Huh Yunjin was born in Seoul but moved to the United States when she was eight months old, growing up in Albany, New York, where she went by Jennifer Huh. She describes her younger self as "curious about everything, a 'girl with ambition' both then and now." Her grandmother, a vocalist, introduced her to choir, which sparked an interest in musicals and opera. By middle school, Yunjin was taking opera lessons; by high school, she performed as a mezzo-soprano and participated in drama clubs and musical theater productions at Niskayuna High School.1

She was also an athlete—captain of her school's field hockey team—and briefly considered pursuing professional sports. But when she saw BTS perform at the American Music Awards, something crystallized. "I wanted to be a great artist whose work can be a source of strength for somebody," she recalled. The path to K-pop, however, required reckoning with the limited opportunities for Asian-Americans in the U.S. entertainment industry. So at 16, she decided to move to Korea.1

Yunjin's training history spans multiple agencies. She was briefly a trainee at SM Entertainment, where she shared a dormitory with future aespa members Winter and Ningning—a fact Winter confirmed at a 2023 fansign, remarking, "We used to room together, with me and NingNing."2 In August 2017, Yunjin passed Pledis Entertainment's New York global audition, singing Adele's "All I Ask," and moved to Korea at the start of 2018.

That summer, she competed on Mnet's Produce 48, representing Pledis alongside After School's Lee Gaeun. Despite impressing audiences with her unique vocal color and elegant visuals, Yunjin was eliminated in Episode 11, finishing 26th. "I was so distressed. I remember being so heartbroken because it was my first big challenge and then I was not able to overcome it," she told NME. Rumors circulated that she and Gaeun would debut together in a new Pledis girl group, but after Gaeun left the agency, those plans dissolved. Yunjin eventually returned to the United States, contemplating college and a different life.3

The period after Produce 48 was lonely. "After the show ended, and I went back to the tranquil trainee life, I felt sort of lonely," Yunjin told Weverse Magazine. She continued training at Pledis while attending Hanlim Multi Art School, but eventually was cut from the roster. "I got called into the office and they sat me down," she recounted. "They were like, 'You will no longer be able to come along with us. Your path ends here.'"3

She returned to the U.S., studied for her GED, and was preparing to attend a Boston university for business when HYBE contacted her in 2021. The concept they described—"I tell my honest story and my greed"—resonated immediately. "I had the intuition to join," she said. She signed with Source Music and was revealed as LE SSERAFIM's sixth and final member on April 9, 2022. With over four years of training across three agencies, she was the group's longest-tenured trainee.4

From debut, Yunjin established herself as LE SSERAFIM's primary songwriter. She contributed lyrics to "Blue Flame" on the debut EP, then expanded her role on ANTIFRAGILE, co-writing "Impurities," "No Celestial," and "Good Parts (when the quality is bad but I am)." Her approach is confessional. "I think I tend to write about myself a lot when I write lyrics: the kind of person I am, the kind of person I want to be, the kind of difficulties I face," she explained. "Honesty is the most important thing for getting across a certain emotion or message. You have to be totally transparent."5

To this day, Yunjin keeps a pinned memo in her phone titled "Inspo"—ideas, passing thoughts, screenshots, and diary entries that become raw material for songs. "Raise y_our glass," her first solo single released 100 days after debut, was written in one sitting in a vocal practice room. "I ≠ Doll" confronted how she's perceived based solely on appearance. "Love You Twice" was a letter to fans. And "Blessing in Disguise" processed her trainee years with newfound perspective: "Obviously the biggest blessing in disguise was being cut from the team and then coming to LE SSERAFIM."3

Beyond music, Yunjin is a voracious consumer of art and literature. Her parents prioritized cultural experiences, taking her to museums and galleries from a young age, and she continued the habit with friends in high school. "I've always been an innately curious person, and being an idol can narrow your perspective, so I need time to keep mine wide open," she told Weverse Magazine. She's particularly drawn to impressionism—"They rarely use black or gray, and they emphasize light, which really stirs something in me"—and quotes the phrase attributed to Banksy: "Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable."6

This curiosity informs her worldview and, ultimately, her songwriting. "There's so many beautiful, amazing things in the world now that I wish it were possible to experience them all in my lifetime," she said. "I think I'm really attracted to the idea that I can see things from different perspectives through books and music." Her January 2025 single "Jellyfish"—a contemplative R&B piece about longing for the freedom of drifting through life—emerged from simply watching jellyfish swim and projecting her own emotions onto them.7