Our Bodies, Our Stories

Join us for the last episode of this season! Divya and Maya discuss the barriers that non-native English speakers may face in the healthcare system and how we can begin to address these obstacles as a community. Maya also shares a story about her experience having sex for the first time (finally! a personal story that isn't about Divya's birth control experience!). This is also Divya's last podcast episode at VAYLA, so you should listen to her voice while you can!

Maya and Divya talk about the history of the fetishization of Asian folks, how it’s still perpetrated in our society today, and how we can work towards not fetishizing people because of their race or ethnicity! As a bonus, they also share some of their not-so-cool high school nicknames.

Thuy and Ellen join Divya and Maya for a discussion about birth control, including how they got on it while navigating AAPI norms, what they told their guardians, and how confused everyone is by the healthcare system. Who would've thought that incognito mode on Google could result in safer sex?

This episode discusses why AAPI youth should consider becoming involved in reproductive justice work, as well as some tips and ideas for getting involved as a young person. We are so excited to have Izzy Lian in this episode with us; Izzy uses she/her pronouns, is a senior at Tulane University, the President of Tulane’s Asian American Student Union, and an intern at Planned Parenthood. Izzy shares some of the reasons she became involved in RJ work, her experiences in RJ work, and how her AAPI identity has affected her work.

In this episode, Maya and Divya talk about giving sexual consent while intoxicated. They also discuss the stigma surrounding sex in the AAPI community and how we can begin to dismantle it!