Pre-debut: Early activities in China
Originally, the group consisted of five trainees who were formed by JYP Entertainment in 2010. While still in training, the group flew to China where they appeared in numerous variety shows performing dance routines and songs to showcase themselves to the Chinese audience. As the group had no official name, they were known to the Chinese audiences as JYP Sisters and the "Chinese Wonder Girls". However, the group went through several changes during this period; the withdrawal of two members and most notably the exit of member Lim who was re-grouped to join the Wonder Girls.

On March 2010, fifteen year old trainee Suzy Bae joined the group and the trio became known as 'miss A'. Suzy has worked previously as a model for an online shopping mall. The group began their first official promotional activities in China as a group by signing up with the Samsung Electronics group in China. The group released a song used for the commercial called "Love Again" for the Samsung Beat Festival. The song was written by Korean composer Super Changddai, and the music video was directed by Hong Won Ki. Lee Min Young, a solo artist and a long-time trainee in America, also made a cameo appearance in the music video. She had auditioned when she was in the 6th grade, and she traveled to the U.S., where she trained for 6 years. She came back in 2008 to continue activities in Korea. During her time in New York, she studied at the Repertory Company High School in Manhattan. It was later announced that she would be joining the group under her stage name, Min, for their South Korean debut on April.

2010–11: Debut, A Class and Chinese debut
miss A made their official debut in South Korea as a four-member group on July 1 with their single "Bad Girl Good Girl." The song was taken from their debut single album Bad but Good. In less than a month, Miss A topped several music charts. Miss A received first place in the on KBS "Music Bank", becoming the fastest girl group to take the #1 spot on a music show.

The group also consequently got first place program Inkigayo from the SBS. On August 1, 2010, Miss A received their first "Mutizen" award on M.net's M! Countdown. The song stayed as the number 1 song for four straight weeks, breaking the previous record set by Girls' Generation.

The group later on made their comeback with their second single album called "Step Up" on September 26. The group promoted "Breathe" as the lead single for the single album and showed an "exotic and [...] doll-like transformation" that was completely different from their debut EP. The first performance was on "M! Countdown" on October 7. The group received first place on M! Countdown on the last week of October. The song also received first place on the melon chart.

Fei appeared in the music video of the song "I Only Love You" by Huh Gong. Jia appeared in M&D's music video for "Close Your Mouth". Min was a fixed student on KBS's variety show Oh! My School, also known as 100 Out of 100. She also starred in the movie Countdown as Jang Hyeon-ji. Suzy starred in Dream High as the main character Go Hye-mi.

In May of 2011, miss A released "Love Alone", a single from their unreleased album A Class. "Love Alone" was used as a promotional song for Kim Yuna‘s ice show, and miss A performed the song at the opening of “All That Skate Spring 2011”.

miss A announced their comeback with their first full album called A Class, which was released digitally on July 18, 2011. A Class consists of a mix of previously released hits and four new tracks, including the single "Good Bye Baby". The album has 13 songs. They started promoting "Good Bye Baby" on July 21, 2011 on M.net's M! Countdown, followed by KBS's Music Bank, MBC's Show! Music Core, and SBS's Inkigayo. On the following week of promotions, they won all awards from the shows.

On September 30 of the same year, miss A debuted in China with the release of a special edition of their first full album, containing a DVD with music videos, as well as Chinese versions of "Bad Girl Good Girl", "Breathe", "Goodbye Baby" and "Love Again". After the Chinese album release, it ranked #1 on several charts. "Good Bye Baby" ranked first on Taiwan's biggest music portal, ezPeer, and A Class topped their weekly Korea/Japan chart. On ‘G-MUSIC‘, miss A ranked #3.

2012: Touch and Independent Women Part III
Miss A announced their comeback in Korea with an EP called Touch, released on February 20, 2012. The first music video teaser for their song "Touch", which featured their youngest member, Suzy, was uploaded on their official YouTube channel on February 13. The second teaser, featuring their rapper, Jia, was released on February 14. The third teaser, featuring Fei, was released on February 15. The final music video teaser, featuring their fourth member, Min, was released on February 16. On February 19, 2012, the music video was uploaded to YouTube through miss A's official channel and gained over one million views in one day.

