Soyou, formerly of SISTAR, sparked buzz by candidly revealing why her stance on marriage and having kids has changed—pointing to the COVID-19 era, a scrapped plan to freeze her eggs, and a severe needle phobia—during a recent discussion.
On the 10th, YouTube channel Alttalttal Hanchamgyeon featured Soyou chatting with Heo Kyung Hwan, Ahn Jae Hyun, and Muzie about a range of topics. Asked how she’s been, she laughed and said, “These days, I’m living a pretty boring life.”
The talk naturally shifted to marriage. Soyou clarified, “It’s not that I’ll never get married,” but admitted her views have changed a lot compared to before. She shared that her life goal used to be becoming the ideal “wise mother, good wife” type—essentially a perfect housewife—and that she’d dreamed since childhood of building a happy family. “I pictured an ordinary home where, when everyone comes back from work, the house smells like doenjang-jjigae (soybean paste stew), and the kids call out ‘Mom’ as we sit down to eat together,” she said.
But the pandemic shifted her perspective. “During COVID-19, seeing kids be the first to say, ‘We don’t have a mask,’ made me think I didn’t want to bring a child into this kind of world,” she confessed.
Soyou had even made plans with childbirth in mind. “I was going to take care of my health and freeze my eggs when I turned 30,” she revealed. But after learning more about the process, she changed her mind. “Egg freezing doesn’t end in one go—you have to inject yourself in the abdomen every day. I have a severe needle phobia, so I ultimately gave up,” she explained.
As her desire for children waned, her expectations around marriage naturally shifted too. “If I’m not going to have kids, it makes me wonder whether I really need to get married—and my thoughts on marriage have definitely lessened compared to before,” she said.
Soyou debuted with SISTAR in 2010 and went on to release multiple hit songs. She is currently active as a solo artist.