KATSEYE’s Megan Opens Up About Pressure, Perfectionism, And Growth
Following her time at the Dream Academy program, the 19-year-old pop star talks to Billboard Philippines about finding her sense of self, overcoming her perfectionism, and making diamonds out of pressure one year into their journey as KATSEYE.
Photographed by JC Cerilla.
Photographed by JC Cerilla.
There’s a lot more to Megan Skiendiel than meets the eye.
If you’ve followed her journey since HYBE and Geffen Records’ reality competition, The Debut: Dream Academy, or even Netflix’s original documentary series, Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE, what you’d see throughout such programs often highlights her prowess in both dancing and singing, her unwavering discipline, and stable work ethic — which ultimately snagged her a spot within the six-member lineup of KATSEYE.
Bearing witness to her evolution and talent in such programs may have been more than enough to get invested in her story from the get-go, but if you had asked the group’s fanbase of EYEKONs, such traits and aspects barely scratch the surface of Megan’s own unique identity. For if there’s one thing that’s won the hearts and minds of fans, it would undoubtedly be that of her winning personality.
Since the official debut of KATSEYE, Megan hasn’t shied away from showcasing more of that to the entire world. Whether it was the softer, more pop-oriented side of what the group had done on their debut record, SIS (Soft Is Strong), or the more edgy, gritty-leaning nature of their recently released EP, Beautiful Chaos, she has continued to integrate all these bits and pieces of herself in her work, allowing her to present the most authentic version of herself with her on-stage persona and her social media presence.
Perhaps it’s what has endeared her to her millions of people worldwide, shooting her from a promising talent to a global pop star in less than a year. Yet with everything else that has changed for KATSEYE amidst their rapid growth in the industry, such opportunities have only excited Megan and her fellow members further.
“I think we’re just feeling that everything is still really new, and it’s still really, really exciting to us,” she giddily shares with me, while on the set of their shoot for Billboard Philippines’ August 2025 cover story.
KATSEYE’s evolution over the past year has spawned several successful endeavors for Megan and the others, taking them around the world for an abundance of jam-packed festival appearances, promotional show performances, and even multiple global campaigns for some of the world’s biggest fashion brands. Though such growth could be noted as overwhelming to some, the 19-year-old pop star welcomes these opportunities as a chance to introduce themselves further to the rest of the world. “Every time that we have a new song or a new project, we’re just super excited to show another part of ourselves — which is already a dream in itself,” she mentions.
Megan specifically notes the process of making Beautiful Chaos as one of their most laborious projects to date, albeit with the upside of translating who they are even more clearly within the record’s five tracks. “With this EP specifically, we were all super excited to show that raw and realness to us as opposed to like our first EP, SIS, which was us super fresh out of training. But here, we wanted to show more of who we are with the realness and a grittier, yet deeper side of KATSEYE and ourselves.”
In bringing that side of themselves into the public eye, she recalls the varied set of reactions from both the general public and their fans — particularly with how much of a departure “Gnarly” was from what audiences came to love of “Touch” and “Debut.” “We were heavily inspired by what’s happening right now in music. “Gnarly” is so different from anything that we’ve done before,” she tells me. “It was a little bit of a challenge, but at the same time, we had to fully let go of ourselves for the song and just be 100% real and raw, so we just went for it.”
Having broken down those walls on “Gnarly” and the rest of Beautiful Chaos’ track list, Megan recalls how much it opened things up further in the relationship of KATSEYE’s members with one another. The sense of liberation that each of them felt in their approach to the record was also translated into their sisterhood, which she mentions had allowed them to genuinely rely on one another.
“During our time in Dream Academy, we may have all been sisters in the program, but at the same time, we were really trying to focus on becoming a group and getting our slot within it, especially with it being a competition. But as part of KATSEYE, I think we really formed a family with our sisterhood after spending a whole year with each other,” she states. “We really got to know what works for each person in KATSEYE, whether it was all the deep things about each other, and how certain members work, or how certain members need certain things.
She continues, “It really strengthened our communication, particularly after living and working with each other 24/7 and traveling everywhere. Because of that, we’ve learned how to rely on one another, and we really worked on strengthening that family bond. Now, we can fully trust one another as a singular unit.”
