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Hi Friends,

Chances are high that youre reading this letter in the morning, probably over your cereal or a mid-morning coffee break from your desk. Or maybe its the afternoon or evening and your feet hurt or knees crack from a long day. But as Im writing it, the clock in the upper right corner of my computer screen just flipped to 8:45pm.

Thats probably not surprising to you. You know I work late hours (I wrote a letter describing my day at work for our A+ Membership Drive in June hi A+ members! at 10:30pm, so comparatively, Im learning). Whats different about this one is, Im trying to get better.

A few weeks ago, Riese and I were sharing a knowing joke together on Slack. We were both reading a really exceptional piece of industry journalism about (and yes, Im serious here) Teen Vogue in the Columbia Journalism Review. Now, if Autostraddle is one thing, it is famously NOT a Conde Nast-backed corporate entity but Riese and I couldnt help but see so many of our struggles mirrored back running a small team with super-sized dreams and outsized influence in this deep dive 18 year history of the voicey, fashion focused, celebrity focused, unironically activism focused youth brand of the worlds most notorious media giant. We exchanged passages back and forth, going from open awe to stomach-drops, and then finally, to self-deprecating memes.

When I got home, I would continue working. It became so intense that I would preschedule my emails so they went out at 8am at a normal time but I was writing them at three or four in the morning, a Teen Vogue Senior Editor said in the article.

I told Riese, hoping for a laugh, I see myself in this picture and I dont like it.

Thats difficult for me to admit in this letter, when we are here asking you for help to keep Autostraddle alive. More than anything, I want you to know how hard I work. This morning I got up at 8:30am and was at my computer an hour later. Its now (checks clock again) 9pm and Im still here. In between, I approved meeting schedules for our upcoming hiring interviews and staff performance reviews, troubleshooted various content holes in our calendar, negotiated a special rate on a personal essay with a writer, workshopped a pitch and approved a different piece from another, worked with our team to approve fundraiser ad copy, attended a fundraiser meeting led by Nicole, edited and published the transcript of one of our podcasts, sent at least a half dozen emails to various freelancers and PR agents, and watched an entire season worth of screeners on a television show so we can review it (this part took 5 hours alone). And I want you to know that before that, yesterday I worked up until 10pm straight before I broke for dinner.

I want you to know all of this, because I want you to feel good that we are stretching every dollar you give us as efficiently as we can, with lots of elbow grease for good measure. Because that is important! Its so important to me that you know I never forget we never forget how lucky we are that you keep finding value in us. And that we continue to earn it.

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But I also want to model good, healthy leadership for our team. And I cant do that if Im going so many days in a row without sleep that Riese has to quietly pull me aside and require me to take an entire day off to do just that (and yes, this exact thing happened in August). When Im gently admonishing an editor for answering a note at 1am with go to sleep and she responds, seems like maybe you know its not healthy but youre being more protective of me than you are of you! then I know we have a problem.

And the problem is not a lack of work ethic, its not a lack of passion or love for what we do. Its not a lack of thankfulness for what youve already given us. Its that we need well, another 10 hours each day. The reality is that what we are lucky enough to still have going here, being held together with glue, gratitude, and enthusiasm it is not sustainable. Autostraddle is people powered, and right now the people behind it are breaking. We need help.

Thanks to you, we have already gone further than any of us imagined, paving the road in $10 and $25. Weve built so much from what youve generously given us. Because of your support weve raised rates for our writers year after year and its our priority to keep raising the rates until they are market competitive; weve built better and more efficient workflows for our editors; weve been able to pay for infrastructure upgrades for our site (and we have so much more we still need!) and SEO training to compete with the algorithm whims of Google. You have helped us build something that is so much larger than what any of us could have hoped for alone a publication of our size should not exist without corporate money, flat out. Anyone would say that it could not be done. But it has been done, and that is because of you. We dont have venture capitalists or investors, we have you right now reading these words.

Help us out!

