Commemoration of Children's Day varies around the world. In South Korea, Children's Day is celebrated every May 5th of the year and considered as one of the public holidays.
In honoring and cherishing the well-being of children, below is a compilation of photos of our favorite celebrities and their childhood stories (you probably know).
During a photoshoot, Lee Joon Gi was interviewed regarding his childhood and his relationship with his family.
“During my rebellious teens, I went to a taekwondo dojo with my father for roughly a year,” said Lee. “He really helped me find my center when I was going through a shaky time and so I’m really grateful. He’s still somebody that I can lean on and open up to, and he’s somebody that always accepts me no matter what.”
She began her career as a model at the age of 14. When Song Hye Kyo was born, she was so ill that her parents and doctors did not think that she would survive. Her parents divorced when she was a young girl, after which she was raised initially by her grandfather, then by her mother.
Lee Jong Suk and his siblings were raised by super strict parents. At 15, he began his modelling career, making him the youngest male model to debut in the Seoul Collection program at Seoul Fashion Week. Lee Jong Suk was deemed unfit to enlist as an active duty soldier as a result of suffering a car accident when he was 16 and tearing his anterior cruciate ligament. Therefore, he worked as a public service officer during his mandatory military service.
Her first name means "big pear tree" in Hanja. How she got her name goes back to her father. On the day she was born, her father decided to name her after the flower because he passed a pear orchard while on his way to register her name. Kim Tae Ri and her older brother was raised by their grandmother. Whilst in school, she used to work on a lot of part-time jobs such as KFC, a newspaper company, a multiplex, etc.
Each member of BTS had a unique childhood that has shaped them into the talented and successful artists they are today.
Suga had a fun childhood. He was pretty poor and loved creating music but his parents didn’t approve. His hideout place was a mountain in Daegu and he used to wear his Heelys to school all the time. He said that once during Christmas eve, he was so excited for Santa that he couldn’t sleep. Suga pretended to sleep and then his dad walked into the room, placing the gift beside him and Suga woke up and their eyes met. He said that’s when he found out that Santa wasn’t real.
RM had a nice childhood. His mom forced him to watch Friends so he can learn English. He loved roller skating as a kid and he was always praised for his good studies.
J-Hope loved and began dancing at a dance studio in Gwangju when he was 12. He said that his refuge was his dance studio when he was a kid. He thought of it as his hideout.
V was raised by his Grandma because his parents had a job in the city. He was a farmer and he loved his Grandma. His Grandma used to walk him home from school everyday. He had a special bond with her.
Ji Min was a great student and dancer! He mentioned that he loved building pillow forts when he was a kid and he got many compliments for being cute and well behaved. He was top in all of his classes. He was class president and someone paid his tuition for dance school. He did contemporary dance at a school and was the best one there.
Jin was born into a well off family. He was the youngest in his family. He said that he got lots of compliments for his looks when he was growing up. He used to play under the bridge and play house there with his friends. His Dad straight up told him the truth about Santa and how it wasn’t real. Jin had to massage his dads shoulders and be nice to him in order to get good gifts like this Harry Potter CD game.
Jung Kook did taekwondo when he was younger. He had a great voice from the start and was scouted from many companies when he was 12. His teachers wanted him up front when it was art, music, or athletics. He was good at everything.
Born in 1986, Jo Jung Suk wanted to be on the stage since childhood. After High School, he enrolled in the Theatre Department of the Seoul Institute of the Arts on a student loan. However, after his father died in 2000, he dropped out before graduating to look after his mother. Jo Jung Suk has been exempted from military service, as he was the sole financial provider for his mother.
Having experienced hardships at a young age, he shares that he learned to acknowledge the things he couldn't do with his own will and how to overcome them.
Yoo Seung Ho claims that his family had been poor. He started in show business as a child actor. He rose to stardom in his first film The Way Home and was then affectionately labeled as "Nation's Little Brother" or "Little So Ji Sub". It is said that every time Yoo Seung Ho started a project, he always offered the production crew a condition of respecting child actors. Yoo Seung Ho requested the production team to reduce the hardships that children had to push ahead with during filming, which is a rather excessive working environment.
The actor sang a duet with singer/actress IU titled "Believe in Love" for the charity program Love Request. The song's lyrics was based on a diary that Yoo Seung Ho had written while seeing orphans of war in the slums of Sri Lanka.
It is said that he carried snacks around the filming site and gave them to other child actors. He also comforted the child actors who were struggling because they had to wait such a long time for their filming. In addition, thanks to Yoo Seung Ho’s efforts, child actors have gradually been treated better.