She was shocked by the amount of backlash the group received!

Yeseul, formerly a member of group 4L, revealed that the reason she decided to leave her group and her company was due to the extreme controversy they faced for their sexual marketing tactics.

4L debuted in 2014 with the song “Move.” They were quickly scrutinized by netizens for their “19+ marketing,” due to their revealing outfits and over-sexualized performance.

Yeseul left the group after a few months to pursue a solo career, and 4L eventually disbanded.

When asked about her thoughts on the matter, Yeseul explained that the amount of scrutiny the group received was shocking to her.

“At the time I was deep in thought about my identity as a singer. We were under much controversy because of our shocking concept from the start and it was hard to expect much from the situation.” — Yeseul

So much so, she started questioning her own identity as a singer. Yeseul felt shame and regret for doing certain things, which she only did to survive in the first place.

“I felt like I was dressed in something that wasn’t me and it made working hard for me.The company wasn’t forcing anything on me, but to survive, it was just something I had to do. The reality of the situation made me regret a lot of things.” — Yeseul

After much self-reflection, Yeseul decided that she had to leave the group 4L, as well as the agency, Jade Contents Media.

“I thought to myself multiple times, ‘do I really have to resort to such matters?’ I did not want to resort to such things any longer and decided that staying in the company held no future for me. That’s why after thinking long and hard, I left the team.” — Yeseul

Finally, when Yeseul was asked whether or not she made the right choice, moving on and doing her own style of music, she explained that she did.

“I feel like I’m starting over. I don’t really like sexy and it was uncomfortable for me.” — Yeseul