Which is why I have to tell you the truth, even when its hard: grit and magic alone are no longer enough. Were a 12 year experiment going on 13, which might as well be an eternity online. If we are going to honor the opportunities that youve made possible, if we are going to build an Autostraddle sustainable enough to outlive our wildest dreams we need your continued investment, so that we can grow into the dreams you have for us. The good news is that we already know how to do a lot with a little! Over the last two months, Autostraddle has had the largest traffic we have seen in well over a year, and we are currently doing it with our smallest editorial team since 2014. Imagine what we can do with just a little bit more.

As Im writing to you, Autostraddle is in the last stages of hiring two new Senior Editors. I was promoted to Autostraddles permanent (no longer interm) Editor-in-Chief in June. Its so incredibly rare that a new EIC is able to hire such a large, new editorial staff this early in her tenure. Starting from last January, when I began as Interm Editor-in-Chief, I will have hired 50% of our current part-time subject editors in the last 10 months, and 2/3 of my full-time editorial team. With these two new full-time hires, Autostraddle is currently undertaking its single largest editorial shift in the publications history. This is a responsibility to our community, and its blazing future ahead of us. I do not take that lightly.

These days, the #1 thing that keeps me up at night is figuring out how to set these new humans up for the best possible success. I scribble notes into the margins of my planner, sketching out training sessions and virtual team retreats. Im spending my free moments envisioning what comes first, how will we reach back into Autostraddles past and bridge it, stitching it into the very DNA of the new exciting places we are going next. I havent figured it all out yet! (And by necessity, we are moving fast!) But I do know this I want our new editors to have the freedom to grow without being preoccupied by scarcity and survival-tactics.

I want our new editors to be able to bring their biggest ideas and creativity, because thats how Autostraddle has always worked best, and have the open room to learn how we operate and then shake things up. For them to be able to make mistakes at first, to mend from them, without it being costly. I want them to have a chance to really get to know each other (and all of our other editors) and build trust together, the kind of trust and energy you need to work on a tiny team thats moving mountains.

More than anything, I want to know that our new full-time editors are empowered to work healthier hours than I have, for them to have good boundaries. With your help, by expanding our team, we can make it happen. I want their job security to also mean mental health and not having to pre-schedule messages to send in the morning that they are quietly writing alone at 3am. I dont want Riese to have to pull them aside and remind them to sleep. Along with broken code and website crashes, outdated language and that regrettable era when pencil-thin ties over white tank tops and suspenders was considered lesbian fashion, I want unsustainable work habits to be something we leave firmly in the past. Thats where we need your help.

And lets be real, these new queer humans, these new guardians of our community, they deserve that from us. They deserve our best. I know that together, we will give that to them the same way we always have, in $5, in $25. Thats all it takes.

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When we last spoke together, I told you that its hard for me to ask for money but for Autostraddle, asking is never about me the dreams of this community are not about one person. Thats never been more true than it is right now.

It sounds selfish to say please give to the Autostraddle fundraiser so that I can sleep but that is not why Im asking. We have never had an editorial team this strong, this diverse, this efficient, communicative, brave, full of so much knowledge simply because weve never made it this far before. We did that with your help. And can I just say, the Autostraddle that these people want to build for you? Whew.

Im here today because I desperately want to help them do it. And for that, I need you.

Sending my love to you Always,Carmen

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Before you go! It takes funding to keep this publication by and for queer women and trans people of all genders running every day. And support from readers like you keeps the majority of our site free for everyone. Still, 99.9% of our readers do not support. Autostraddle is fundraising right now to keep our site funded through January 2022. Will you join our community of readers in helping to keep us around?

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The #1 Thing That Keeps Me Up At Night - Autostraddle

Athletes are known to massage sore muscles after intense training. During exercise, muscles get damaged and inflamed and when the muscles repair themselves, theyll often also get bigger and stronger. Researchers are looking to the mechanisms by which massage after exercise actually works to help muscle regeneration and recovery.

In a new study published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, a group of researchers looks at how massage, or mechanotherapy, works in the leg muscles of mice. Lots of people have been trying to study the beneficial effects of massage and other mechanotherapies on the body, but up to this point it hadn't been done in a systematic, reproducible way, says first author on the study Bo Ri Seo, who is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the research group of Dave Mooney at the Wyss Institute and SEAS in a press release. Our work shows a very clear connection between mechanical stimulation and immune function. This has promise for regenerating a wide variety of tissues including bone, tendon, hair, and skin, and can also be used in patients with diseases that prevent the use of drug-based interventions.

