For a while, it felt like the world had already begun treating ITZY like a finished story. After the five-member Korean girl group launched with an explosive streak of hit singles — “DALLA DALLA,” “WANNABE,” “LOCO” — ITZY carved out a reputation as confident, unshakable trailblazers. But by 2022, backlash was brewing by way of “Sneakers,” the lead single from their Checkmate mini-album. “Sneakers” happens to be one of their biggest hits thus far, but it didn’t matter.

It’s easy to forget how fickle K-pop momentum can be. One divisive title track can fracture a fandom; one “off-brand” concept can spark months, even years of doom-posting. But ITZY didn’t fold. Instead, they began rebuilding – and that’s part of their power.

In the post-production phase of their sixth mini-album Cheshire, the members – YEJI, LIA, RYUJIN, CHAERYEONG, and YUNA – and their company began conducting one-on-one interviews that would directly shape their next project. The result was 2023’s Kill My Doubt: a sharply curated mini-album about fear, growth, and self-belief as an admission of vulnerability.

Since then, ITZY has re-emerged with something deeper than just good pop songs. They’ve built a new creative language: conceptual, cohesive, and proudly self-authored. On Born to Be, released in January 2024, they styled themselves as warriors: each member taking on their own solo track and visual concept to reflect their individual identity. “Our new album is so powerful, powerful to the extent that you'll be able to taste the smell of the flame burning hot,” YEJI told the press at the time — a hyperbolic statement, maybe, but one that captured the group’s firebrand energy. Later that year, after the thirty-two-date Born to Be World Tour, ITZY followed up with GOLD, a thematically rich release rooted in the idea that “our world is still different.” Where previous eras might have leaned on external validation, these new projects framed ITZY as artists firmly in control of their own creative centre.

Now, their tenth mini-album, Girls Will Be Girls, completes the arc. Its trailer alone generated major buzz online — an art house-style short film full of surreal imagery, including RYUJIN’s symbolic transformation into an inflatable doll. Fans immediately hailed it as one of the most visually ambitious K-pop teasers in recent memory, but underneath the stylisation sits a story about girlhood, friendship, and emotional survival.

The title track flips the dismissive phrase “girls will be girls” into an anthem of connection as opposed to conformity, echoing the project’s wider message that vulnerability and resilience aren’t opposites, but coexisting truths. That spirit continues on “Kiss & Tell,” one of ITZY’s strongest deep cuts to date, with defiance at its core: “I don’t talk / Let ’em talk,” CHAERYEONG sings, like an unbothered eye-roll that feels earned rather than forced.

None of this is to say that ITZY has fully escaped the weight of past expectations. The K-pop ecosystem doesn’t make reinvention that easy, least of all for girl groups who are expected to be everything, all at once. So, call Girls Will Be Girls a reminder: ITZY are still here, still different — and still building a story that’s theirs alone. After years of noise, scrutiny, and second-guessing, Girls Will Be Girls might be their boldest move of all.