From Kid Leader to Beautiful Lady: A Portrait of Taeyeon for Her 23rd (24th) Birthday

On the ninth of March, 1989, a beautiful angel was born into this world. The heavens undoubtedly cried, but setting the cheesy jokes aside, SONEs around the world are gathering to celebrate the birthday of this angel, the girl who makes our lives brighter, Kim Taeyeon. What exactly is it that draws people to her? To start with, she has a passion for music, an infectious laugh, a wonderful voice that is capable of expressing an incredible variety of emotions, and a well documented love for peas. To SONEs, Taeyeon is an endless source of inspiration, someone who works hard and leads by example. In contrast to her professionalism, she also possesses a childish side that fans adore. For the other members of Girls’ Generation, she’s the vertically challenged leader that they like to pick on. Sometimes they’ll pester her with overly cute gestures, comment on her (short) height, and even pull down her shirt. Despite all that, she is someone that they will always take care of and love. Deep down inside, she's really just a very caring dork who loves to have fun. Things haven't always been easy for the young girl who has blossomed into a beautiful woman. At one point, she even doubted her own abilities to lead the group and wanted to step down from the position. However, SONEs will always consider Taeyeon to be the leader, because she puts the fans and her members before herself. Even if she isn't feeling well because of an exhaustive schedule, she will still show up to meet fans, like she did in New York after the SMTown concert. When she injured herself at the Gaon Chart Awards, she continued to perform her emcee duties, just so she wouldn’t inconvenience anyone. While she may not have the most commanding presence offstage among her members, she has earned everyone's respect through her actions, and for that reason, people look up to her as a real leader. In addition to her progression as a leader, her stage persona has evolved over time. Taeyeon has always been praised for having a strong versatile voice, but she recently got the chance to really show off her skills. During the Japan tour and the second Asia tour, she sang a solo rock piece titled "Devil’s Cry", which showed off her vocal talent and musical ability in singing a different genre with power and ease. Taeyeon even earned the nickname "Rocker Taeng" for the stunningly powerful and fierce performance, a sign that fans couldn’t just use her nickname “Kid Leader” for her childish looks anymore. During promotions for “The Boys”, no one could call her a "kid" anymore with her neapolitan-style triple colored hair that ended in pink extensions. For the latter half of the promotions she even dyed her hair completely blonde, a first for Taeyeon. The completely new look was both sexy and beautiful. A very drastic change from when she was a teen girl with youthful looks. What really makes fans fall in love with Taeyeon is how much she cares for and loves the fans in return. She sheds tears for SONEs who stay up into the late hours of the night (or early hours of the morning) just so they can cheer the girls on. Taeyeon even defended SONEs from being called “So-Duks” (author’s note: Soshi obsessed), a term that carries a derogatory connotation that the emcees from “Radio Star” were unaware of. Of course, when talking about Taeyeon, there always has to be a little bit of dorkiness involved as well. When she was asked to describe her personality in one word in two different Japanese interviews, she replied with “cosmos” and “prism”, which are far cries from the usual self-descriptive words. She even ran around during a concert carrying the stuffed toy peas that she got from fans. SONEs were also able to experience a cute side of Taeyeon on an episode of “Running Man”, where she was teamed up with HaHa and when she played peek-a-boo with the camera at the New York fan signing. So, even if she says she hates it and has no cuteness, fans still love her adorable antics, even if it makes their fingers curl in embarrassment. Taeyeon has grown not just as a person, but also as an artist over the years. She is no longer just the "Kid Leader", but a beautiful and confident woman. In celebration of all that Taeyeon has achieved and will continue to achieve, SONEs will continue to support her through thick and thin, helping her when times are difficult, and sharing in her happiness together. Soshified wishes you a very happy 23rd (24th) birthday Kim Taeyeon. We love you. Written by: SeraphKY@soshified Edited by: michaelroni@soshified, bhost909@soshified, taengsoshi@soshified, MoonSoshi9@soshified Contributors: letsgo@soshified, JeremyJay22@soshified Have a news item that you think Soshified should know about? Leave us a tip or e-mail us at tip@soshified.com. Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/soshified for the latest on Girls' Generation.

URL: http://soshified.com/2012/03/from-kid-leader-to-beautiful-lady-a-portrait-of-taeyeon-for-her-23rd-24th-birthday