Fireside Chat with Kaila Yu
Join us for a deeply personal and thought-provoking Fireside Chat with author Kaila Yu as she shares insights from her debut memoir, Fetishized. In conversation with moderator Grace Yung Foster, Kaila will explore how pop culture, colonialism, and personal experience converge in shaping the hypersexualization of Asian women — and what reclaiming our stories can look like today.
From Y2K-era media (Memoirs of a Geisha, Harajuku Girls, Tokyo Drift) to her own experiences in the import modeling scene, Kaila unpacks the complexities of navigating visibility, desire, and voice as an Asian woman in Western culture.
What We’ll Explore:
The cultural impact of Y2K-era portrayals of Asian women
The line between empowerment and exploitation in Kaila’s modeling journey
What reclaiming narrative agency looks like for Asian women today
How Fetishized bridges personal memoir and cultural criticism
The power of Asian creatives to reshape the publishing and media landscape
About the Hosts
Kaila Yu is a Los Angeles-based author whose memoir Fetishized confronts the complex intersections of race, gender, desire, and identity. A former model and pop culture writer, her work invites reflection, dialogue, and disruption of dominant beauty narratives.
Connect with Kaila
LinkedIn | Website | Book
Grace Yung Foster is the Founder & CEO of The Inclusion Initiative. As a Korean American adoptee and former nonprofit executive, she advocates for greater visibility and opportunity for adoptees and foster care alumni, particularly in the workplace. She holds an MBA from NYU and has been a leading voice in inclusive leadership and systems change.
Connect with Grace
Website | LinkedIn | Instagram | YouTube
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