The heat is on in Single's Inferno, the Korean dating show on Netflix, as it has returned for a second season with more real-life K-drama and a cast of colorful characters, such as Nadine Lee, who has gone viral on social media as a fan favorite.
The 22-year-old Korean American wowed fans after revealing she is a pre-med student in her third year at Harvard University and has quickly become the "It" girl this season.
In a post that received 48,800 likes, Twitter user @cafewindows wrote: "meet the it girl of single's inferno s2—nadine lee a harvard pre-med student with minor in computer science, raised by a wonderful single mother."
Twitter user @herbrightstars agreed, stating "lee nadine is THE it girl and slays the whole show of single's inferno all under 1 minute [crying floods of tears emoji]" in a post sharing a clip of Lee from the show, which received 48,000 views.
But there's much more to the story of this "multitalented goddess," as dubbed by Twitter user @sichengfluffs.
Here we unpack the fascinating story of Lee's journey into Harvard after being raised by her 52-year-old YouTube influencer mother.
A Triple Threat: Beauty, Brains and Sports
Lee has been making waves on the internet even before her appearance on Single's Inferno Season 2 with her impressive roster of Ivy League college acceptances.
A video post sharing her heartwarming reactions to opening her acceptance letters to various schools, including Yale and Princeton in addition to Harvard, went viral after it was shared on her mom's YouTube channel, where it received over 3.5 million views.
With a double major in neuroscience and computer science, the Harvard junior has been doing research on temporal lobe epilepsy for around two years. She currently works in a lab at Boston's Children Hospital. Following graduation, Lee hopes to go to medical school and pursue surgery.
If that wasn't impressive enough, the brainiac also excels on the athletic front. She has played lacrosse in high school and college as well as soccer in high school. She was accepted into West Point, the U.S. military academy based in New York (which she said was actually her first choice, according to her viral reaction video) and the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado.
Tackling Harvard Admissions
The start of Lee's stint at Harvard came at a time when a lawsuit alleging that the Ivy League school discriminated against Asian American applicants during the admissions process by giving them the lowest scores on a subjective "personal rating" was playing out in court.
The Single's Inferno star's acceptance to Harvard was certainly earned with hard work, which included applying to join the U.S. Air Force Reserve Officers Training Corps (AFROTC) in a bid to stand out among the swarms of other Asian American applicants she knew she was up against, Lee told The New York Times back in October 2018 as a freshman at Harvard.
According to The Times, Lee—who grew up in Englewood, New Jersey, Seoul, South Korea and Marin County, California—applied to the AFROTC to highlight her enthusiasm for the military and ambition to become a trauma surgeon as a way to set her apart from her Harvard candidates.
"I knew that I didn't—whatever this means—I didn't want to be the typical Asian," she told The Times.
Beyond applying for the military academy, Lee said her approach to college applications has been about "owning the process," according to another viral video post highlighting her "college admissions tips." on her mom's YouTube channel, which received at least 2.7 million views.
Lee said in the video: "I completely changed the college application process [...] it's more so of learning about yourself, owning the process [rather than doing it just for your parents...]
"No matter how smart you are [...] if you don't have goals or values in life [...] a meaningful vision for the future, prestigious Ivy Leagues would not consider you a strong applicant [...] it's about finding who you are, and being confident in who you are and owning the process," the Harvard student advised.
Lee's 52-Year-Old YouTube Influencer Mom
Lee would not be where she is today without the support of her mom, who has become a social media sensation in her own right at 52 years of age. Her YouTube channel 반짝이는 니모팸, which means "Sparkling Nimo Fam [Family]"), has 213,000 subscribers and has had over 19.2 million views since it was launched in March 2020.
Asked what motivated her to start the channel, the mom said in a video posted in April 2020 that she believes "today is always the youngest I'll ever be. So I felt motivated to start being courageous from today and create a YouTube channel that everyone, from their 20s to their 60s, could relate to and share about the youngest days of our lives. "
The lifestyle channel sees Lee's mom share her tips on various elements from fashion and styling to parenting.
Speaking about how it feels to be a single mom who raised not just one but two Ivy League student daughters (Lee's younger sister attends the University of Pennsylvania) on her YouTube channel, she said she merely hoped that both of her kids would attend college. She never expected either of them to go to an Ivy League school.
While she says she can't take credit for her daughters' educational feats, Lee's mom is all the more proud for it and feels a "sense of comfort" knowing that others can see "how truly hard" she has worked in life to raise her kids.
Lee said her mom never forced her to study hard or insist that the Single's Inferno star must get accepted into Harvard. "She always told me to do whatever I want to do, do whatever makes you happy. I had a lot of freedom growing up and with that freedom, I learned a lot about myself," Lee said in a video on her mom's YouTube channel.
She said her mom never told her "you're supposed to go to this school" or "this is how you're supposed to do things," so "all my decisions became my own story."
While Lee's career and family life have panned out in some colorful ways, the fate of her romantic endeavors has yet to be determined. But as she did with her college applications, Lee is "all in" for the challenge.
"If I really like someone, I don't really mind long distance. I think I'll go all in," she said in the premiere of Season 2.
Single's Inferno Season 2 is available for streaming on Netflix.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
");jQuery(this).remove()}) jQuery('.start-slider').owlCarousel({loop:!1,margin:10,nav:!0,items:1}).on('changed.owl.carousel',function(event){var currentItem=event.item.index;var totalItems=event.item.count;if(currentItem===0){jQuery('.owl-prev').addClass('disabled')}else{jQuery('.owl-prev').removeClass('disabled')} if(currentItem===totalItems-1){jQuery('.owl-next').addClass('disabled')}else{jQuery('.owl-next').removeClass('disabled')}})}})})
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7r7HWrK6enZtjsLC5jqygp5%2BcmsButc2fnKumn2LApq3SqKVmal2jrqW1zZ5kpZ2VYrWivtWaqZ1lnprBp7jIsWSkp6Karq95w5qroqaXYsCpu9ZmaHBvYGyEdw%3D%3D