Previous work by the group found that mechanotherapy helped with muscle regeneration and reduced tissue scarring in several studies in mice. They wanted to know more about how this actually works so they set up a new experiment where they could monitor the muscle tissues post massage.

They used a custom designed robotic system to massage the legs of mice in an experiment. They could also control how much force was being applied during the massage. The team then looked at what happened in the tissues following two weeks of massages.

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The researchers analyzed several inflammation-related factors called cytokines in the muscles of treated and untreated mice. They found that the subset of cytokines was much lower in the mice that got treated with massages. These mice also had lower levels of neutrophils, which are immune cells that play a role in the inflammation process.

Neutrophils are known to kill and clear out pathogens and damaged tissue, but in this study we identified their direct impacts on muscle progenitor cell behaviors, says co-second author Stephanie McNamara, a former Post-Graduate Fellow at the Wyss Institute who is now an M.D.-Ph.D. student at Harvard Medical School (HMS), in the press release. While the inflammatory response is important for regeneration in the initial stages of healing, it is equally important that inflammation is quickly resolved to enable the regenerative processes to run its full course.

The group also examined whether massage had an effect on the type of muscle fibers that developed, and found that a specific type of fiber was more prevalent in treated mice that helped them to be stronger.

This research could also have implications for immunotherapy, the authors suggest. The idea that mechanics influence cell and tissue function was ridiculed until the last few decades, and while scientists have made great strides in establishing acceptance of this fact, we still know very little about how that process actually works at the organ level, says Wyss Founding Director Don Ingber in the press release. This research has revealed a previously unknown type of interplay between mechanobiology and immunology that is critical for muscle tissue healing, in addition to describing a new form of mechanotherapy that potentially could be as potent as chemical or gene therapies, but much simpler and less invasive.

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Massage helps muscles heal faster and stronger. Here's why. | TheHill - The Hill

The digital world grows larger every day, and it can be hard to keep up. Navigating the ever-changing digital landscape is a challenge - especially if you have a business of your own and are struggling to market yourself and make sales.

But you don't have to tackle the trials and tribulations of digital transformation alone. Professionals known as digital consultants can help you reach your goals with their extensive knowledge - and you don't have to be a part of a massive corporation to invest in their services.

And if you're tech-savvy with an understanding of the ins and outs of SEO, user-friendly design, social media, and other key virtual practices, you might consider pursuing a side hustle or full-time gig in the field.

From the skills and degrees or training needed to become one to the importance of hiring one, here's everything you need to know about digital consultants and the job of digital consulting.

Digital consulting includes an expansive list of services related to the virtual world, including SEO assistance, IT counseling, web design, and social media. Although it refers to a multitude of services, digital consulting primarily focuses on efficiently implementing business strategies across digital platforms.

Generally, a digital consultant wears many hats. That makes their work truly invaluable, as they can just as easily help you understand online advertising one minute then help integrate new software company-wide the next.

Source: Oro Inc

The overarching purpose of digital consulting is to help a business digitally implement its strategies to reach its goals. That might mean designing a user-friendly website, offering guidance on optimal social media hashtags and posting times, managing email or text marketing services, analyzing digital marketing efforts, or optimizing website content for search engines.

If you live and breathe tech and dream of helping businesses of all sizes achieve their goals, digital consulting might be for you. From training and education to average salaries and expected job growth, here's what you need to know before getting into digital consulting.

The majority of digital consultants - about 67% - have a bachelor's degree, and around 18% have a master's degree. Around 1% have doctorate degrees, while nearly 10% of professionals in this career have an associate degree.

So what do digital consultants study to start on this career path? Many have a degree in marketing, business, or communications. But digital consultants come from a variety of different degree programs, including economics, journalism, graphic design, and computer science.

You don't have to have a higher education degree to become a digital consultant, though. About 2% of digital consultants have a high school diploma, which can be supplemented with certifications and other training to strengthen the skills needed to become a digital consultant.

