At the age of 17, Soyeon joined Season 1 of Produce 101. Her rap skills were quickly noticed by Cheetah, who asked her to rap again after her performance.
During one of the PD101 episodes, Soyeon hit notes that many of the vocalists were unable to reach. The vocal coach was impressed and said: "If the rapper is good at singing, what's left for the trainees who can't sing?"
Despite recieving several hate comments from Korean viewers about her appearence, Soyeon continued to work hard and became popular with international viewers for her charisma and talent in rapping on the show.
Soyeon made 20th place in PD101, and became one of the contestants on Unpretty Rapstar 3 soon after. Despite being one of youngest, she quickly proved that her skills could compete with the older rappers, who began to call her "unnie".
Soyeon made her solo debut with "Jelly", a song she wrote, produced, and arranged.
In 2018, (G)I-DLE debuted with the title track "Latata", which was written, produced, and composed by Soyeon when their debut date kept being postponed because a song wasn't ready. Their debut mini album, I AM, had 4/5 songs written by Soyeon.
Latata earned (G)I-DLE their first win 20 days after debut, making them the fourth fastest group to do so.
Soyeon has writing, production, or arrangement credits in every (G)I-DLE song since Hann, excluding Light My Fire (this list excludes tracks from I TRUST)
Soyeon became the second rapper to rap out of pocket live at MMA 2018
Soyeon was chosen as the voice of Akali for "POP/STARS" by KDA because the Riot staff were all fans of her rap skills and (G)I-DLE's music. She appeared again in "Giants" by True Damage.
Soyeon was praised by international media for her self-production and ability to change concepts and sounds with each song.
Soyeon became the fastest girl group rapper with her intro on Queendom (8.32 syllables per second)
(G)I-DLE's LION, written and produced by Soyeon for the Queendom finale, was well recieved globally for its originality. It was nominated for Best Pop Song at the KMA's, becoming the first non-Big 3 group to achieve this along with BTS.
When asked about (G)I-DLE's inspiration, Soyeon says that she's often inspired by the members and doesn't consider gender when she creates music. Soyeon wants to create music that stands out from the rest of kpop.
As of the release of I TRUST, Soyeon has around 35 songs that she has copyright credits to. This possibly makes her a part of the top 10 most copyrighted female idols, only two years after debut.