‘The Bachelor’s Lea Cayanan Responds to Show Confusing Asian-American Contestants

When it comes to The Bachelor, there are a lot of ladies vying for the heart of Joey Graziadei, but they’re each unique in their own ways, which is a leading argument fans are making after the show’s official social media page tagged the wrong Asian-American contestant in a recent post.

The issue in question revolves around a collection of images featuring current contestants kissing Joey on the show, but instead of tagging Jenn Tran initially, the show’s Instagram page tagged Lea Cayanan, a different Asian-American contestant. The mix-up caused a flurry of fired-up comments as some viewers accused the account of being racist for not being able to identify the contestants apart from one another. Cayanan has responded, saying, “I do think it’s important to extend grace. Honest mistakes do happen, and at the end of the day, we’re all human. But I think this is part of a much larger conversation to be had… that I would like to give my voice to.”

“Until we have a world stage and a media platform that is representative of the world we come from and the communities that make it up, I think we will always have a ways to go. Representation is everything to me.” See her full video response, below.

@lea.beyaa I don’t think we should get caught up on the superficial technicalities, but we can definitely do better. This show has been one of the most life changing but challenging experiences for me, but the messages that make it all worth it are when i hear how yall are proud to see an Asian-American, a Filipina, a Hawai’i girl take up SPACE!! It’s a reminder that “she’s like me, I could belong there or do cool things too”. We shouldn’t be a DEI quota- little side characters to be quickly forgotten or not cared for. Representation matters, calling us by our correct names matter, learning who we are matters anyways thanks for coming to my TED talk .. be kind today!! #TheBachelor #greenscreen ♬ original sound – Lea Cayanan

Fans sounded off on Reddit, where an image of the tagging mishap was shared.

“Nor surprised. And it has nothing to do with them looking the same because these two women actually don’t nor do they have similar vibes. It’s because, 99% sure, they were labeled as IrrelevantAsian1 and IrrelevantAsian2 by these people when they watched the premiere,” one fan stated in the comments section. “They didn’t care enough to invest in actually acknowledging them or differentiating them. Yet we’re supposed to differentiate the 18 blonde Laurens and Hannahs…”

“Lea was wearing a different colored dress. I love episodes of The Bachelor but I hate so many things about Bachelor Nation – like this,” one other fan wrote. Another responded to that comment, “She also is just an entirely different person & doesn’t even look like Jenn.”

“Literally cannot stop cringing at this. Unfortunately, I’m not surprised,” another fan wrote, acknowledging the awkwardness of the predicament.

Jenn hails from New Jersey and is of Vietnamese descent, while Lea is Filipino and from Hawaii. Their vastly different stories, backgrounds, and appearances reiterate their uniqueness, but that wasn’t enough to prevent the flub. Let us know what you think of what happened and Cayanan’s reaction in the comments below.

The Bachelor, Mondays 8/7c, ABC