Today is Kim Sae Ron‘s 15th birthday, which is an occasion perfect for doing a retrospective appreciation post of the fantastic pictorial she did for Marie Claire Korea back in March 2015. It was a scant four months ago but when a teenager is growing even weeks can make a difference in how much she’s transforming right before our eyes. She already looks less gangly then she did last year in the KBS drama Hi! School: Love On, one of those dramas I watched because it was on but never quite went anywhere with the story or acting.

Thankfully the drama didn’t make the romance too hard to digest, considering Kim Sae Ron was just 13 years old when she filmed it, but it was still too early while now I would be fine seeing her act in a high school romance with an age-appropriate costar. I very much appreciate the Marie Claire spread for not overly sexing Kim Sae Ron up, even if she’s a beautiful blossoming young woman, but instead celebrating her youthful prettiness without needing to cross the line. I look forward to watching her grow into adult roles down the road, and in the process continue to blow the competition out of the water with her unparallel child actress movie career.