Jessica Jung author page

Jessica Jung biography

Jessica Jung is a Korean-American singer, actress, fashion entrepreneur and young adult author. She trained in the South Korean music industry before debuting in 2007 as a member of the K-pop group Girls’ Generation. After leaving the group in 2014, she pursued a solo music career and developed the fashion brand Blanc & Eclare.

Jung made her fiction debut with the YA novel Shine, published in the United States by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers in September 2020 and in the UK by Electric Monkey, an imprint of HarperCollins. The novel became a New York Times bestseller. Drawing on Jung’s professional experience while remaining fictional, it follows Korean-American teenager Rachel Kim as she trains at the fictional DB Entertainment and competes for the chance to become a K-pop idol.

The sequel, Bright, was published in 2022. It continues Rachel’s story after she has become a member of the successful girl group Girls Forever, exploring the pressures surrounding her music career as she also pursues ambitions in fashion. The UK edition was again published by Electric Monkey.

Jung has described Shine as fiction inspired by her experiences rather than an autobiography or tell-all account. Together, Shine and Bright form a two-book YA series centred on the training, performance, competition and restrictions surrounding the fictional K-pop industry.