TWICE’s Nayeon opens up about dealing with hate: “Once you fall into it, it’s hard to get away”

TWICE vocalist Nayeon has opened up about dealing with malicious comments as an idol.

In the latest episode of YouTube talk show No Prepare, TWICE members Nayeon and Chaeyoung appeared as guests to discuss the girl group’s return with their 11th mini-album ‘Between 1&2’.

During the episode, host and rapper Lee Young-ji asked if the idols had any advice for handling hate comments as celebrities. In particular, Lee brought up videos that have been maliciously edited to make them appear rude or unfriendly, which happens frequently in Korean online communities.

Nayeon quickly opened up about her own experience, sharing that she had often been subject to such hate and speculation at the beginning of her career.

“At first, you tend to care about it a lot and want to tell people that it’s not true. But then I realised that it’s a meaningless action,” said the idol. “If you know that you didn’t have those wrong thoughts and feelings, what others say doesn’t matter at all.”

“You should try to refrain from seeing it,” she told Lee, later admitting: “Once you fall into it, it’s hard to get away. It’s hard to feel nothing at all after reading malicious comments.”

However, she also shared how she has tried to change her perspective on maliciously edited videos and comments.

“All those efforts to select only the bad parts of your video and make a collection requires hard work. Doing [all that editing] requires hard work,” said Nayeon, gesturing with her hands to make a zoom-in gesture. “It just reflects how famous you are.”

“Imagine that person in the PC cafe writing [hate comments] while not even taking a shower,” she suggested. “Once you imagine it, you feel better.”

Later, the singer also confessed to reading comments by her fans in response to online hate. “I realised my fans fight for me instead. They specifically look for those bad comments and fight for us. It makes me feel good,” the singer shared with a laugh.