[7] She lived with her family in Jecheon until her fifth year of elementary school, when she moved to Canada with her older sister, Shon Seung-hee,[8] to study abroad.

[9][10] She lived in Brockville, Ontario[11] before moving to the United States to attend Shattuck-Saint Mary's in Faribault, Minnesota, where she was an honor student and athlete, and earned various awards for academics and music-related activities.

[14] Her parents were initially against her pursuing a career in music and wanted her to focus on her studies, but while she was still in high school, they eventually allowed her to audition to become a singer in South Korea.

[26] In January 2016, Wendy became a long-term panelist on We Got Married and participated in King of Mask Singer as a contestant under the alias "Space Beauty Maetel".

In July 2016, Wendy and her Red Velvet bandmate Seulgi released an original soundtrack titled "Don't Push Me" for the TV drama series Uncontrollably Fond.

[31][32] In the same month, she was featured in the English version of Latin pop star Ricky Martin's single "Vente Pa' Ca".

[34] In February, she sang the Korean version of "My Time" which is part of Disney Channel's Elena of Avalor's official soundtrack and also appeared in its music video.

[36] On October 27, she, along with Kangta and Seulgi, released a remake of the 2001 song "인형 (Doll)" by Shinhwa's Shin Hye-sung and Lee Ji-hoon as part of the second season of the SM Station project.

[38] In February 2018, Wendy was chosen as the interactive holographic avatar of SK Telecom's new AI voice assistant speaker, 'Holobox'.

[39] In June 2018, Wendy was announced filming in Austria with Seulgi for Battle Trip's special episode themed 'The Country I Want to Live in'.

Due to the alleged lack of common safety measures by the show's crew members in the stage design, in addition to the lift stairs not being in place for the performance, she fell approximately 2.5 metres (8.2 ft).

[51] In March 2020, Wendy had her first public schedule since suffering an accident in December 2019, with an appearance on MBC Standard FM's Listen To Books.

[52] In the same month, Wendy was confirmed to take part as main voice actress for the Korean release of DreamWorks animated film Trolls: World Tour.

[55] In the same month, Wendy featured in labelmate Taemin's "Be Your Enemy", which was in included in his studio album Never Gonna Dance Again.

[64] In the same month, Wendy was cast as 'I' in the 10th Anniversary production of the musical Rebecca, marking her official theatre debut.