K-Pop Trained Rosé to Be ‘a Perfect Girl.’ Now She’s Trying to Be Herself.

Interview Overview

The interview with Rosé (Rosanne Park) from The New York Times focuses on her transition from a K-pop trainee shaped by an intense idol system into a solo artist trying to be more fully herself.

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K-pop Training and Forming “Rosie”

• The interviewer frames K-pop as a highly stylized industry where idols often train for years under entertainment companies that manage both music and public image.
• Rosé explains a key distinction between:
  • “Ros”: a character built through training and tied to Blackpink
  • “Rosie”: her more private self—what her friends and family know, especially off-camera
• She describes her training as grueling but foundational, emphasizing:
  • discipline and drive
  • learning her determination after arriving
  • receiving structured time to perfect music and performance

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Leaving Home and the Psychological Shift to Fame

• Rosé recounts becoming a trainee at 15, after her father encouraged her to audition for YG Entertainment (YG); her mother initially opposed the move.
• She highlights that trainee life was tightly scheduled and demanding:
  • dance, vocal, and language lessons
  • practice often ending very late
  • limited time off
• After Blackpink debuted, she says the hardest part wasn’t making music—it was adapting to constant visibility, including:
  • learning how to perform her public persona under scrutiny
  • pressure to deliver “perfect” answers

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Making Rosie: Vulnerability as a Risk

• Rosé says she wanted to release her own album “for her whole life,” but also doubted herself.
• She emphasizes that writing her own songs required learning vulnerability and honesty, which she wasn’t trained to do.
• She feared not being able to control how people would interpret her emotions and experiences.
• The album explores a range of feelings—heartache, love, anger, and romance—and she describes the difficulty of deciding what’s too personal for lyrics.

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Social Media Validation, Insecurity, and “Enough”

• She discusses the song “Number One Girl”, written after a night of scrolling online for validation while feeling depleted and not good enough.
• She wanted the lyrics to be “open and honest,” including thoughts she usually tries to hide.
• She describes social media as sometimes lonely and driven by negative commentary—something that can cause people to spiral into rabbit holes.

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Boundaries Around Personal Life and Dating Speculation

• The interviewer references reporting about strict K-pop dating rules. Rosé agrees it’s not “normal.”
• She says her fear around romance is partly shaped by how the public narrative may be forced onto her.
• She insists the album’s themes are about inspiration and art, not a need to confirm or discuss her private life.

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Online Harassment and Identity Management

• Rosé explains “Vampire Holly” (linked to her private Instagram handle): an account she created for privacy and escape from pressure to appear “cool” on her official, follower-heavy profile.
• She says some people discovered it and used it to provoke drama.
• She frames this as part of broader K-pop culture, involving anti-fandom harassment and bullying, and says it surprised her how much it affected her—even though she considers herself positive and resilient.
• For coping, she repeatedly returns to songwriting, describing it as a way to “store” problems in music so they leave her mind and help her heal.

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Blackpink’s Future and the “Seven-Year Curse”

• After a break, Rosé addresses the “seven-year curse”—when groups disband around year seven.
• She says Blackpink chose to continue after a thoughtful discussion about individual needs.
• She reports that Blackpink will likely release music and are set for a tour next year, suggesting a planned path to maintain both group unity and individual careers.

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View on the Trainee System

• Rosé defends the system as beneficial in her case:
  • she started later (around 16)
  • she had strong support from producers and mentors
  • she benefited from shorter training that helped her become professionally ready
• Still, she acknowledges it may be harder for people who start younger or remain in the system longer.
• She offers a conditional endorsement: if a young person has real determination and love for the dream, she says they should try—echoing advice from her father.

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Closing Notes on Identity

• Rosé says the training and journey may have “opened up” parts of who she is, but she believes her core personality was always present.
• She also suggests she asks others for perspective, since she doesn’t fully know how much the experience changed her from the outside.

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Presenters/Contributors (as listed in the subtitles)

• Lulu Garcia-Navaro (Interviewer)
• Rosé (Rosanne Park) (Interviewee)
• Wyatt Orm (Producer)
• Annabelle Bacon (Editor)
• Aim Shapiro (Mixing)
• Rowan Neimo, Dan Powell, Maran Lozano (Original music)
• Philip Montgomery (Photography)
• Priia Matthew (Senior Booker)
• Seth Kelly (Senior Producer)
• Allison Benedict (Executive Producer)
• DAL, Young Jin, Rory Walsh, Renan Burelli, Jeffrey Miranda, Nick Pitman, Maddie Mello, Jake Silverstein, Paula Schuman, Sam Dolnick (Special thanks)