The Moment
An all-girl group that spent years training, competing and singing their lungs out just got introduced to readers as a “hand-selected smoke show.”
A major celebrity gossip site dropped a gallery focused on rising global girl group KATSEYE, teasing fans to “guess who” the members are while calling them “babes,” a “smoke show,” and hyping their “hot shots.” The post runs through the six-member lineup – Sophia Laforteza, Manon Bannerman, Daniela Avanzini, Lara Raj, Megan Skiendiel and Yoonchae Jeung – then sends you straight to the photos.
No music links. No mention of the project that built them. Just faces, bodies and a winking headline.
I’ve seen this movie before – it just usually stars late-90s boy bands and FHM covers, not a carefully crafted Gen Z global girl group.
The Take
Here’s my issue: when you reduce a group like KATSEYE to a “smoke show” slideshow, you’re basically reviewing the album without pressing play.
These six didn’t arrive via some random casting call. According to a joint announcement from HYBE (the company behind BTS) and Geffen Records, KATSEYE is the final product of a multi-country audition project that started in 2023 and ran as a public talent competition. Billboard and other outlets covered the finale when the lineup was revealed in November 2023, stressing the group’s global mix of backgrounds and the years of vocal and dance training behind them.
So when a site boils that entire story down to “look at these babes,” it feels, frankly, lazy. It’s like inviting everyone to a Michelin-star restaurant and then only talking about the plates.
And yes, the photos are gorgeous. Styling is part of the job; they know that; we know that. Pop has always lived at the intersection of sound and image. The problem isn’t that the women look good. The problem is when coverage pretends looks are the whole point – especially when some of these performers were still teenagers during the audition show, according to those same 2023 reports.
For a lot of us over 40, this brings back memories of the way young women in pop were framed in the late 90s and early 2000s. Think of how often the conversation around Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera was about hemlines instead of vocals. We’ve watched an entire generation of now-grown women unpack that treatment in documentaries and memoirs – and yet here we are, still calling rising girl groups “smoke shows” like nothing was learned.
What’s extra wild is that KATSEYE’s whole selling point is modern, global fandom. HYBE built its empire by leaning into storytelling, artistry and parasocial connection – not just thirst traps. Their fans know the trainees’ backstories, nationalities, even the songs they struggled with on the competition. So when older-school celebrity media treats them like nameless pinups you’re supposed to “guess,” it feels totally out of step with how people actually stan now.
Celebrating their visuals? Normal. Turning a complex, transnational pop experiment into a digital swimsuit calendar? That’s where it starts to feel like the industry’s grown up but some of the coverage hasn’t.
Receipts
- Confirmed: A celebrity news site published a gallery on January 17, 2026, describing KATSEYE as an “all-girl group” that has been “poppin’ off,” and calling their photos a “hand-selected smoke show,” while inviting readers to “guess” which member is which.
- Confirmed: HYBE and Geffen Records announced a global girl group project in 2023, culminating in a finale where six finalists were chosen as KATSEYE; coverage in music trades in November 2023 lists the members as Sophia Laforteza, Manon Bannerman, Daniela Avanzini, Lara Raj, Megan Skiendiel and Yoonchae Jeung.
- Confirmed: Official descriptions from HYBE/Geffen and the group’s own social bios frame KATSEYE as a “global girl group” formed through an international audition program, emphasizing training, performance and cross-cultural appeal.
- Unverified: How the members themselves feel about being framed as a “smoke show,” or whether they were consulted about that kind of coverage. No public statements on this specific gallery were available at the time of writing.
Backstory (For Casual Readers)
If KATSEYE is just now landing on your radar, here’s the quick history lesson. In 2023, South Korea’s HYBE (home to BTS and NewJeans) teamed up with Geffen Records in the U.S. to launch a global girl group search. Dozens of trainees from around the world competed on a show often referred to as “The Debut: Dream Academy,” which mixed K-pop-style training with Western music-industry polish.
After months of performances, eliminations and online voting, six young women were announced as the final lineup in November 2023. Reports at the time highlighted their international mix – with roots in places like the United States, South Korea, the Philippines, India and Europe – and positioned KATSEYE as a bridge between K-pop systems and Western pop markets. The idea was clear: not just another group, but a test case for what the next era of global pop manufacturing might look like.
What’s Next
For KATSEYE, the real work is the music and performances ahead – albums, singles, tours, brand deals, maybe a documentary or two if this experiment really takes off. That is where they’ll define themselves, not in a one-off “guess who” gallery.
For entertainment media, the question is whether coverage will actually evolve with the artists. Fans now can stream full performances, pick apart choreography on TikTok and read translated interviews with a couple of thumb taps. They don’t need a site to tell them a group is hot; they’ve already watched months of training footage and live stages.
Which means the outlets that will age well are the ones that can do both: serve up the glam shots and talk about the vocals, the production choices, the grind behind that perfect stage. Treating a group like KATSEYE as nothing more than a “smoke show” isn’t just a little sexist – it’s also boring. It underestimates readers who are perfectly capable of appreciating beauty and talent at the same time.
As this group’s career unfolds, the more interesting story won’t be “Who wore what in this gallery?” It will be whether this grand HYBE-Geffen experiment actually changes how global girl groups are built – and whether the media can keep up without falling back on the same old pinup playbook.
Sources
- HYBE and Geffen Records joint press announcements describing the global girl group project and confirming the final KATSEYE lineup, 2023.
- Billboard coverage of the HYBE x Geffen girl group finale and KATSEYE member reveal, November 2023.
- KATSEYE and HYBE/Geffen official social media and bios describing the group as a global girl group formed through an international audition program, accessed through 2024.
Your turn: When you see girl groups framed as “babes” and “smoke shows,” do you shrug it off as harmless fun, or does it change how seriously you take the coverage?
Comments