K-Dramas like True Beauty are one of the highly anticipated storylines among fans. The 2021 series was about love, friendship, insecurities and acceptance.
Man Ka-Young plays high schooler Im Ju-Kyung who is bullied for her average looks. She moves to a new place and enrolls in a new school. She decides to not be bullied this time and thus hides her natural beauty with heavy makeup. She is insecure about her true identity until she realizes that inner beauty is what matters the most.
The K-Drama also focuses on romance. Cha Eun-Woo’s Lee Soo-Ho is aware of Ju-Kyung’s real face and falls in love with her. Han Seo-Joon (Hwang In-Yeop) is the second lead who also likes her.
True Beauty is not the only Korean drama that deals with insecurities. Here are a few more K-dramas:
My ID is Gangnam Beauty
My ID is Gangnam Beauty is one of the K-Dramas which is quite similar to True Beauty. It also stars Cha Eun-Woo in the lead role. The story revolves around Kang Mi-Rae (Lim Soo-Hyang) who lacks self-confidence because of her looks. She used to be bullied for her ugly appearance and thus saved money for plastic surgery.
She transforms into a beautiful person, however, a few people still mock her and call her “Gangnam Beauty” in an insulting manner. However, Eun-Woo’s Do Kyung-Seok doesn’t care about the outer beauty and eventually falls in love with Mi-Rae. She slowly gets her confidence back to face the world.
Love Alarm
Love Alarm is the 2019 popular Korean drama. It may not have a similar storyline to True Beauty but the concept of insecurities and acceptance match. In Love Alarm, Kim Jo-jo (Kim So-Hyun) appears as a chirpy personality but she hides her pain from the world.
She finds it difficult to accept her vulnerability and sadness in front of other people. Jo-jo hides her true feelings, which also affects her when she has to choose between Song Kang (as Huang Sun-Oh) and Jung Ga-Ram (as Lee Hye-Yeong).
She Was Pretty
K-Dramas like True Beauty also include 2015’s She Was Pretty. The story is about childhood friends Sung-Joon (Park Seo-Joon) and Hye-Jin (Hwang Jung-Eum). When they were kids, Sung-Joon was overweight. At the time, Hye-Jin was beautiful and kind. She helped Sung-Joon overcome his insecurities and formed a strong bond with him.
They reconnect after 15 years through social media. They plan to meet without knowing how they look at the present time. As Hye-Jin used to be pretty, he passes by Hye-Jin and approaches an attractive lady. Hye-Jin then decides to hide her identity and send her roommate Ha-Ri (Koh Joon-Hee) to meet him as her. Fate still brings the lead characters together as they end up at the same workplace. Even before finding out Hye-Jin’s truth, Sung-Joon falls for her, adding an office romance to the storyline.
Oh My Venus
Oh My Venus is another K-Drama similar to True Beauty. It is about a 33-year-old Kang Joo-Eun (Shin Min-A) and her insecurity about her weight. She feels she is unattractive due to being overweight. She somehow hires well-known personal trainer Kim Young-Ho (So Ji-Sub) who reluctantly agrees to help her.
Young-Ho also suffers from insecurities after a tragic injury when he was a child. Both the characters help each other overcome their fears and accept the realities, respectively.
Shadow Beauty
Shadow Beauty tells the story of a high school student Ae-Jin (Shim Dal-Gi). She is bullied because of her not-so-pretty looks. Interestingly, her bullies do not know that she is a famous social media influencer Genie.
Ae-Jin photoshops and adds filters to her selfies and pictures before posting them on social media. One day, a text turns her world upside down. It seems someone is aware of Genie’s real identity.