Regardless of the nature of their degrees, digital consultants can sharpen their skills and learn more about the continuously changing digital space by attending ongoing training throughout their careers. Earning certifications is a great way to showcase these skills.

One of the most popular certifications for digital consultants is in Google Data Analytics. Other beneficial topics to consider for certification include digital marketing, IT, blockchain, SEO, web design, coding, and social media.

Digital consultants possess dozens of skills to help them do their jobs. That being said, some digital consultants may have specializations that they focus on, while others might offer comprehensive consulting packages. Those areas of focus could include:

Digital consulting is becoming a very in-demand service, and acquiring a wide skillset for this career can mean a six-figure salary.

Digital consultants in California, Delaware, Rhode Island, Virginia, and Washington tend to make the highest salaries. Unsurprisingly, digital consultants in the tech hub of San Francisco make the highest salaries for this job in the U.S.

Although businesses of all types and sizes can benefit from digital consulting, larger corporations in industries like healthcare and insurance typically offer the highest salaries for digital consultants.

Businesses are quickly learning how resourceful it is to work with digital consultants. The projected growth for digital consultants through 2028 is 20%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A report from Statista also expects the digital consulting market to reach $53 billion in 2021.

Digital consultants can be a game-changer for businesses. These days, 70% of the most impactful business marketing strategies are tied to the internet, such as websites or email marketing, at which digital consultants excel.

For example, McKinsey Digital is a top digital consulting firm with experience growing businesses through digital consultancy. The company helped a pizza retailer by creating a top-of-line, innovative platform for the retailer's online business - resulting in a 40% increase in conversion and a 7% growth in sales.

Similarly, McKinsey Digital was involved with the launch of the first entirely digital bank. By the time of launch, it was already the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter and earned over 19 million impressions on social media.

If you want to grow your business by making it more engaging to customers and more efficient for your team, hiring a digital consultant is worth the investment. On the other hand, if you have a passion for technology, you can put your skills to use as a digital consultant whether for small, local businesses near you or massive corporations.

Either way, the advantages of digital consulting are nearly endless. From better web design to more effective content marketing and ultimately increased lead generation and sales, digital consulting helps businesses reap plenty of rewards.

Originally published Oct 11, 2021 4:00:00 AM, updated October 11 2021

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HubSpot Inc. published this content on 11 October 2021 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 11 October 2021 08:11:06 UTC.

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HubSpot : What Is Digital Consulting, and How Do You Start? - Marketscreener.com

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK Triangle employers are still ready to hire tens of thousands of workers across a range of industries, from healthcare to banking to biotech to software.

Even though job creation slowed nationally last month, job boards across the Triangle indicate theres no slowdown in hiring.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics unveiled its latest jobs report on Friday, counting 194,000 jobs added nationwide in September. Thats down from 336,000 jobs added in August and a significant drop from the 488,000 originally forecasted. Still, notable gains spread across leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, retail trade and transportation and warehousing. However, public education jobs slipped significantly, even adjusting for seasonal back-to-school hiring trends.

And even as unemployment claims recently fell by 38,000 in the largest weekly drop since late-June, several factors continue to muddle the job market recovery. Rising COVID cases, vaccine mandates and school reopenings were the backdrop of Septembers jobs report.

Large employers in the Triangle are beginning to require employees to get the COVID-19 vaccine or risk termination. SAS, IBM and Red Hatwhich employ thousands of people across the Triangleare now mandating vaccinations, and more companies are likely to follow suit in the coming weeks. The impacts of vaccine mandates havent come into view quite yet.

Job fairs across Triangle look to match those seeking work with companies

WRAL TechWires weekly Jobs Report compiles the latest information from the regions top job boards, offering a breakdown of how many jobs are posted, which companies are hiring and for what positions. Weve also included upcoming job fairs, student-centric resources and a list of Twitter accounts that track local job openings.

Lets highlight whats new on the job boards since last weeks Jobs Report:

Heres an overview of the number of local jobs posted on national job boards compared to last week, as of Sunday afternoon.

