors like Little Mix and Fifth Harmony labored extra time to ensure all of the members have been going to be considered by the identical Eurocentric lens to enchantment to followers, KATSEYE wears their range with self-assuredness: it’s Lara carrying her bindi in idea photographs, it’s Yoonchae instructing us how she does her aegyo sal in a prepare with me video; it’s Daniela singing a verse in her mom tongue on their newest single, “Gabriela.”

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“I’ve always wanted to have music out in Spanish,” shares Daniela. “I spoke to the team [about how] I’d love to do a verse in Spanish…I’m so glad it’s out now. Seeing everyone’s reactions honestly makes me so, so happy. I feel like people are still figuring out that I’m Latina and that I speak Spanish because there’s new fans every single day.”

Manon, our Black lady within the heart, pays homage to the hair tradition she grew up obsessive about within the “Gnarly” music video, the tune title adorning the facet of her head, braided in.

“Growing up in Switzerland,” she says, “it was kind of hard to find someone who could, first of all, even braid my hair, but second of all, it was so expensive—kind of a Black girl in a white country experience, but I was just trying to figure my hair out on my own, watching YouTube tutorials, braiding it myself. Hair has always been a very big part of me. I’m obsessed with it. There’s so much history connected to it.”

While many are grateful to see themselves and their cultures mirrored so proudly by these younger girls, being non-white and within the public eye is to draw the kind of racialized on-line abuse fandom has normalized. As Lara as soon as aptly put it: bitches be racist. It’s laborious to not view the laborious work of KATSEYE—a minimum of partially—as a response to the anticipated bad-faith criticism and cruelty they’re compelled to fend off, virtually as an try and try to out obtain their marginalisation.

On a whim, I ask: Who is the largest perfectionist?‍

Their reply is each unsurprising and barely saddening.

“We’re literally a group of perfectionists,” Sophia says. “In Korea, we had to record this dance performance for ‘Gnarly’ called Studio Choom. When we flew to Korea, that was the first thing we filmed for ‘Gnarly’ and we were all by the video monitor, critiquing ourselves so much like we have to get it perfect. We just have to.” It supposedly bought so dangerous that the employees referred to as an intervention half approach by the recording session in an effort to get the women to cease being so self-critical.

“They had to call us into a back room and tell us to calm down and have fun because we were already doing really well. But we couldn’t see that,” Manon shares, nodding and including, “The teaser had come out and people already had so much to say, so we felt extra pressure to really deliver.”

The dialog takes a delightfully unserious flip round this level when somebody off digicam arms the women iced coffees like some phantom barista.

A plethora of apologies come my approach, delayed by their lagging connection.

“I’m so sorry,” Manon giggles as she grabs her and Megan every a cup. It serves as a letting go on each ends of the decision; all formality promptly evaporates with the rattling of ice in cups and questions on my very own life and accent. At one level, all of us resolve that the one solution to proceed our dialog is that if the women solely discuss in British accents for the rest of the interview.

The name appears to tackle the power you’d discover in a ladies lavatory throughout an evening out with mates; strangers buying and selling earnest compliments and reassuring one another they’re having a good time. It’s foolish and endearingly candy. At one other level, all of them resolve to lavish Sophia with consideration, and inform her she’s doing an excellent job by actually giving her head pats and holding her hand.

“Let’s all touch our leader,” Lara says with a smile. And they do; Manon, Megan and Lara cradle her arms, Yoonchae reaches out, grinning in her path, whereas Dani stretches throughout the desk to participate of their little love fest.

“We find a way to make everything fun,” Lara admits, nonetheless in her British accent. “We always find the silliness. It’s how we get through. We have a KATSEYE sense of humor and I value that so much. I laugh with them more than I laugh with anyone else. I hope that never changes.”

It’s straightforward to neglect that past all of the noise, they’re a bunch of ladies. We’re actually watching them develop up. I really feel a sudden wave of protectiveness come over me as our name ends. We half methods, however our dialog lingers for days afterwards. The odds are stacked towards them— fame has a disturbing approach of stripping folks of innocence and pleasure, of jading. But if anybody can beat the percentages although, it’s KATSEYE. Long might they giggle. 

Photographed by Davis Bates

Styled by Jyotisha Bridges 

Written by Ayan Artan

Creative Director: Christopher Campbell

Hair: Fitch Lunar at Opus Beauty utilizing Unite Hair 

Makeup: Valerie Vonprisk utilizing Huda Beauty 

Flaunt Film: Jordan Moran and Maxwell Hughes

DP: Alexio Mah

Colorist: Rafaim Correia

Flaunt Film Editors: A.T. Etzweiler and Jordan Moran

Market Editor: Jaiin Kang

Styling Assistant: Guess Niumataevalu

Makeup Assistants: Elias Velasco and Drea Diaz

Production Assistant: Maria Berkowitz

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