Miss A's song Touch reached #1 on various Korean real-time music charts. Touch, both the song and the album, peaked at #2 on Gaon Chart Digital Singles and Physical Albums rankings for the 4th week of February.

Miss A started their promotions for Touch on February 23 on M.net's M! Countdown and on other music shows respectively. On February 29, miss A won the Champion Song on MBC MUSIC's Show Champion with the song "Touch". On March 1, Touch also went to #1 on M.net M! Countdown. On March 4 they won Mutizen on SBS's Inkigayo with Touch. On March 7 Miss A won on jTBC Music On Top.

On March 22, popular Chinese video sharing site YinYueTai revealed miss A's Chinese music video for "Touch". On March 23, miss A released a Chinese version of the Touch album in Hong Kong and Taiwan. This album contains the Korean and Chinese version of "Touch" and also the music videos under the DVD version. After the release, "Touch" immediately topped Chinese online charts.

The group wrapped up their promotions for the album by performing "Over U", another song from the album, on each music program during their last week. Min was featured in B1A4's song "Just Two Of Us" for their album Ignition. Suzy was featured in "Before This Song Ends" for JJ Project's debut album Bounce. Suzy was confirmed for a role in the drama Big.

On October 7, 2012, miss A released a teaser image with a quiz question on it, and that the answer would be given on October 15 at 12 o'clock. On October 8, miss A announced their comeback with their fifth project album entitled Independent Women Pt.III. The following day, moving teaser images of Min and Fei were released, with excerpts of the song lyrics provided. The day after, Jia and Suzy's teaser images were released. On October 10, a video teaser featuring the entire group was released, all members dressed in male attire. Finally, the album was released on October 15. On October 16, miss A were involved in a minor car accident. They were taken to a hospital, and their condition has yet to be revealed. They continued their schedules with only a few hours delay. They began their promotions for "I don't need a man" on October 18.

2013-present: Solo Activities and Hush
Fei starred in the celebrity edition of Master Chef Korea with Super Junior-M's Henry Lau, Dal Shabet's Jiyul, Tony An, Son Ho Young, and many others. She was the runner up for the season behind Son Ho Young. Fei also starred in the third season of the Korean version of Dancing With the Stars with MBLAQ's Seungho and became the first idol to win the competition. Lastly, she picked up an endorsement deal with casual apparel brand ‘Connie Colin’. Min and BTOB’s Minhyuk starred in ‘Reckless Family 2′ while Suzy starred in MBC‘s drama, Gu Family Book, with Lee Seung Gi. Meanwhile, Jia attended numerous fashion shows and appeared in Let's Go Dream Team 2. She also proceeded to make her acting debut in the Chinese drama series "One and a Half Summer" along with label-mate Nichkhun of 2pm set to air the summer of 2014 and accompanied Ivy as her rapper on several of her comeback stages. In October, miss A uploaded individual videos and later on a group video cheering on and supporting the LA Dodgers.

On October 29, 2013, it was confirmed that miss A would be making their comeback more than a year after their "I Don't Need a Man" promotions with their second full length studio album "Hush". The title track was composed by famous composer duo, E-Tribe, instead of the usual J.Y. Park. Min's teaser picture was released the following day, and soon after, Suzy, Jia and Fei's followed, along with a teaser video. Once released, "Hush" topped many Korean music charts. Their performed their first stage on November 7 on M! Countdown and took home the #1 award on the November 17th episode of Inkigayo, the November 21st episode of M! Countdown as well as the November 22nd episode of Music Bank. Due to the airing of the 2013 MAMA, there was no November 21 episode of M! Countdown, but miss A did receive the #1 prize for that week from the show. They ended their promotions for "Hush" in Korea on the December 8th episode of Inkigayo and immediately afterwards, they began their promotions for their second album in China. In December, JYP Entertainment liquidated its sub-label AQ Entertainment that was in charge of managing miss A as well as label mate Baek Ayeon: the band is now managed by JYP Entertainment.