Youko was one of the finalists of the Taiwanese Hello! Project audition chosen to become Ice Creamusume. Tsunku commented that despite the fact that Matsuura Aya songs are harder to sing than it would seem, she got the melody and Japanese correct. He was also impressed at the fact that she had lost a lot of weight during the auditions. Youko got her nickname "Deng Pao" (light bulb) from her tendency to zone out during the auditions, a tendency she kept up during Ice Creamusume's television appearances.