How To Determine Whether You’re Beautiful In Korea, As Explained By A Non-Korean Korea Resident

Are you beautiful?

Lifestyle vlogger Megan Bowen shared her thoughts and perceptions of what beauty is in Korea, and while this video isn’t a recent upload, it’s interesting to see what has changed and what hasn’t. Of course, these are all a matter of opinion (and Megan expresses multiple times that she thinks we’re all beautiful), so don’t take it too seriously if you don’t fall within a certain standard—the truth is, we’re all perfect just the way we are!

… But in Korea, it seems like beauty is more of a matter of fact, so people are more liberal about saying, ‘Oh, you’re ugly’ or ‘you need this’, ‘you need to fix your nose’, ‘why don’t you have surgery’, blah blah blah… They do, generally speaking, go for more plastic surgery methods to obtain that look.

—Megan Bowen

Megan detailed each item of what makes you beautiful in Korea, which we’ve compiled into a list below:


1. Pale Skin

They want to be lighter, so you see some people with tan skin and they’re rocking, like, a white face.

—Megan Bowen

Many idols do tend to have pale skin, including TWICE‘s Dahyun, who is known for having flawless porcelain skin!

2. Big eyes

They want to have big eyes, and they want to have an out fold (epicanthal fold).

—Megan Bowen

Megan notes that most Koreans have an in-fold, like Taeyang.

3. Double eyelids

…But a lot of Asian people don’t have those, they have a monolid, which is just one.

—Megan Bowen

The double eyelid procedure is common in East Asia and many K-Pop idols, including Super Junior‘s Kyuhyun, have admitted to having their eyelids done!

4. Tall nose bridge

You see this? With a lot of Asian people, this part is flat.

—Megan Bowen

BTS‘s J-Hope is an example of a Korean with an excellent side profile and tall nose bridge!

5. A small face

The students count your head to see how it proportions to your body.

—Megan Bowen

CLC‘s Yujin is one of many examples of idols who are blessed with small faces.

6. A V-line face

V-line faces are still popular, but L-line faces have also grown in popularity since 2017! MAMAMOO‘s Moonbyul is a classic example of a perfect V-line face.

7. Rounded (back of) heads

I was doing hair for my friend’s wedding and one of the Korean ladies, she was like, ‘can you tease the back so my head doesn’t look so flat?’ And then, that was the first time I noticed the back of Korean heads are flat. So, there’s a perm that they get… It makes it flat, but it makes the top part, like, out…

—Megan Bowen

8. Having the ideal body shape (X-line and S-line)

Picture an X, the middle part of the X is the waist.

—Megan Bowen


S-line is when you have a big bust, a big butt, and a small waist.

—Megan Bowen


9. Have long legs

Former SISTAR member Bora has incredibly long legs that seem to go on for days, despite being around 5’5″!

Were you surprised by any of the items Megan listed? Or was it all just about what you expected in regard to beauty standards?