While Jung Ho Yeon was already a successful model before she appeared on Squid Game, it’s really only after she played Sae-byeok on the Netflix series that she gained incredible international attention. Did you know that Jung Ho Yeon’s Instagram account went from having 410k followers to 18 million after the show premiered? Her follower count as of this writing is now at 23.3 million! She’s now also the most followed South Korean star on the social media platform.
Now, we all know that social media accounts carry only the ‘reels’ of our lives and not the entire film. But there’s no denying that you can still glean a lot about a person — from their likes to what they spend most of their time on — based on what they post online.
So with that in mind, here are five fun ‘facts’* I learned about Ho Yeon based on her Instagram posts.
She loves cinema
Being on the highest-grossing Netflix series to date (fun fact: the show reportedly generated almost $900 million for the streaming site) and enjoying films and stories told through moving pictures seem like a remarkable combination. While it would be hard to wonder exactly how Ho Yeon feels about her appearance on the show and how it ties with her love for cinema, I think we can perhaps say her love of watching films is what led her to delve into it first-hand. She periodically shares stills and posters from movies as well as images of actors and a cinematographer she admires.
She’s a water baby
No, I didn’t look up her star sign. I meant she’s someone who loves to be at the beach! She may even have dreams of becoming a mermaid or maybe she just wants to play Ariel on The Little Mermaid in another live-action take on the animated film (that’s because of this post). But judging by Jung Ho Yeon’s Instagram posts, she’s a water baby. She often shares images of herself by the beach, other times it’s just the water she shares too.
She’s good friends with Jennie of Blackpink
Okay, I know it’s just one picture on her feed this year but aside from reading about the friendship between the two, I think the one image Hoyeon did share with Jennie on it is quite telling of the kind of relationship they have. The actress is still in her character’s Squid Game costume — she even has fake blood splotches on her face! — while Jennie is in a casual outfit. So this makes me assume that Jennie visited her while taping for the series. And apparently, things like this is something K-Pop and K-drama stars who are friends with one another do quite often. Some even hire food trucks to feed people on the set of their friends’ shows or movies.
She’s a cat person
As someone who belongs to a family of cat lovers (our daughter is obsessed with them; my husband is a convert), I’m claiming this one. Haha. Hoyeon has posted quite a few images of herself with cats on her feed, and I’m taking that as her sharing with the world that she is, indeed, a cat person.
She loves museums
Based on Jung Ho Yeon’s Instagram, she seems to be a fan of museums. Whether it’s for movies or visual art, she frequents them whenever she has a chance. She’s posted her top picks from the MoMa, Williamson Museum, and more. A girl after my own heart!
*Please take this with a grain of salt! All of these are observations made by a spectator.
Cover image by @hoooooyeony