In the fifth episode of BLACKPINK Reality Show 24/365 (August 1, 2020) the group members discussed the difficulties they faced in the first days of their trainee days, when they were not yet famous.
In the conversation they have in front of the sweet and fruit plates in a very pleasant environment in a garden, they express that they had a very different life until just a few years ago.
The members of the group, who now eat at very luxurious restaurants almost every day, emphasize that this is something that cannot go beyond a dream during their internship. Let alone the luxury restaurant, the girls say that they can’t even order fried chicken pieces as takeaway, they usually eat them with cracked eggs and strawberry jam. They say that they only have enough money to go to the grocery store once a month, and when they do, they only have enough to buy cheap foods like eggs and jam.
How familiar is that?
Apart from lack of money and poverty, cockroaches, which can be a young girl’s worst nightmare, haunt their house. Rose has mentioned this on a “variety show” before, let’s remember it (English subtitles):
https://youtu.be/Xz34FN0Tzuw
And these cockroaches have giant antennas! If they caught one, someone else would be thrown around the corner. The maknae (smallest) of the house, Lisa, would usually grab a glass and throw it out. Again, soft-hearted girls were not killing them but throwing them out.
One of the worst aspects of being a trainee at a young age is the longing and sadness of leaving the family, Rose emphasizes afterwards. She didn’t even know that she was going to leave her family. When her parents said at the door of the dormitory: “My beautiful daughter, we are leaving now”… and her world fell apart.
In the meantime, Jennie interrupts and says that the good side of those hard days is that they bond tightly to each other.
Finally, let us remind you that Jennie was the first trainee in 2010, while Rose joined in 2012 as the last trainee. In fact, the members of BLACKPINK came from families that were not in bad shape, which may have made the situation even more difficult for them. Although YG Entertainment has turned into a giant company that generates 350 million dollars annually, the company was not very good financially at that time, for example, you can see and compare the photos of the shabby entrance of the company at that time and the giant company building of 50 million dollars today. But I think YG Entertainment would not have kept the girls alive in good conditions at that time, even if they had the financial means, because struggling with difficult conditions can be considered as a tool for their daughters to both fuse and mature.
Below you can see the old and new version of the building belonging to YG Entertainment.
YOu can watch the video of girls remembering those days here:
