By Madison Menchaca
With 131 chapters and over five million readers, True beauty is an ongoing Webtoon and the story was made into a Korean Drama released December 2020. The story focuses on a high school student Im Joo-kyung who gets bullied at her old school because of her appearance until one day she is on the rooftop of a building crying about her experience at school and she meets a boy Lee Su-Ho who saves her from jumping, when she gets home her mom tells her that she’s going to be transferring schools. Determined Joo-Kyung learns how to do make-up so she won’t be treated the way she was at her old school. After many failed attempts she finally made herself look unrecognizable. When she enters her new school people are amazed by how beautiful she is,
“I thought that it was good that she was getting the attention she wanted because it made her happy, but it was sad because she had to make herself look like a different person to get that attention,” sophomore Haley Lopez said.
Soon we find out that Lee Su-Ho goes to the same school as her now but she has no recollection of who he is because she wasn’t wearing her glasses. As she continues to go to school Lee Su-Ho becomes suspicious of who she really is. After a couple of weeks of going to her new school a new character is introduced and that is Han Seo-Joon. Both Lee Su-ho and Han Seo-Joon begin to fall in love with Joo-Kyung leaving them in a frustrating love triangle.
The fandom of the show and Webtoon took a liking to both of the main lead male characters. The first main lead male character is Lee Su-ho and the second lead male character is Han Seo-Joon. Originally in the Webtoon Han Seo-Joon was the one to first get with Joo-Kyung but, in the Korean drama Han Seo-Joon doesn’t get to be with Joo-Kyung and doesn’t get his happy ending which upset a lot of fans.
“I was obviously upset because he deserved way better than what he got but at the same time I was happy because Joo-Kyung didn’t deserve him because even after all he did she didn’t ever really give him a chance because she was still hung up oh Su-Ho,” sophomore Amy Guerra said.
During both stories make-up is a huge part of how Juoo-Kyung makes herself unrecognisable. With many fans taking an interest to her make-up the Korean brand made a bundle of all the products she uses so that fans of the show can try to do some of her looks.