Hong Jin Kyung's daughter Rael sheds tears over the malicious comments about her 'heavily edited' TikToks

27 Mar 2026, 04:07 by Susan-Han · allkpop

Hong Jin Kyung sat down with her daughter Rael for an honest chat about her TikTok videos and SNS photos, which created immense buzz last month.

In a new video uploaded on Hong Jin Kyung's YouTube channel on March 26 KST, Hong Jin Kyung asked Rael, "When do you plan on revealing your face on YouTube?", to which Rael answered, "Maybe when I'm in college. I don't want to be on YouTube right now." Hong Jin Kyung followed up with, "Then how come you post videos on TikTok?", to which Rael said, "I had no idea it would blow up like this. Why did it come to this?"

Hong Jin Kyung put her two cents in with, "There's just too great of a gap between you before the filtering and the editing and you after the filtering and editing." However, Rael argued, "But all women wear makeup. All women look different when they're not wearing makeup. When I was shown on YouTube as a child, that was me without any makeup or beautification."

The 16-year old then began crying, as she confessed, "There were so many malicious comments."

Despite her daughter's tears, Hong Jin Kyung reasoned, "The TikTok filter was.. a bit too much. You just turned yourself into a completely different person." Hearing this, Rael refuted, "But I mean the filters and the editing features are there for you to use. What's so wrong with using the filters and the other features that are made for that purpose?"

Of course, Hong Jin Kyung had her gripes about the criticism as well. She said, "I remember waking up that morning and seeing the flood of news reports. She's just a teenager posting some TikTok videos. Why are so many reporters making a big deal out of this?"

On her edited photos on SNS, Rael insisted, "It's not like I posted anything inappropriate. Mom, I'm telling you. Less than 0.1% of Korean women post raw, unedited photos on their SNS. If you just go to any cafe and see what the women are doing on their phones, they're all making their waists look smaller in their photos."

Finally, Rael explained that she has since deleted her TikTok account, and added on, "I hope that people will be a littler kinder to me about my SNS photos," while her mother remarked, "SNS can be harmful. I hope she finds something else that interests her, like tennis or dance. Of course, I am sorry as her mom that she is not able to live a normal life because of me."

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