What happens when the way the world sees you isn’t who you really are?
Kaila Yu has lived many lives in the public eye: as a singer in the Asian American rock band Nylon Pink, a model gracing magazines like Maxim and FHM, and a journalist writing for Rolling Stone and The New York Times. But through it all, she’s wrestled with one truth — as an Asian woman, she was often fetishized, reduced to a stereotype, and misunderstood.
Now, in her debut memoir Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty, Kaila tells her story with unflinching honesty. From the pressures of modeling and music to the deeper cultural forces that sexualize and silence Asian women, her book is both a raw personal account and a powerful cultural critique.
In this episode, Kaila opens up about why she wrote the book now, what it was like to revisit painful chapters of her past, and how she reclaimed her identity on her own terms.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
• What it feels like to be fetishized — and how those stereotypes show up in daily life
• The impact of modeling and music on Kaila’s self-image
• Why she says representation of Asian women in media still has a long way to go
• The hardest chapters of her memoir to write — and why she included them
• The healing, self-love, and cultural change she hopes Fetishized inspires
Connect with Kaila Yu:
Instagram: @kailayu
Memoir: Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty — Available now wherever books are sold
Hit play — and step behind the headlines with Kaila Yu, a woman reclaiming her story in her own voice.
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