Blackpink’s Rosé has candidly discussed the immense pressure K-pop idols face to maintain a perfect image. In a recent interview with The New York Times, the 27-year-old singer-songwriter, who is set to release her first solo album, “Rosie,” on December 6, opened up about the challenges of debuting in South Korea's highly competitive music industry.

“We were always trained to present ourselves perfectly,” Rosé shared. “So, even when we interacted with fans online, we had to give perfect answers and provide what the fans wanted. And we always had to be the perfect girl.”

The K-pop star revealed that learning how to portray a ‘perfect’ persona as a member of a girl group was incredibly difficult. “Being in front of the camera and showing the world who we are as artists was something we just had to learn,” she explained. “The first few years were personally very tough. But as the years passed, I gradually got used to it.”

Rosé’s sentiments echo those of her bandmate, Jennie, who previously discussed the strict regulations imposed on K-pop idols during their training period. In the 2020 Netflix documentary “Blackpink: Light Up the Sky,” Jennie revealed, “It was really tough. We couldn’t drink, we couldn’t smoke, and we couldn’t even get tattoos.”

Earlier this year, Jennie, 28, faced backlash after being photographed vaping indoors. 1  YG Entertainment issued an apology, stating, “We sincerely apologize to everyone who was inconvenienced by Jennie's actions. Jennie has acknowledged that she was wrong for vaping indoors and causing discomfort to the staff and has deeply regretted it. 2  Jennie has personally apologized to all the staff who were directly affected. 3  We apologize to the fans who were disappointed by this incident. We will make sure that such an incident does not happen again.”