Her new YouTube career

Kang Min-kyung has amassed 650,000 YouTube subscribers since she started it a year and a half ago hoping to get more personal with her fans. Her channel is filled with her song covers and calming vlogs – such as taking care of her garden, cooking and dressing up in her vintage clothes, her sense of style seeped in every corner of her house.

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In April she donated US$24,907, earned from her YouTube views, to Korea Paediatric Cancer Foundation under her and her subscribers’ name.

However, she recently found herself facing controversy after fans discovered that Kang had not correctly captioned some of her page’s branded content – and later apologised for her mistake.

She started the croffle trend

Some of her most-watched videos show Kang introducing her kitchen, daily items and her diet tips – and fans are taking note. Just like a friend, she gives a tour of even the smallest details from her glassware and whisky collection, and even her favourite spices.

From taking sneak peeks into her life, Kang followers are curious to try out her favourite products. Exhibit A: Ever heard of croffle? As a mix between a waffle and a croissant, a croffle is a trendy dessert in Korea at the moment … after Kang raved about it on her Instagram and YouTube. Her go-to cafe hyped up the trend even more, and now Seoul’s Saddler Haus has earned a nickname as “Kang Min-kyung’s croffle spot”.

She launched her lifestyle/fashion brand Àvie Muah

In June, she finally revealed her big new project after spilling it little by little. Named Àvie Muah – Àvie meaning forever in French and Muah from the kiss gesture – the brand’s website was trending on its launch day and its website server even went down temporarily. An online shopfront curated by Kang, Àvie Muah introduces a variety of products from fashion to lifestyle items based upon Kang’s style and in collaboration with local designers.

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As Kang is famously known as a fashionista, people are curious to see what products she will continue to curate, and as of now the coffee mug ceramic set and silk hair scrunchies are among her most popular products. Reflecting the brand’s name, she focuses on comfortable clothes and home decorations that people will want to keep with them forever.

Proving their best friend relationship, her partner in crime Lee Hae-ri of Davichi also bought the products and left a lengthy detailed review, writing “this was the pants I was looking for”, adding, “PS some may think you only have one pants because you’ll want to wear it everyday”.

She used to be an internet beauty star

Proving that she was born to be a star, Kang was popular on the internet as a ulzzang (meaning best face) even before her debut, after someone shared a picture of her from her social media account. She grew her own fan base and modelled. Later when she was 16, she auditioned for her dream to become a singer. “I practised even harder after some netizens commented that she’ll debut with just her looks,” Kang said in an interview with Joynews24.

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In an interview with Esquire Korea, Kang said that she liked being on the stage and singing during school fairs from the age of five. “I like singing so singer would be perfect! Then I can be on TV,” she thought to herself back then. Dreams can come true.

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