SISTAR gave a piece of advice to rookie girl group I.O.I when they both appeared on MBC Music's "Star Show 360." The advice related to dealing with male seniors in the industry.
SISTAR's Soyu and Hyorin told the members of I.O.I to be careful of male seniors. "Be careful of men. When you're a rookie, male seniors won't leave you alone, but not all male seniors are nice people," SISTAR said, as translated by Koreaboo. SISTAR particularly advised against dating seniors, telling the younger girl group to just stay at home and don't meet up with guys.
Super Junior's Leeteuk, who is also considered as a veteran in the industry, agreed with SISTAR's statement. SISTAR gave the same advice to Kim So Hye in October last year.
It is known in the K-Pop industry that older male celebrities often take interest in rookie female idols. In a June 2016 broadcast of "Happy Together," Brown Eyed Girls' JeA revealed that she received a lot of calls from men asking her about the participants of "Produce 101," which was a reality girl group survival program on Mnet.
"They would just call me out of nowhere and say stuff like, 'I [like] Im Na Young.' There were celebrities among them as well," JeA confessed, allkpop reported.
She further revealed that the guys would ask about the contestants' personalities and whether they like older men. She added that the age gap between the guys who called her and the contestants on "Produce 101" was huge.
On the show, I.O.I member Jung Chae Yeon shared that she was contacted by male celebrities who showed interest in her. She was even a big fan of one of those who communicated with her. "There were singers and others from different fields," Jung said.
