True Beauty is a Korean Rom Com Webtoon written by Yaongyi.
Im Ju-Gyeong has had it rough her whole life, she struggles with grades, is the middle child to a beautiful and hardworking older sister and a handsome and intelligent younger brother, but her biggest blunder is her appearance. She's treated unfairly by her family and was bullied in middle school for her ugly face. One day after binge-watching makeup tutorials, she learns how to use makeup to transform into a beautiful young woman. When she goes to a new high school, she meets two boys who fall for her. Lee Su-Ho, an aloof and wealthy student who's secretly sweeter on the inside, and Han Seo-Jun, a rude and blunt "bad boy" who's secretly quick to be flustered.
The show was adapted into a drama on December 9th, 2020, and ended on February 4th, 2021.
This series provides examples of the following tropes:
- All Just a Dream: One spin off has Seojun dreaming about a reality where he doesn't take the music deal and remains together with Jugyeong.
- Attractiveness Discrimination: Jugyeong gets tormented in middle school due to having a pimpled face and thick eyebrows thus considered ugly by everyone.
- Being Ugly Sucks: The premise of the story and the main problem that Jugyeong has to face the consequences of, be it bullying or being mistreated by her family, which made her resort to hiding her natural "ugly" face with makeup every day.
- Black Sheep: Jugyeong is the only unattractive and bookdumb one of her family whereas the rest are conventionally attractive and have good grades.
- Bland-Name Product: Jugyeong eventually starts a Yootube channel.
- Cast Full of Pretty Boys: The author made it so the characters are exceptionally beautiful and have nice body figures.
- Coming of Age Story: The webtoon deals with Jugyeong growing up and going from high school to work life and the troubles she has with romance as well.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Miyeon Lee was scared in a car accident years ago, and while her daughter Minji still loved her, she hated how her daughter was either ignored or bullied as a child since other kids claimed "her mother was a monster". As such, she never had a family photo with her at important events in her life.
- A Day in the Limelight: The Spin Off series are dedicated to the side characters and their love lives.
- Did Not Get the Girl: Jugyeong decides to give one of her classmates one to romance a potential crush, but it ultimately doesn't work out. However, the confidence from the makeover eventually made him land a girl.
- Fire and Ice Love Triangle: Jugyeong is involved in one where the first side, Suho, is slightly cold and distant, while the other side, Seojun, is blunt but warm.
- First Love: Suho counts as Jugyeong's first ever crush before Seojun comes into the picture.
- Good Parents: When Suho's dad, Joohun, eventually wakes up from his coma, he's shown to be very kind and supportive of his son's relationship with Jugyeong, calling her his future daughter-in-law. When Suho eventually tells his family he wants to drop out of school to become a chef like his late mother, Joohun is fully on deck with his dream.
- Idol Singer: Seojun trains to become one and successfully debuts as an idol.
- It's All My Fault: Suho reveals that Seyeon tried to call him before his suicide, but Suho didn't answer because he saw his father with another woman. He still thinks Seyeon might be still be alive if he answered.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: While Seojun gives Jugyeong his blessing to be with Suho, it's made clear in later appearances he's still very much in love with her.
- Karma Houdini: Zigzagged with Producer Lee. She reveals Jugyeong's bare face to the internet, and it's mentioned the management company gave her no comeuppance while Jugyeong is essentially let go. However, given how it's later mentioned that efforts to replace Jugyeong has not worked out, it's clear Lee made a big mistake in letting their star go.
- The Makeover: Jugyeong learns how to do makeup and uses it to transform herself from ugly to super pretty, hiding her flaws. The later chapters would show her applying it to other characters.
- Once More, with Clarity: The main reason Suho is mad at his dad is because he saw him with another woman, which he saw as a betrayal to his late mom. When Joohun later wakes up from his coma, he says it's not the case: the woman was just another co worker who wanted to romance him, but he is and still was devoted to his late wife.
- Out-of-Context Eavesdropping: The reason Heeyon's fellow members turned on her was because one of them overheard her complaining about how she's been getting solo gigs and why she's the only one doing the work, making it look like she doesn't care about LINE. She clarifies it's not the case: she was angry because the other members haven't got any gigs like her and that they should all be treated equally.
- Relative Error: In the Spin Offs, Heegyeong develops a crush on her boss, Sihun, but later sees him with another woman. He later clarifies she's just his sister to Heegyeong's utter embarrassment.
- Shout-Out:
- Jugyeong tours the set of "My Zombie Son", with cameos of Jeonghwan, Yeonhwa, and Bamsoon from My Daughter Is A Zombie.
- Jugyeong goes out to watch a horror movie called "Tales of the Unusual". The theater is selling Yaeji Han figures.
- Spear Counterpart: Seungho aka Mr. H, a Yootube makeup artist who like Jugyeong looks radically different without makeup and was bullied in school due to his natural look.
- Stalker with a Crush: One arc features Seojun getting one, who goes the extra mile by dressing up as Jugyeong.
- We Used to Be Friends: Seojun and Suho used to be close, but that changed when their mutual friend, Seyeon, committed suicide. Jugyeong is eventually able to help them reconcile.
