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Girls Planet 999 star Seo Youngeun was recently accused of cultural appropriation after a past video of hers gained attention. The video is from 2018 and features Seo Youngeun in what is popularly known as corn-row braids. People from the Black community usually sport this style of braid to protect their hair.
The claims and the subsequent backlash online allegedly led to Seo Youngeun’s sister releasing a statement online. It has not been officially confirmed if the statement released by Twitter user @youngeun_debut is from the star’s sister.
What information has the Twitter account, that claims to be the elder sister of Seo Youngeun, released so far?
Fans believe the Twitter account made the claim because the same handle had shared unseen pictures of Seo Youngeun from her childhood in the run-up to recent years.
The account, which claims to be Youngeun’s sister, began with answers to fans’ DMs regarding the K/DA cover video. She clarified that she decided to make a public statement now because of the huge number of DM’s she received about it.
She also clarified that it was not easy for her to speak publicly about the issues surrounding Youngeun, and hence why it took more time.
In the statement, Seo Youngeun’s sister explained that the star was very young when the video was shot. She would have been somewhere between 13 and 14 years of age. So Seo Youngeun’s sister said that she did not have input in her styling.
She said, “First of all, Seo Youngeun was much younger than now when she filmed the video, and she was unable to style her hair herself. And at that time, her hairstyle didn’t matter to the general public, so I didn’t think this would be a problem.”
She also apologized to fans and others who were disappointed by this. Instead, she clarified that it was never Seo Youngeun’s intention to disparage anyone’s race or mock anyone’s culture.
The statement further added,
I apologize to everyone who has been hurt by this. However, if you think she did it to disparage race, steal culture, or mock, I’m really sorry, but it’s not true. As you know, she is a person who loves and respects everything regardless of people, background, occupation, religion, culture, etc. None of her actions was intended to harm, mock, or behave rudely. She was just a young child who was ignorant of cultural differences.
In addition to this, Yeongeun’s sister has also claimed that she will do the best to educate her sister.
