True Beauty is a Korean Rom Com Webtoon written by Yaongyi.
Im Jugyeong (sometimes romantisized as Im Ju-Gyeong or Im Joo Kyung) has had it rough her whole life. She struggles with grades, is the middle child to a beautiful and hardworking older sister and a handsome and intelligent younger brother, and most pressingly, she's treated unfairly by her family and was bullied in middle school for her ugly face. One day, after binge-watching makeup tutorials, she learns how to use makeup to transform into a beautiful young woman. When she starts attending high school, she meets two boys who fall for her: Lee Su-Ho, an aloof and wealthy student who has a sweet side, and Han Seo-Jun, a rude and blunt "bad boy" who's secretly a blushing mess when flustered or embarrassed.
The show was adapted into a TV drama that ran from December 9th, 2020 to February 4th, 2021.
This series provides examples of the following tropes:
- All Just a Dream: One spin-off chapter has Seojun dreaming about a reality where he doesn't take the music deal and remains together with Jugyeong.
- Attractiveness Discrimination: A core theme of the series. All off the characters are affected by the consequences of lookism, whether because they're considered unattractive or because they're extremely attractive and it causes a plethora of problems. Jugyeong in particular strongly embodies the trope: she was tormented in middle school due to having a pimpled face and thick eyebrows, thus being considered "ugly" by everyone around her, and she specifically learned how to apply makeup and dress herself up so she could make herself pretty and earn the respect of other pretty people. There's a marked difference in how people treat her when she's not wearing makeup versus when she is.
- Being Ugly Sucks: The premise of the story and the main problem that Jugyeong has to face the consequences of, whether it's bullying or being mistreated by her family. She believes this sentiment so strongly that she resorts to hiding her natural "ugly" face with makeup every day, turning herself into an attractive
- Black Sheep: Jugyeong is the only unattractive and bookdumb member of her family, whereas both of her siblings are conventionally attractive and excel at school.
- Bland-Name Product: Jugyeong eventually starts a "Yootube" channel.
- Cast Full of Pretty Boys: All of the male characters are handsome teenagers or young adults. This is frequently Played for Drama: several plot points arise from the fact that many of the male leads are uncommonly attractive and use their looks to get ahead in life, from landing modeling or music deals to simply convincing girls to date them.
- Coming of Age Story: The webtoon deals with Jugyeong growing up, following her from high school to work life and chronicling her journey to accept herself as she is, warts and all.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Miyeon Lee was badly disfigured in a car accident years ago, and while her daughter Minji still loved her, Miyeon felt guilty that her daughter was either ignored or bullied as a child by other kids who claimed that her mother was a "monster". As such, Minji doesn't have any family photos with her mother at important events in her life.
- A Day in the Limelight: The Spin-Off series are dedicated to the side characters and their love lives.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Jugyeong decides to give one of her classmates a makeover to romance a potential crush, but it ultimately doesn't work out. However, the confidence from the makeover eventually helps him land a different girl.
- Fire and Ice Love Triangle: Jugyeong is involved in a love triangle with two boys: Suho, who's cold and distant, and Seojun, who's hot-tempered and abrasive.
- First Love: Suho was Jugyeong's first ever crush before Seojun comes into the picture.
- Good Parents: When Suho's dad, Joohun, eventually wakes up from his coma, he's shown to be very kind and supportive of his son's relationship with Jugyeong, calling her his future daughter-in-law. When Suho eventually tells his family he wants to drop out of school to become a chef like his late mother, Joohun is fully on deck with his dream.
- Idol Singer: Seojun trains to become a singer for an idol group and successfully debuts as an idol.
- It's All My Fault: Suho reveals that his friend Seyeon tried to call him before committing suicide, but Suho didn't answer because he was upset about seeing his father with another woman. He blames himself for Seyeon's death and is convinced that Seyeon would still be alive if he had answered.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: While Seojun gives Jugyeong his blessing to be with Suho, it's made clear that he's still very much in love with her.
- Karma Houdini: Zigzagged with Producer Lee. She reveals Jugyeong's bare face to the internet, and it's mentioned that the management company gave her zero punishment for it while Jugyeong is essentially let go. However, given that it's later revealed that efforts to replace Jugyeong have not worked out, it's clear Lee made a big mistake in letting their star go.
- The Makeover: Jugyeong learns how to do makeup in order to transform herself from an unattractive girl into someone incredibly attractive. In later chapters, she occasionally uses her makeup skills to give makeovers to other characters as well.
- Once More, with Clarity: The main reason Suho is upset with his father is because he saw him with another woman, which he saw as a betrayal to his late mom. When Joohun later wakes up from his coma, he reveals that this is not the case: the woman was just a co worker who wanted to romance him, but he turned her down due to his devotion to his deceased wife.
- Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: The reason Heeyon's fellow band members turned on her was because one of them overheard her complaining about how she'd been getting a lot of solo gigs and seemed to be the only one doing any work, making it look like she didn't care about LINE. She later clarifies that this wasn't case: she was actually angry because the other members hadn't been receiving any gigs the way she had, and was insisting that they should all be treated equally.
- Relative Error: In the Spin-Off, Heegyeong develops a crush on her boss, Sihun, but later sees him with another woman. He later clarifies that the other woman was his sister, to Heegyeong's utter embarrassment.
- Shout-Out:
- Jugyeong tours the set of a fictional movie called My Zombie Son, with cameos of Jeonghwan, Yeonhwa, and Bamsoon from My Daughter Is A Zombie.
- Jugyeong goes out to watch a horror movie called Tales of the Unusual. The theater is selling Yaeji Han figures.
- Spear Counterpart: Seungho, aka Mr. H, is a Yootube makeup artist who, like Jugyeong, looks radically different without makeup and was bullied in school due to his appearance.
- Stalker with a Crush: One arc features Seojun attracting a stalker who's determined to become his girlfriend, even going so far as to dress up as Jugyeong.
- We Used to Be Friends: Seojun and Suho used to be best friends, but fell out after their mutual friend, Seyeon, committed suicide. Jugyeong is eventually able to help them reconcile.
