Natty started her career in May, five years after contending in Mnet's SIXTEEN and three years after she departed from JYP Entertainment. But her path to becoming an idol was undoubtedly not easy. Natty shared the reality about the challenge of becoming a K-pop trainee for so long in a recent interview.
At the age of 19, Natty first landed in South Korea, which clarifies the title from her first single "Nineteen." Born and raised in Thailand, she decided to join the JYP Entertainment team only because she loves and wants to sing and dance.
"At that time, I thought innocently that I was only learning and growing a lot and that I had no idea how difficult the professional development was," she shared
The toughest part of being a K-pop trainee for many international aspirants is fleeing from your homeland and family you've known all of your existence and moving into a whole new world. For Natty, traveling to Korea was certainly a change, but it wasn't the hardest part of her adventure.
"When I first arrived in Korea, I didn't understand the language at all, but 'Hi' and I had to rush studying Korean as soon as possible to participate in conversations as efficiently as possible, to communicate what I needed and to thrive," she narrated.
The toughest part of all for Natty was the lack of certainty of someone being a trainee. Natty entered Idol School in 2017 after she was unable to make it to the final for TWICE.
Even though she had shown a lot of her potentials, she eventually placed no. 13, so she did not make it into fromis 9.
This put Natty in a role she seemed to have no idea when she was about to make her breakthrough, presenting her with the same repetitive training every day. Fortunately, she was smart enough to cope up with a few ways to alleviate her levels of stress and anxiety.
"I reduced my anxiety by shutting off all the lights in the rehearsal studio and performing like I wanted or walked by the water outdoors. That enabled me to restore with recovered energy," Natty confessed.
Natty ended up making her big bounce when she entered Swing Entertainment. The agency last year saw her success at KCON Thailand and was amazed by her talent.
"The agency has seen some potential in me at that time, and proposed debuting as a solo act," she revealed.
Natty states her parents would possibly have prevented her from moving to Korea if they knew they would be too far apart from her. So, it's no great shock they've been completely shocked to hear she'll be making her debut this year.
"My family was there just to see my show [KCON Thailand], and they were absolutely delighted, much truly happier than I was when they learned my debut news," Natty said.
Surely, Natty was capable of bringing her unrelenting dedication and confidence into music after entering Swing Entertainment. The company allowed her to infuse her debut album with sincerity and authenticity, the "Nineteen" lyrics emphasizing on getting started all over again when you feel like giving up.
Now that she is officially confident on stage, Natty claims her main objective is to remain an optimistic person, happily influence people.
"I'd always want to give some people energy and keep them happy through my songs, whichever style of music it may well be, R&B or hip-hop or even jazz," she concluded.
