Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Seven years after PRISTIN disbanded in 2019, former member Eunwoo talked about her time in the group on a recent Instagram Reel. She mentioned that the question she gets the most from fans is about why the group seemingly disbanded suddenly, so Eunwoo explained her thoughts on their relative inactivity.
She talks about how Pledis had a bunch of artists at the time to manage, which led to things getting pushed back and their opportunities passing by, “I can’t talk about everything in detail, but the company had a lot of groups besides us, and there were many things they had to pay attention to. As things kept getting pushed back, I don’t think the opportunities really reached us.“
Eunwoo is being careful about bashing anybody, though I think it’s obvious if you read between the lines everybody was clearly disappointed by how things were going with promotions and any type of big picture plan from the company.
For those who aren’t familiar, PRISTIN was a 10-member Pledis Entertainment girl group that debuted with a lot of hype thanks to most of them being on Produce 101 (and popular), including two members who made I.O.I itself. At the time of their debut in 2017, the mood around the group was it would basically be a given that they’d be popular, and the only question was how popular. Eunwoo admitted as much, “We were a group with a lot of promise, and I had very high expectations too.”. Surprisingly, the company only seemed to give it less than a year with seemingly half-hearted promotions, and after the group wasn’t crazy popular … they seemed to give up after one comeback. They debuted a sub-unit in 2018, Pristin V, but that also didn’t seem to go anywhere. Eunwoo later joined HINAPIA, made up of former Pristin member, but that lasted less than a year.
While I’m weary of fans blaming companies whenever their faves don’t become as popular as they feel they deserve, this was definitely one of the clearest cut cases of a company clearly having the star power in the group but mismanaging them. The vibe was basically they weren’t world beaters out of the box, and they had other successful acts, so they just didn’t bother anymore.
Fortunately, at least Eunwoo has come to terms with it. She does admit that there was bitterness for a bit, “I spent my teenage years and early twenties devoted to becoming a singer, so at the time I felt exhausted and had a lot of resentment.” However, reflecting on her journey she would make the same choices again. “I would choose the same job, join the same company, and do everything the same way. That’s how little regret I have.”
She has also recently made headlines by talking about her current job as a manager at a plastic surgery clinic, and really I’m glad she was able to get through the five stages of grief about her idol career and come out on the other side okay physically and mentally.
#NeverForget
I will always remember Eunwoo because of one of their pre-debut Korean stans saying they'll "break all apartments" for her. https://t.co/9ftigIbDhz https://t.co/MmQdCcTMbA
— Asian Junkie (@asianjunkiecom) May 31, 2026
