If you think only adults should be debuting, that’s cool. Are you fine with 15-year-old idols being active in K-pop? Totally okay with me. Should idols be more skilled / well-trained at debut? I completely understand where that comes from. All of these are in my opinion valid (even if quite repetitive) topics to discuss.
But one specific argument that I see pretty often and which just makes me roll my eyes (figuratively) is when people combine those two issues into one. E.g. “she is so young, let her train more and then debut”, “her talents won’t go anywhere in couple of years”, “aren’t there more skilled older trainees” etc.
The age and skill level at debut are completely independent factors, and honestly the notion that older trainees are better than their younger counterparts doesn’t ring true either, just based on my experience with K-pop over the years. More often than not companies are debuting younger idols because they are too talented to lose. And that’s exactly what happens with the top tier trainees, they won’t wait another 4-5 or more years for a chance to debut, they will join other companies.
Just so I don’t speak in generalities, let’s look at the prominent 5th gen girl groups (which are often the target of “too young to debut” discussions):
1) Babymonster
Ahyeon, Rami, Rora, Chiquita were the girls who debuted at 17 years old or younger. None of them would be considered not trained enough, and in my opinion they are more than competitive with any of their adult peers when it comes to idol skills. Chiquita especially drew a lot of scrutiny, but she is one of their best performers and all-rounder who can sing, rap and dance (she also brings a lot of Thai fans). If YGE don’t debut her, there is a very likely chance of her ending up with one of their competitors.
2) ILLIT
Iroha was the best dancer they had. Wonhee was a surprise find who debuted because people watching R U NEXT loved her and voted for her. She wasn’t in the initial plans for HYBE, and at the start of the survival show filming she had been a trainee for quite literally 2 months, she wasn’t even ranked at the initial introduction they did for all participants. And I feel like since then she has proven to be an extremely good idol, her contribution to the group is undeniable. There is a reason she is a de-facto center of ILLIT.
3) Hearts2Hearts
Similar to Iroha, Juun was the best dancer SM Entertainment had. A-na is a skilled idol who also happens to be the insane variety talent and the main contributor to their content. And of course Ian, the star of the group, a massive stan attractor and the center of Hearts2Hearts. One might argue that Ye-on could’ve been debuted in the future groups, but she is also the second best (if not the best) vocalist in H2H, and it’s obvious that SM tried to bolster their otherwise not spectacular (by SM standards) vocal line with her addition.
As you can see there is no correlation between age and skill. Arguably younger members are more likely to end up being the superstars in their own groups since the companies often debut them because of their high potential.
Either way if you believe that underage trainees shouldn’t debut, that’s a totally valid take, just don’t use the argument of them needing more time to train, because that will just damage the point you are trying to make. K-pop labels rarely debut someone because they are young, they do it because someone is young AND good.
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