Sujin Kim arrived in Mexico after a debilitating depression. Today she is one of the biggest influencers in the country.
Monterrey, Nuevo León.- What do you do when you don’t get what you fought for 12 years? You reinvent yourself with the goal of being happy. That seems to be the maxim of Sujin Kim, better known as Chinguamiga, the Korean influencer who has fascinated Mexicans with her culture shock videos.
The life of this content creator is a moving example of how digital entrepreneurship can be a lifeline in life’s most difficult moments. Born on April 4, 1991 in South Korea, Sujin had a dream of becoming a flight attendant and traveling the world. However, the beauty culture of her native country defined that she was not beautiful and thin enough to be one.
“At the academy they told me that she had to weigh less than 40 kilos and I was 50. And about my face that I had to change almost everything to be able to be a stewardess. Then I wanted to be an ambassador, but they told me I had to be a man,” Chinguamiga spoke during her conference at incMTY 2023.
The failure that led Sujin to depression
She had traveled to learn languages and at that time she met some Latin classmates who showed her that life was not just about preparing.
Sujin had dedicated the last 12 years of her life to studying for 18 hours a day for the university entrance exam, something that in South Korea practically defines your future. However, she did not manage to stay in the most prestigious school as she wanted to work in a large company.
She then had a breakdown due to burnout and depression that kept her in the hospital for a year. Sujin was battling deep depression, she felt lost and disconnected from the world around her. Her life seemed to be at a dead end, without a clear purpose or sense of direction.
“I said ‘My life was worth it. I’m depressed, in debt from the hospital, I’m ugly, I didn’t have the good university I dreamed of and I was already half old for Korea,’” the influencer recalled. “So he decided that if my life had already been wasted, then at least I would live what I wanted.”
It was with that dream that the young woman moved to Mexico in 2018 and surprisingly, her move marked a radical change in her mental health. As she recounted in an interview, she overcame her depression by starting to live in Mexico, a change she described as “very strange” and almost immediate.
Mexico healing hearts
However, her arrival in the Aztec country was not so easy because Chinguamiga did not speak Spanish and in the Korean company in Monterrey for which she began working she was harassed at work. She then decided to be a Korean teacher and after working in small academies, she had the opportunity to work at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León.
“There began another life. Here she was already very happy because she had found her vocation and her country. I was still taking sleeping pills because of the depression, but here I was cured; “I was happy, happy, happy,” the influencer recalled.
However, her destiny had a setback that would take her out of the job of her dreams and force her to reinvent herself in a way she never dreamed of: the pandemic.
The 2020 health crisis left Sujin unemployed and, in order not to lose income, she first began uploading videos of Korean classes. She started her YouTube channel in February 2020, however, over time, she shifted her focus towards vlogs and comedy videos, originally created for TikTok and later uploaded to YouTube. Although at first it was difficult for her to gain followers, she soon became one of the most famous influencers on the platform.
Today Chinguamiga has more than 10.8 million followers on Instagram, 9.16 million on YouTube and almost 26 million on TikTok.
“Those foreign eyes with humor pleased the public and then I became Chinguamiga, content creator. I don’t want to say I’m successful. Maybe I had the success of searching and searching to be happy. “I never gave up on that dream,” said the TikToker.
Chinguamiga, the entrepreneur
One of the keys to this influencer’s success was her honesty. Chinguamiga never hid her personal struggles, which made her even closer and loved among her community. Over time, Chinguamiga became a symbol of improvement and hope.
With her fame consolidated in Mexico, Sujin began collaborating with brands and other creators, expanding her reach and exploring new horizons in the digital world.
Finally, she opened three lines of e-commerce business that she manages from her website:
Chingutienda
A service that started with Google Forms that has become more professional to import Korean books at more affordable prices.
Chinguescuela
A Korean school in Spanish that has given online classes to more than a thousand students in 20 countries.
Nadaun
A service for exporting and selling k-beauty products that she uses herself.
“Create your product thinking about content that can be viral: ingenious, innovative, technological, etc. and that it is really good in quality,” Chinguamiga recommended for internet promotion.
Finally, Chinguamiga explained that her journey through the world of digital business has left her important lessons:
Do things with love.
Opening a business is not everything. The most important thing is to maintain it.
You can’t succeed on the first try.
You have to seek to be different.
Try to be realistic with your goals.
Take care of your brand image for the long term.
“Do what you like, because as they say, you will never work if you do what you love. And don’t give up easily, because if you insist on what you’re passionate about, eventually something good will happen.”
Source: Periodico Correo