Such familiarity and close-knit dynamics between Megan and the others have led her to share some “super specific, but also kind of funny” stories with me about what goes on with them behind closed doors, and how they deal with one another’s habits, hobbies, and antics off stage. “Something that I’ve learned [about us] is that before every performance, or before early morning shows or practices, everyone needs something different. Like, I am a quiet person, so I like to be like have my own time by myself in the corner and then get my energy. But someone like Sophia, she loves energy. And Manon, she’s kind of like me, where she needs a little bit more quiet to build up her energy before the show,” she recalls.
“We kind of learned those little nuances of things about each other, and that helped us connect even further, almost as if we were real-life sisters despite our different cultural backgrounds,” adds Megan.
For her, she views the group’s diverse cultural backgrounds as one of their strongest assets within the global music scene, including that of her own Swedish-Chinese heritage. Beyond the optics, Megan sees it as an opportunity to bring something new to the table that can resonate with an even bigger audience than usual. “I think it’s really awesome and really cool that we get to be that representation for our own culture, especially with where we’re from,” she states. “It’s such an honor with how we get to incorporate it in our music, including with our visual elements.”
“Just as how I love how Lara wears her bindi all the time. I love that I also get to wear a chongsam in honor of my Chinese culture, and I always wear my jade bracelet for everything — for every photo shoot, music video, and performance,” Megan mentions. “I love to represent something that I’ve grown up with and embraced since I was a child. Because when I was young, we didn’t really have a lot of this type of representation in the media — whether it was subtle or not — so being able to bring that in for a new generation is honestly so cool, and so crazy too.”
“It’s so heartwarming that I get to do that in this group. To be able to do that, especially with KATSEYE, to spread it, and also bring all those cultures together, as we teach and learn about everyone’s differences and culture — that’s one of the aspects that I think makes us stand out a lot more with what we’re doing.”
While the immense exposure for Megan and KATSEYE has brought in a lot of goodwill with regards to representation, it has also opened the doors for several social media users to scrutinize, nitpick, and criticize their every move. Megan herself was aware of what was to come, even preparing herself for the barrage of possible backlash and unnecessary feedback from strangers on the net, yet she tells me just how difficult it was to look away at times.
“There’s definitely always the feeling of pressure being in the limelight. You always want to do your best, say the right thing, and even do the right thing. But in the lens of social media, it’s the one thing that always gets to us. Given the amount comments and people saying their unwarranted opinions, [I’ve realized] it’s not healthy to consume so much of so many other people’s opinions about you — whether it’s good or bad,” she shares.
Megan looks back at a certain period of time, one wherein she spent her free time doomscrolling on various corners of the net, looking to read the feedback of others on her performances or public appearances. “I had a time where I was like literally always on Twitter (now X), always on Instagram comment sections, just seeing what opinions people thought about me, wondering if they think that I’m cool or whatever. But whether it was a good comment or a bad comment, it really did get to me — no matter if I thought it did or did not affect me.”
“It came to a point where i had to delete Twitter after that, and it really helped my mind for me not to be thinking about that. Because I think that protecting your mental health from that pressure comes with having time to disconnect from what people are saying about you, and having your own time to yourself — kind of grounding yourself without other people’s opinions about you,” she continues.
As it stands, Megan labels herself as a “perfectionist” as well, so there was already an internal struggle (and underlying pressure) to deliver within her mind outside of the feedback from the internet. “I feel like I’ve had some challenges by being too much of a perfectionist, and that also comes with always being super hard on myself and nitpicking things a little bit too much to a certain point,” she says, which in turn did not mesh well with social media’s unwarranted ramblings. Yet for her, “self awareness” is key — as it allowed her to move past such pressures, giving her the realization that “at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter as long as like we’re all having a good time and just having fun.”
Such takeaways are merely just the tip of the iceberg of what Megan has learned in her time with KATSEYE, considering how much she has embraced her evolution as both a performer and a woman with everything they’ve managed to accomplish since their formation. “I started my journey in KATSEYE when I joined the group when I was 17, and now I’m 19. So as an artist, it really helped me tap into my also my ultra alter ego. I feel like when I’m on stage, I lock in, and get to kind of just go for it and give my full energy,” she shares.
“Behind the scenes, I’ve been able to tap into my creative side, especially working with our amazing team, and I get to see how everything gets processed. It inspires me that I get to see everything, like every little nuance of how every single song comes to life or how every single creative decision was made. And it really inspires any performance that I’m doing.” She adds further, “But as a person, i think it really, really helped me with my confidence. I had some kind of trouble tapping into that before, and throughout this year of being in KATSEYE, just really going for it and also having an alter ego, it really helped as well.
