By Rooney Gopaul
Hope that headline grabbed your attention. This is Chronically Online, where we take hot topics and give you the online discourse as well as the facts, and you decide the verdict.
To understand the gravitas of this topic, you first need to know KATSEYE. They are a six-girl international group formed by HYBE and Geffen in the K-Pop inspired competition series The Debut: Dream Academy in 2023. After months of T&D (training and development), missions, and eliminations, 20 girls turned to 6: Lara Raj (Tamilnadu), Sophia Laforteza (Filipino), Daniela Avanzini (Venezuelan-Cuban), Megan Skiendiel (Chinese-Singaporean-American), Jeong Yoonchae (Korean), and the woman in question Manon Bannerman (Swiss-Italian-Ghanaian). Eleven countries are represented between the six of them. In two short years they have a massed a dedicated cult-like fanbase known as the EYEKONS, two Grammy nominations, two VMAs, a Super Bowl ad, and are making strides in the genre of K-Pop. Amid all the momentum, on a random Friday, February 20th, an announcement was made that “broke the internet.”
What is Fact
HYBE announced via Weverse (A HYBE owned platform) that Manon Bannerman was taking a temporary hiatus to “focus on her health and wellbeing.”
As of the date of writing, Manon Bannerman has not officially addressed the fans on her personal status.
As of the date of writing, no other member of KATSEYE has spoken on Manon or her status.
What is Being Said Online
Allegedly, Manon (under the alias @Peanutbutterlover02) shared her own statement through Weverse DMs, by writing, “I want you to hear this from me, I’m healthy. I’m okay, and I’m taking care of myself. Thank u for checking in! Sometimes things unfold in ways we don’t fully control, but I’m trusting the bigger picture.”
Fans of Bannerman have done careful sleuthing to shed light on situations in the past in which Manon was excluded from the rest of the members, in order to fit the narrative of “she’s being pushed out.” A leading example is, on May 23rd, 2025, KATSEYE – all six members - were featured in a Glossier billboard advertisement on Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles. The same day, five of the girls excluding Manon posted a group picture to the official KATSEYE Instagram account promoting their campaign. The next day, Manon – by herself – did the same, alone.
Allegedly, Bannerman liked a post that stated, “Another Black girl subjected to racism and label mistreatment yet again.” This has led some fans to speculate whether racism may have played a role in her hiatus. Countless Black female artists from acclaimed pop girl groups of the past have publicly acknowledged Manon’s situation, like Leigh-Anne Pinnock of Little Mix, Normani of Fifth Harmony, and Melody Thornton of the Pussycat Dolls, sending supportive messages like, “We need to protect each other.”
What is Not Being Said
The world of pop stardom and the music industry is cut-throat, as we know from stories like Doechii and Chappell Roan. Idols – a term coined to describe members of K-pop groups – are legally bound and contractually obligated to act in certain ways. Ex-idols have mentioned in the past the struggles when it comes to agency over their body and mind, even more so for women based in strict Korean beauty standards. As of 2026, HYBE has not debuted any Black K-pop idols under its main labels - therefore, this is new territory for them.
In the Netflix docuseries Pop Star Academy: KATSEYE, the girls are clearly supported by many industry professionals, choreographers, singing coaches, and HYBE x Geffen executives. The show portrayed Manon as lazy and not as hard-working as the other girls in the group. Entertainment, similar to music, is subjective not objective, therefore we do not know what the editors left on the cutting room floor, or how producers of the show formed storylines.
Here’s my Take
That is the best segue into do not trust everything you read or see online. There are multiple sides to every story, and rarely is it as clear-cut as it may first seem. This is a reminder that the music and entertainment industries are complex ecosystems shaped by marketing strategies, public relations, and meticulously managed narratives.
As of now, this case remains unresolved. We do not know what will transpire with KATSEYE or with Manon Bannerman. I hope you learned from this article how little we know, and how loud the internet can be. Of course, the internet is not always wrong. Fandoms have been the first to identify real issues within the entertainment industry before. If racism is proven to be a factor in this situation, then it deserves to be addressed and condemned.
In a world where attention is currency, thank you for spending yours here! If you believe I have overlooked something or disagree with any of the points raised, you can share your perspective in the comments at TheQuill.ca – I would be interested to hear your take. Use your critical thinking skills!