Aside from the boards above, job seekers can also find local startup jobs at SimplyHired (250 startup jobs near Research Triangle Park), LinkedIn (6,907 results in and around Raleigh), Indeed (328 startup jobs in/near RTP), and AngelList (job openings in Raleigh, Durham and across North Carolina).

Heres a look at local and regional job sites, listed in alphabetical order:

AMA Triangle, the fifth-largest chapter in American Marketing Associations nationwide network, aims to be a go-to resource for all things marketing in the Triangle. AMA Triangle provides professional training, free career webinars and a job board offering free resume placement for marketing professionals.

As of Sunday afternoon, AMA Triangles job board shows 91 marketing jobs in Raleigh, 40 in Durham and 15 in Chapel Hill (using the 25-mile radius filter).

A few new jobs were posted last week:

Durham-based startup hub American Underground regularly posts job openings on its job board. Job seekers can filter their search by job function, location, company, industry and job title. As of Sunday afternoon, the site shows 309 jobs at 37 companies.

Dozens of jobs were posted in the last seven days:

Earlier this year, WRAL TechWire and the North Carolina Biotechnology Center launched a Bio Jobs Hub platform focused on biopharma manufacturing one of North Carolinas largest industries, employing over 26,000 people.

Typical biopharma jobs include process technicians, maintenance and/or instrumentation technicians, quality assurance and quality control associates, process development scientists and process engineers. This industry also offers competitive entry-level salaries, from $42,000 to $60,000.

Want a biopharma manufacturing job? Here are 5 key questions, answers about career path

Scientists, skilled laborers and recent graduates can use the Bio Jobs Hub resource to find career and training opportunities in their area. Users can search by location, job category/activity and region.

Many biopharma companies are hiring in the Triangle, including large employers like Biogen in Research Triangle Park, bioMrieux in Durham, GSK in Zebulon, Merck & Co. in Durham, Novo Nordisk in Durham and Clayton, Pfizer in Sanford, and others.

Leadership Triangles job board is packed with local jobs. The site displays 615 openings at 30 companies as of Sunday afternoon.

Heres whats been posted in the last week:

The North Carolina Biotechnology Centers extensive jobs board lists open jobs and internships from local life science companies and research organizations. Users can filter by job category, employment type (full-time, part-time and contractor), keywords, postal code and radius.

NCBiotech also touts jobs through its Bio Jobs Hub program.

Dozens of jobs were added to NCBiotechs board over the last week (since Oct. 4):

The North Carolina Technology Association (NC TECH) has an interactive job board you can use to find your next career opportunity. Users can search by keyword, location, category, type (contract, full-time, part-time or temp to full-time), experience and education level.

A few new jobs were added to the site last week:

NCWorks, the statewide job search portal run by the North Carolina Department of Commerce, has nearly 100 career centers located across the state. Users can filter NCWorks database by keyword, location, occupation group or specific occupations, minimum acceptable salary, education level, job sources and date posted. NCWorks also has a mobile app on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

North Carolina military veterans, transitioning service members and spouses can find additional resources on NCWorks separate veterans portal.

NCWorks reports thousands of available positions. More than 2,100 people added or updated their resumes at the site in the past week, as of Sunday afternoon.

Here are the top 10 Wake County-based employers with the most job openings:

IQVIA already hiring for dozens of roles at new Innovation Laboratories facility

Here are the top companies/organizations by job openings in Durham County:

Fidelity is looking for talent, not a degree, as it seeks to fill 1,500 new jobs

And here are the top employers in Orange County:

Raleigh Founded, a startup incubator and coworking space, has its own job board. Job seekers can filter results by company, company size or industry.

The site currently lists 304 positions at 30 companies, as of Sunday afternoon.

Heres whats new on the site over the last seven days:

This isnt a job board per se, but the Research Triangle Cleantech Clusters list of job search sources is a helpful resource for job seekers in the clean energy sector. The list has links to career opportunities from the organizations members and partners.

Leadership Triangle, Raleigh Founded and American Underground recently teamed up to create the Triangle Region Job Board, which synthesizes all of the openings posted on the organizations job boards. (Those openings are listed under their respective subheadings above.)

