- - - Jenn Tran on why a 'Love Island' star's slur 'struck a nerve' with Asian Americans

KiMi Robinson, USA TODAYJuly 14, 2025 at 7:41 PM

When evidence of a "Love Island USA" cast member using a racist slur against Asian people started circulating on social media, it reopened old wounds for Jenn Tran.

Tran, a 27-year-old physician assistant student who is also the most recent "Bachelorette," quickly took to TikTok to explain why the word was "demeaning and demoralizing." Tran’s video has since accumulated 1.8 million views.

Cierra Ortega, 25, a frontrunner removed from the show, had used the epithet as recently as 2024 to describe the shape of her eyes – a look she had gone to a medical spa to fix with "a mini brow lift to open up my eyes."

"For me, it was more upsetting in which the context (the word) was used," Tran tells USA TODAY in a conversation about her reaction to Ortega's post.

"For someone to be using that word and being like, 'I am doing this to my eyes because I don't like the way that it looks' and the word that she used (refers to) Asian people – that struck a nerve with me because growing up, it was really, really hard to learn to love my features."

'A lot of people made fun' of Jenn Tran for 'the way my eyes are'

Tran, who is Vietnamese American, is outspoken about how a lack of Asian American representation affected her childhood.

"A lot of people made fun of me, the way that I looked, the way my eyes are, the way I brought smelly lunches to school, the way I speak a different language. So obviously that led into a bit of an identity crisis," she says.

Jenn Tran attends the Los Angeles premiere of "Suits LA" at One Universal on Feb. 20, 2025, in Universal City, California.

She internalized this messaging and briefly considered blepharoplasty, one of the most common cosmetic procedures in the U.S. Among East Asian people, the so-called "double eyelid surgery" creates a crease in the upper lid and achieves the appearance of wider eyes.

"I definitely Googled getting that eye surgery. I definitely bought double-sided tape to give myself more of a double eyelid," Tran says.

"When everyone around you has big eyes ... you start thinking, 'Oh, I'm not beautiful. My eyes aren't beautiful,' " she says.

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Jenn Tran: 'I shouldn’t have to fix (my eyes)'

To see this message perpetuated decades later appalled Tran.

"I mean, these are my eyes. And I was born with them, and I shouldn't have to fix them. There's nothing to be fixed," she says.

"That's not the message we should be telling people – to go fix themselves."

'I'm very familiar' with the slur, Jenn Tran says

Most of the comments on Tran’s video are supportive.

But a scroll through the remarks also reveals many people weren’t familiar with the slur prior to the controversy. Ortega herself said in a video apology that she "had no idea."

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The slur seemingly originated around 150 years ago and is believed to have originally been used in the 1800s in relation to Chinese immigrants, who were systemically excluded by the Page Act and Chinese Exclusion Act .

Tran is "very familiar" with the offensive word. "I've been called it on my social media recently. So, yeah, it's still out there," she says.

Addressing those who say the slur is 'not that serious'

In numerous TikTok videos about Ortega's controversy, there are comments from users who say the outcry is an overreaction by people who are "too sensitive."

Any time Tran speaks up about racism she encounters online, commenters dismiss her with statements like, "Why are you making everything about race? It's not that serious. Shut up," according to Tran. The solution, she believes, is a willingness to learn "about our cultures" and "open your heart" to others' experiences.

She also clarifies that her video is intended to raise awareness about the harm the slur can inflict, rather than "perpetuate this cyber-bullying" of Ortega, which she describes as having "gotten out of hand."

'I very much love all my features now'

For Tran, this conversation about anti-Asian racism has arrived during an era of self-acceptance.

"I've definitely been through that journey and thankful to be on the other side of it," she says. "I very much love all my features now."

She doesn’t attribute the mindset to a singular reason. But "I grew up, and I realized rather than hating myself and getting a surgery to change myself, I just decided to accept myself," Tran says.

"And there's also a lot more Asian representation now and more people that look like me that I'm like, 'No, they are beautiful, and so am I.' "

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Jenn Tran addresses Cierra Ortega's Asian slur: 'Struck a nerve'

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