Herin, the Former SM Rookies Member that Left SM Entertainment for Idol School!
Way before SM Entertainment was debuting NCT and Red Velvet, they introduced some of their potential trainees and formed them into a group called SM Rookies. The point of this concept was to introduce their future idols to audiences. Not just giving their names, some short information, and their faces, SM also showed some of the trainees’ talents by dividing them into two groups, SM Rookies boys and girls.
We already know that some of the SM Rookies boys have already debuted as NCT members. We also know that Irene, Seulgi, Wendy, and Yeri also were part of SM Rookies before they debuted as Red Velvet members. But still, not all the trainees that were introduced as SM Rookies members would debut as a member of idol group later. For example, Hansol was a part of SM Rookies from 2013, before officially signing a new contract with a new label in 2017. Netizens have speculated that may be because Hansol wasn’t made part of the NCT unit at the time.
Besides Hansol, there’s another trainee that left the company after spending long years as a trainee. She is Seo Herin, also known as Herin, who was part of SM Rookies girls and was first introduced in 2015. Just like Hansol, some people on the Internet are speculating that her departure from SM may be because they keep delaying the debut date of their newest girl group, in which Herin would participate in.
It’s a shame, since not only does Herin have a beautiful face and charming personality, she’s demonstrated that she’s a talented singer since she performed a lot of songs when she was in the Mickey Mouse Club with other SM Rookies members.
Now that she isn’t a part of SM Rookies anymore, what company did she join? What’s her current activity right now? Before we talk further about the details of her split with SM Entertainment, let’s talk about her profile and some facts about Seo Herin!
Profile and Facts
Stage name: Herin
Real name: 서혜인 / Hyein Seo / Seo Hyein
Birthday: February 26, 2002
Origin: Korea
Born: Manchester, United Kingdom
Home town: Manchester, United Kingdom
Blood type: A
Zodiac: Pisces
Date introduced (on SM Rookies): July 9, 2015
Interesting facts:
- The first time Herin was introduced as a member of the SM Rookies was on July 9, 2015, along with other SM trainees ,Ko Eun and Hina.
- Herin appeared on the Mickey Mouse Club with other SM Rookies members, both girls and boys.
- Herin has an older sister named Seren Seo.
- Herin left SM Entertainment to join Idol School in July 2017.
- Not ling after the Idol School program was over, Herin went back to England and went to college there.
- In the beginning of 2018, Herin opened her own YouTube channel and has been vlogging since then.
- Herin’s YouTube channel is bonjavenue, go subscribe!
- Herin has a Twitter account with the username @HerinSeo
- Herin made a tweet saying that she was happy with the path that she chose, now that she isn’t continuing to pursue her career in K-Pop.
Departure From SM Entertainment
Even though Herin is a talented singer with a pretty face and adorable vibe, we didn’t have a chance to see her debut as a member of idol group in SM because she decided to leave the company in 2017. At the same time, Mnet’s survival program, Idol School, revealed Herin as one of the trainees that would be participating. Unlike other survival programs, when a trainee joins Idol School, they must leave their current company, because if they’re chosen as one of the best nine contestants, they would be debuted as the girl-group that came to know as FROMIS_9, under the agency CJ E&M.
When Herin joined the program, people were surprised that she left SM Entertainment even though she had a possibility to debut as part of the next girl-group from SM. However, SM keeps delaying the new girl-group’s debut, and people assume Herin got tired of waiting since she’s been a trainee since 2013.
As of today, years after Herin left SM Entertainment, the agency of Girls’ Generation, Super Junior, and EXO, still hasn’t ever announced any news about being ready to debut a new girl-group since they debuted Red Velvet in 2014.
Then again, the choice to leave the company was Herin’s to make, and she has the right to choose which path that she want to walk. As fans, we only need to keep supporting her, cheer her up, and not judge her for the choice she made, even though she didn’t make it into a SM Entertainment’s girl group members.
Joining Idol School
The new survival program, Idol School, from Mnet revealed one of the contestants in July 2017. The contestant was Seo Herin, once known as a part of SM Rookies girls. Most fans were saying it’s unfortunate that she left a big agency like SM to join a survival program that didn’t have much likelihood of helping make her debut in a girl-group.
But still, rather than be left hanging, without any certainty about when she might make her debut, it seemed better to try another challenge by joining Idol School. Even though she wouldn’t be able to rejoin SM if she was eliminated from the show, She could still search another company. If she made it to be one of the top 9 contestants, then she would debut as part of CJ E&M Entertainment’s girl-group that later on would be known as FROMIS_9.
It wasn’t part of Herin’s destiny to be part of FROMIS_9. She was eliminated, which made her a homeless trainee, since she’d already left SM to join the program. Even though she could get hired as a trainee in some other entertainment agency, she chose to leave the Korean entertainment industry and returned to her hometown, Manchester, England.
Now that Herin has returned to her previous life from before she joined SM Entertainment as a trainee, there were still some people that couldn’t respect her choice to give up her opportunity to be an idol. If you take a look at Herin’s social media pages, whether it’s her Instagram, Twitter or YouTube, we all can conclude that she still lives a happy life. She started college and created a YouTube channel to shares her activities there.
If you’ve been rooting for Herin since her trainee days in SM Entertainment to Idol School, then please respect her choice and keep supporting her even though she wasn’t a celebrity, yet. Also for Herin, please cheer up and we wish the best for you!