As of Sunday afternoon, the site shows 1,902 listings from 86 companies. The latest Triangle-area openings come from the following employers:

Work in the Triangle, a Wake County Economic Development program, shares new openings daily through its Twitter feed, @WorkTriangleNC. And the search continues to be intense for talent to fill thousands of open jobs both inside and outside the Triangle tech sector.

Every Tuesday, Work in the Triangles #TriangleTuesdays hashtag lists hot jobs.

Posts from last Tuesday (Oct. 5) included openings from:

Scroll through the #TriangleTuesdays hashtag on Twitter for more details on the openings.

Last month, RTP-based Mycovia Pharmaceuticals told TechWire that its hiring for several positions in project management, market access, insights and analytics, marketing and quality assurance. The late-stage biopharma company is developing drugs to meet womens health needs.

A Mycovia spokesperson says it plans to add around nine employees through the fourth quarter of 2021. Its current headcount is 21.

Open positions include:

Read more and apply here.

Chapel Hill-based edtech company Terra Dotta told TechWire in late-August that its continuing to hire in the greater RTP area and anticipates another 10 new hires across sales, product development and marketing before the end of the year. The firm already has about 35 employees in the Triangle area.

Its latest openings are for a product marketing manager and a professional services manager. Read more and apply here.

The boost in hiring comes as the company just made the Inc. 5000 list and is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Terra Dotta CEO Anthony Rotoli says, This level of growth isnt as common in a more mature company, but we are actively hiring to continue a high growth trajectory and support the international program and global engagement priorities of higher education, both in North Carolina and nationwide.

CRO Career Conversations: Oct 13. 8, 5:30-7 p.m. (online)

In this virtual event, attendees will hear from contract research organization (CRO) industry professionals as they discuss their career paths and responsibilities.

NC TECH Virtual Job Expo: Oct. 20, 8:30 a.m. 4:30 p.m. (online)

The North Carolina Technology Associations virtual job fair will connect employers to job seekers looking for work in a tech role or to support a tech company. The event is free for candidates and job seekers.

NC Graduate & Professional School Information Fair: Oct. 27, 12-6 p.m. (online)

This virtual career event will connect employers with students from Davidson College, NC State University, UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Wilmington and Wake Forest University.

NC Masters & Doctoral Virtual Career Fair: Nov. 4, 12-4 p.m. (online)

Duke University, NC State University, UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Charlotte, UNC Greensboro and Wake Forest University will convene hundreds of advanced degree alumni, candidates and postdocs to meet with companies looking for new talent.

NC States Data Science Virtual Career Expo: Nov. 9, 10 a.m. 3 p.m. (online)

NC State students and alumni who are interested in pursuing a career in data science can join this virtual career expo to meet employers and learn more about the field.

Startup Internship Meet and Greet: Nov. 10, 4 p.m. @UNC Chapel Hill, Polk Place

Innovate Carolina and Central Carolina Community College are hosting an event for students to network and explore internship opportunities with local startups.

NC States Spatial Connect Virtual Career Fair: Nov. 17, 1-5 p.m. (online)

Students interested in geospatial analytics and spatial data science can join this virtual career fair to learn more about the field and network with employers.

Wake Tech Community College Business & IT Spring 2022 Career Fair: Feb. 9, 9 a.m. 12 p.m. (online)

In February 2022, Wake Tech will host an online job fair for business and information technology students looking for new career opportunities.

If youre a student looking for an internship or entry-level position at a local company or organization, your university has resources to help you get started. Quick links below:

Here are some locally run Twitter accounts that regularly share job openings in the Triangle:

Follow this link:
Help wanted: Jobs sites report thousands of open positions across Triangle - WRAL Tech Wire

Idol-wannabe Woo Seo-yul plays the guitar. (Park Jun-hee/The Korea Herald)

But the number of private academies that offer dance and vocal lessons has mushroomed as more youngsters aspire to K-pop stardom.

Private training systems

Lee Jae-won has run a dance academy in Apgujeong-dong, southern Seoul, for eight years, training young idol-wannabes. Lees institution systematically instructs trainees with the goal of eventually getting them into big agencies so they can debut as entertainers.

