Kaila Yu - A Reckoning With Yellow Fever & Identity

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Kaila Yu is a Los Angeles–based luxury travel and culture journalist whose bylines include The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and more. Before her journalism career, she was an actress, an import model, the lead singer of the rock band Nylon Pink, and a student at UCLA. Each chapter of her life, as she shares in her upcoming memoir Fetishized: A Reckoning with Yellow Fever, Feminism, and Beauty (Crown, releasing August 19, 2025), was deeply marked by fetishization—often by others, but painfully, at times, by herself.

In her memoir, Kaila traces how growing up in the late '90s and early 2000s with limited and hypersexualized Asian female representation shaped her identity. Without authentic role models in media, she learned early that being seen often meant being objectified. She leaned into visibility through modeling, music, and entertainment, but struggled with constant performance—writing overtly sexual lyrics, undergoing body-altering surgeries, and living through years of haze and internal disconnection.

Fetishized boldly dismantles the narratives media, culture, and history have forced onto Asian American women. Kaila writes with raw honesty about coercion, trauma, and pain—including being manipulated by a pornographer and having the footage distributed without her consent. She weaves these personal stories with cultural critique, referencing everything from the War Bride Act of 1945 to the myth of the “submissive Asian woman,” and how tropes like these continue to impact real lives. Her writing is both personal and political—an act of truth-telling, resistance, and healing.

Now, as she nears publication of her debut book, Kaila is stepping into long-form storytelling with courage and clarity. Her goal: to provide strength and education for others who have experienced similar objectification, and to invite everyone—especially Asian American women—into a deeper understanding of their worth. Through her journalism, her art, and her voice, Kaila Yu is fighting for a world where visibility isn’t conditional on being fetishized.

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Music Credits

Intro
Euphoria in the San Gabriel Valley, Yone OG

Stinger
Scarlet Fire (Sting), Otis McDonald, YouTube Audio Library

Outro
Euphoria in the San Gabriel Valley, Yone OG

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