Im Yoona was born in Seoul, South Korea on May 30, 1990. At a young age, she auditioned at the SM Saturday Open Casting Audition and joined the company in 2002. She began to train with the other trainees under the same company in the areas of acting, singing and dancing. During her training days, Yoona appeared on some music videos of other SM artists. She was trained for 6 years before debuting as part of Girls' Generation.