There are many academies that welcome adults and teenagers, and some even offer classes that focus on auditions, but there are barely any institutes that teach basic skills to young kids, he said.

The institute offers dance courses at the introductory, intermediate and advanced levels. Beginners learn the basics, such as how to use their bodies and do easy dance moves to K-pop music. At the next level they learn more complicated choreography and try out genres like hip-hop and popping.

In South Korea, the average age of a debuting singer is getting younger, and some K-pop powerhouses set age limits for auditions. Lee said this is why he provides thorough training -- because idol hopefuls cannot survive the big agencies wide trainee pools without the basics.

Lee Yu-chan (left), 9, and Woo Seo-yul, 8, get vocal training. (Park Jun-hee/The Korea Herald)

While talking about trainees from the academy who got into big-name agencies, Lee fondly recalled one excellent student who is now with Big Hit.

(The kid) had numerous charms and had many talents tailored to him. But his parents didnt want to see their son onstage. Fortunately, he got into Big Hit two years ago as one of the youngest trainees and aces every end-of-the-month evaluation.

Lee added that apart from gaining the necessary skills, idol hopefuls should know how to be modest and diligent because becoming an A-lister in the music scene isnt a walk in the park.

Wishing to be the next K-pop sensation

I am a versatile idol-wannabe with a pretty face.

Woo Seo-yul dreams of becoming the next IU, a K-pop superstar. The 8-year-old, who lives in the southwestern Seoul district of Geumcheon, wakes up at 7:30 a.m. for school, attends her elementary school classes from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. and then heads out the door for practice.

This scene is peculiar in a nation where academic subjects decide ones future. But now the name of the game is working to become the next global sensation.

Idol-wannabe Woo Seo-yul gets a guitar lesson. (Park Jun-hee/The Korea Herald)

He went on to say that in addition to their talent and skills, idol bands are revered because of their wealth and privilege, which is why idol-wannabes hope to be the talk of the town like BTS.

Lee Sun-kyoung, Seo-yuls mother, said she never pictured herself as the parent of an idol hopeful. But now she drives more than an hour to drop her daughter off at a kids dance academy in the Gangnam district twice a week.

Its heartbreaking seeing my daughter want to become an idol because everybody wants to be one. My daughter only sings and dances, apart from going to school, Lee said. She added that the tuition was a burden as well.

But Lee thinks her daughters efforts will eventually pay off.

Im aware that the road to a debut is not easy, which is why Im constantly supporting my daughter. But even if she doesnt become one, hopefully my daughter will be able to showcase her talent as a dancer or a dance teacher.

Big dreams, out of reach

Led by boy band BTS meteoric rise to stardom over the past few years, more and more K-pop figures have gained immense popularity around the globe among people of all ages.

But that kind of fame is hard to attain. Lesser-known musical artists often confront difficulties in the music scene.

Audition dates for Korean entertainment companies are displayed on posters. (Park Jun-hee/The Korea Herald)

After attending 10 auditions in Korea, she got accepted to an agency and finally made her debut. But the experience ultimately ended in disappointment.

Being in a smaller company has more cons than pros. From the way how staff members of high-ranked broadcasting people treat you, and how you dont get preferential treatment, unlike other bands who entertainment giants house, Park said.

The bigger your company, the better you get treated.

Favoritism toward big companies affects which shows performers get booked on, she said, as well as screen time, waiting rooms and whether they can make a living.

Companies invest in trainees, and it takes at least one to three years to pay off until the point when the group starts making money, she said. But Park ended up with more debt than money because she wasnt given the opportunity to promote herself, which was one of the main reasons she decided not to continue her K-pop career.

Doing what you love and making money sounds almost too good to be true, Park said.

But when you start to see how hard it is to do so, and not being able to achieve in one to four years, you start to lose the real you. At times, you have got to be a little more realistic, although it means not being able to pursue your dreams.

By Park Jun-hee (junheee@heraldcorp.com)

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[Feature] What it takes to be an idol: The academies that train K-pop wannabes - The Korea Herald