”Being able to like just fully trust the work that I put in and knowing that all the rehearsals, all the studio hours, have paid off. There were times where before performances when I’d worry, saying ‘Oh shoot, I’m gonna forget it and i’m gonna mess up!’ because I always had doubts in myself. But over time, relying on my members and them always being there for me, I really learned to just trust the work that I put in and have confidence in myself to be like, ‘You know what? I’ve got it. I’ve done this dance and song tens of thousands of times, so I’m not gonna mess up this time.’ I feel like that definitely shaped my confidence, and who I am right now,” she concludes.
With her rejuvenated sense of confidence and awareness to what works for her creative process, Megan takes the time to share with me the methodical, step-by-step process of how she prepares for each and every one of her performances. As it stands, several of her performances have garnered viral traction within the internet’s realms — whether it was energetic on stage performances, or even the more comedic ‘Candace from Phineas & Ferb’-inspired choreography videos. “What’s interesting about my creative process and how I do all that is that I need time to sit with things and then it will digest in my body and my brain.
“I grew up as a dancer, and then I started singing when I was seven, so I kind of adopted the same sort of succession with my craft. So when I learn a dance, I learn the choreography, process it, all just to dance. Then after, I like to add the performance element on top of that, and then learn how to sing with the dance after, and then we learn how to control our breath or learn how to wink at this certain part. But for my specific process, I like to go step by step, like learn the dance, add the singing on top of it, add the performance, and then, after all of that has settled in my body, just putting them all together and merging, and having it really be just a natural second instinct to me,”
Seeing just how excited she is to divulge these details about her process, we even converse about her impressive (if standout) performance of Demi Lovato’s “Confident” from her Dream Academy days — noting just how insane of a belt was executed for her performance in that challenge of the show. “Even with like singing, it’s all about the core strength. It’s not even just about adding the singing with the dancing; it’s like doing a lot of ab workouts to make sure that your core is engaged for the singing,” she says, before adding with a slight chuckle, “There are so many little things that go into like a performance that people wouldn’t even realize.”
Now that KATSEYE have conquered nearly every stage they’ve stepped foot on around the world (with even more to come soon), it’s become an undisputed testament to the six-piece group’s status as global pop phenomenons. Yet amidst all these accomplishments and their resulting achievements, Megan only envisions one major goal for their impact as a group and the legacy they hope to leave behind.
“While we do want to leave an impact on music and with fashion, I honestly just want people to remember how we can be ourselves. I think the number one thing that we want to spread is confidence and be recognized for being ourselves,” she proudly proclaims. “We just want to spread that love everywhere globally, especially with our role in representing so many cultures, because it’s so cool to be that for someone and even for ourselves.”
From the very start, Megan Skiendiel’s story has been about more than her talent and discipline — it’s been about uncovering the person behind the performer. What audiences first saw in Dream Academy was only the surface of what she had to offer, because since then — through KATSEYE’s music, her cultural pride, and her unshakable bond with her members — Megan has shown that her journey is just as much about self-discovery and authenticity as it is about global success.
Now, as she continues to grow and evolve both on and off stage, Megan’s evolution reflects a message that resonates far beyond music — the power of embracing who you truly are. For all her achievements and acclaim, it’s this reminder of confidence and freedom that she hopes leaves the deepest impact, with Megan also hoping that Beautiful Chaos serves as a good representation that encapsulates such parts of themselves. “It’s kind of bringing that confidence for everyone to be themselves, in the same way that it did for me. Because that’s honestly like the most fun and freeing thing to be,” she shares with a smile.
Read KATSEYE’s August 2025 cover story here.
Listen to KATSEYE’s latest EP, Beautiful Chaos, below:
Photographed by JC Cerilla. Creative Direction by Daryl Chang. Art Direction by Nicole Almero. Art by Alannah Mitra. Make up by Valerie Vonprisk assisted by Ashley Ysabelle Sarmiento. Hair by Sully Layo assisted by Ryan Taniguchi. Camcorder videographer Coey Wu. Interview Video & BTS video Edmond Liang. Assistant and BTS photographer Sky Wu assisted by Malcolm Bacani. Production by Andrew Bear & Spencer Kelly of Hyperion LA. Shot at Hype Studios LA. Produced by Mika Cruz.
Special thanks to Hybe, Geffen Records, Interscope, UMG PH, Hyperion LA, & Hype Studios LA.
Written by Gabriel Saulog. Billboard Philippines, August 2025.