Jenn Tran is the star of The Bachelorette Season 21 and calls out the reality show for not having more Asian men in the dating competition.
Tran, an Asian American woman of Vietnamese descent, stars in the ABC reality series and was featured on the most recent season of The Bachelor with Joey Graziadei.
“I can’t really speak to the casting process and the decisions that were made, but it is unfortunate that there weren’t a lot of Asian men this season,” Tran told Glamour in an interview. “Asian men haven’t always seen themselves in this position, and I am hoping that me being here and [contestant] Thomas N. being there, that the both of us can inspire other Asian men to realize that they can do this too if they want. They can be in this position as well. I’m hoping that it inspires them.”
The Bachelor franchise has been criticized over the years for its lack of diversity. Producer Bennett Graebner recently acknowledged their shortcomings in casting Asian men this season.
“That’s on us. We didn’t do what we needed to do,” Graebner told the Los Angeles Times. “Our hope is that they will see Jenn and realize this is a safe space. We’re not saying it will solve and fix everything. But it is a step.”
Tran told Glamour that she connected with one contestant due to a similar upbringing.
“It’s not every day that you get to bond with somebody on your immigrant parents, and you get to connect with somebody on that level because not everybody can understand that,” she said. “That was a really special conversation for me because he really understood where I was coming from, and my family means everything to me.”
She continued, “Knowing that my parents immigrated over here to give me a better life, the sacrifices that they made, and the internal battle that I have with giving back to them in everything and every way that I could, but still trying to be independent…being a child of immigrant parents is something that not everybody can understand.”