Do you want to be treated like a god by lovely, screaming fans who have your face plastered/ honored on their pillows, blankets, and ceilings?

You may ask, where to start? 

Well, record labels host auditions and form a tentative group from the accepted trainees. You will sing and dance from dusk till dawn every day for years, and get evaluated every month by the company producers, artists, and sometimes CEO. You will live in tight schedules with no free time, restrictions, and intense training classes all under cutthroat competition to help you reach your goals. The inhumane treatment of trainees is what shapes them to be the picture-picture celebrities seen on TV. You might get cut from the debut lineup if you don’t fit their image for the group so just make sure you fit that mold. 

You must choose wisely though, as your choice between training over school will be the difference between touring all over the world and spending your boring life in college. It’s slightly risky if you don’t debut. 

If you made it past the training, debuted, and still have the will to live, congratulations! You now have a new name, personality, and face for the rest of your career or life. 

You should be aware that companies pay you next to nothing if you’re not successful and you will rack up training debt, all to make sure you really love your job. They will even offer contracts that make you impossible to fire for years, most ranging from 7 years on. You’ll most likely want to renew the contracts once you get a taste of the glamorous life that you can lead. 

If you are an attention seeker, being an idol will ensure that you have all your needs met. You will have thousands if not millions of people looking out and constantly checking up on you. 

Remember, you must be the person that everyone wants to be, and if you are not, fake it. Basically, no matter how hard your life is, you have to be the happiest and best-looking person on camera. It’s why people want to follow you, after all. 

Sometimes, the duties of an idol can prove to be too hard, with everyone expecting you to sing AND dance at the same time while looking good. No singing talent? You’re tone-deaf? No problem! There’s nothing autotune can’t fix, but it can’t fix that muffin top so maybe hit the gym and stop eating for a few days. There are also different roles in a group, such as the singer, rapper, dancer, leader, visual, fan club manager, the ADHD-one-in-interviews, bunny, dumb Blonde, cook, mom, dad, grandpa, the English speaker, Aussie, etc. Don’t worry, because there is going to be at least one that suits you. 

The basic requirement to be successful is to look like Adonis, Aphrodite reincarnated, or CGI. If you’re uncertain about whether you match the right standards for beauty, you will be enlightened a week after debuting. You can easily find educational videos comparing you to the golden ratio and ranking you against Korean beauty standards, doing wonders for your self-esteem.

What you can control is your weight. The best diet for making sure you receive all the calories you need is the IU diet, which consists of one apple for breakfast, a sweet potato for lunch, and a protein shake for dinner. It is obviously a diet that any medical professional out there would support. To keep your fame and ensure your future, female idols should weigh between 90-100 lbs and male idols should weigh 130-160 lbs, and must be muscular. 

Not to mention the plethora of plastic surgery clinics in Korea that will help you be perfect. Your company will help you decide which type of surgery works best which saves you the deliberation. 

In the industry, women are expected to be extremely polite and often even childishly innocent while men can show off their own character.

Think it’s unfair? Do not fret! Girls have a talent that boys could never replicate, which is the ability to create drama. If you even glance at another male idol from a popular group, their fans will give you so much attention you won’t be able to complete your schedules from all the comments they will post, envying you. Stare at more idols and create more drama, then more netizens will be wowed by your social skills. 

The level of media scrutiny for not only present, but past wrongdoings too is just off the charts. However, you can just give a public, heartfelt apology to both the industry and fans. You can say you’re sorry to have caused a great disappointment and disturbance with huge wrongdoing for allegedly doing something like dating. 

Oh yes. The fans are the best part of being an idol. You have to always be grateful for your fans and express that in every way possible. Since you’ll be packaged and marketed as a commodity, they will form an emotional dependence on you. You must be prepared to see them waiting for you outside your home or booking the same flight as you everywhere you go. It took a kidnapping for one company to realize that the fervor of fans can have impactful effects on the idols, such as feelings of insecurity and inadequacy from being seen without makeup or in loungewear. You might not be able to control when you see your fans, but you can control your thoughts and actions. In the end, it’s only stalking if you choose to think about it that way. 

To stop a calamity like this from happening, companies can just pay for the sasaengs to leave idols alone. It’s not like they lack money from the 90% of profits they take from the money idols earn. 

One of the most important things you can do is avoid going to a nightclub, especially if it is named “Burning Sun.” That will destroy your career. 

However, if being an idol sounds too monotonous, just settle for being a fan instead. 

All K-pop companies provide you with the opportunity to play a major role in your idol’s success by spending all your savings on them. With each comeback, albums come in at least 4 different versions for purchasing to collect all the different photo cards of the different members. You might not receive your bias on the first try but don’t lose faith or give up, and keep buying until you do. That is not counting the brand endorsements, merchandise, and idols’ personal favorite items that you must also own. The emptier your wallet, the greater heights your idol will reach. 

Idols are like your best friends except they will never reply to your texts. This can become an issue, as you need to ensure their well-being and if they are hanging around the right crowd. It is imperative that they behave how you want since you’ve spent so much money on them. This is still in the developmental stage, but according to industry insiders, K-pop companies are developing an app that monitors idols at all times for fans to watch. 

It is a lifestyle to be a K-pop fan, but all the time and money invested is certainly worth it. Maybe one day, you’ll even receive a ring from your bias.