If there’s one thing the girls of KATSEYE aren’t going to do, it’s shrink themselves down. The six-member global girl group — comprised of superstars Daniela, Lara, Manon, Megan, Sophia, and Yoonchae — is loud, proud, and making it their mission to show fans that standing out isn’t just OK — it’s kind of the whole point. “We really want to make anybody who watches us feel like the best version of themselves,” Lara tells Her Campus. “We want [our fans] to be confident and explore themselves, and just be super true to who they really are.”
You might be familiar with KATSEYE from their Netflix documentary Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE, which gave viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the first-ever global girl group. Or, maybe you’ve heard their viral song “GNARLY” pop up on TikTok or your Discover Weekly — it charted on the Billboard Hot 100 after all. (And if you haven’t, consider this your sign to start listening. It’ll be stuck in your head all week.)
But aside from making bangers and serving looks, KATSEYE is a girl group that’s all about representation: Sophia is from the Philippines, Yoonchae was born in Korea, and Manon grew up in Switzerland to Swiss-Italian and Ghanaian parents. The three American members also have global roots: Daniela is Venezuelan-Cuban, Lara is Indian, and Megan is Chinese-Singaporean. Not to mention, both Lara and Megan identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community, coming out as queer and bisexual (respectively) in 2025.
So, when the girl group teamed up with Monster High to re-vamp the iconic “Fright Song” with a fierce, Gen Z twist, it wasn’t just an opportunity to make a childhood dream come true — it was a way to encourage all of us to embrace the things that make us different from the rest. (Oh, but they also got to create their own Monster High personas with matching dolls — so they’re kind of living the dream anyway.)
Her Campus sat down with the KATSEYE girls to kiki about their recreating “Fright Song,” what inspired their Monster High personas, and the importance of championing representation and living life as your truest, most authentic, and freakily-flawed self.
This Interview has been edited for length and clarity.
“Fright Song” is an iconic bop, but I had the chance to listen to your new version. It bangs — how did you approach revamping it for a new generation while still keeping that OG Monster High energy?
Lara: We’ve all grown up with this song. Obviously, it’s raised us, it’s so iconic. I think that we wanted to really pay homage to it by taking on the character of Monster High. And the attitude and the confidence and the brattiness of that Monster High really has — they’re fierce. But I think we also wanted to add our own little flair, and so you can hear a little bit of a different texture in our voice, or just maybe a different attitude that we brought that was very individual to us. The excitement for us to be able to do our own version really took over — and the adrenaline.
Each of you got your own custom Monster High doll, which is an actual dream come true. Can you each describe your monster persona and how it reflects your real-life personality or style?
Sophia: Mine is a vampire, but also a Manananggal, which is this mythological creature in the Philippines. She also has a lot of my features. We have the skin tone on point, the moles, the facial structure, the hair —we got everything down to the teeth.
Manon: She’s a sea monster, and she’s got some gills on her. I wanted to make sure that she has every feature that I have. So you’ll see all of my moles on her. You’ll see my waist beads, my straight brows, and I’m obsessed with her.
Megan: Mine is the little fox. She’s inspired by a Chinese folk story about a Chinese fox spirit, where it can levitate objects. It’s very mysterious, but also really likes to have fun, so it plays pranks on the other monsters, which is kind of me. I have my jade bracelet on there as well. I really wanted to make it unique to me with my hair, my style, and my KATSEYE charm. The dual cherry is on the doll as well. So we just really wanted to include everything that makes me me into the doll.
Lara: Basically, she’s a modern-day Raksasha, which is the devil or a villain in Indian mythology. Her biggest trait is that she’s very clever and smart, and she can shapeshift into any form that she wants, so she can just kind of be anything. She has a lot of my special traits, like my nose ring, a Bindi on, and my skin color down to a T — which I think is so important. When I was growing up with Monster High, Cleo DeNile made me feel represented in a way because of her skin color. So for this doll, it was important to me that my culture was very much shown in it.
Daniela: Mine has curly hair, and I think that’s a big part. I wanted to incorporate that into my doll because that’s a big part of me and my culture — just embracing my natural curls. We also wanted to incorporate some gold hoops and some beauty marks. She’s just this confident, fierce werewolf with dark lunar energy.
Yoonchae: For my character, it’s a Korean traditional monster, and it’s called the Jangsanbeom. If you look it up, it looks really scary, but she is really cute. And I really love that. And there’s small moles and charms on my body, too.
Who is your favorite OG Monster High doll?
Sophia: Frankie Stein has been my favorite since I was a little girl. I dressed up as her for Halloween and literally as a trainee for KATSEYE. I found a photo in 2022 of me walking into Hot Topic and finding a Frankie costume and putting it over me, and had my fellow trainee take a photo.
Manon: For me, it was Cleo. I was like, “She’s so pretty and she looks like me!”
Megan: Mine was Draculara — I loved vampires growing up, so I was just drawn to her.
Yoonchae: Mine too! I love vampires, so I think she’s really cool.
Daniela: Same, yeah — or Cleo, honestly. I don’t know what drew me to those two, but I think it was just maybe their outfits or their hair. When I was a kid, I just loved playing with those two.
Lara: I would say definitely Cleo or maybe even Clawdeen. I really liked Clawdeen — such a baddie.
KATSEYE is known for being a global girl group, but your representation goes beyond just nationality or culture — you’re also emerging as queer icons for a new generation. What does that kind of visibility and impact mean to you?
Lara: It’s such an honor for us to be able to have that influence on people, whether it comes to our sexuality, our ethnicity, just the way we dress, how we act — everything. We really recognize the importance of having an influence on people. We’re also just very excited to be in that position, we really want to make anybody who watches us feel like the best version of themselves. We want our fans to be confident and explore themselves, and just be super true to who they really are. There’s definitely pressure, though. We want to make sure we do it [right], and we always encourage people to do the best and the right thing. But it’s very exciting, and we couldn’t be more grateful to be in that position.
Monster High has always been about embracing what makes you unique. How has that message resonated with you coming up in the music industry?
Sophia: There’s such a big connection between our image and our goal as KATSEYE to really represent and show our cultures and our uniqueness with Monster High. When you think of monsters as a kid, they’re supposed to be scary. They’re supposed to be the not-good guys — they’re minorities. And Monster High sort of celebrates that within the individual uniqueness of it all. It’s very similar to our image as KATSEYE. So it was very fitting, and it’s something that is a big part of who we are. We want to carry that into our music and how we do everything that we do.