Why Sydney Lotuaco Felt So Much Pressure Competing On The Bachelor
In spite of The Bachelor's recent push for diversity, historically, the franchise has been anything but. It took until this year the first Black Bachelor, Matt James, to be cast, and the contestants have also been overwhelmingly white (via Variety). This has put a lot of pressure on the few people of color who have been cast on the show, such as Sydney Lotuaco, who competed on Colton Underwoodx's season two years ago.
"I'm a half-Asian woman," she said on the Here for the Right Reasons podcast (via Us Weekly). "And for my season, there were two people of Asian descent — myself and another girl. And the other girl went home night one. So, I was like, 'Oh, looking around, I am the Asian woman for the season, I will be representing that card."
Sydney called the situation "kind of sad," explaining, "it puts a lot more pressure on me to not have anything go wrong."
Sydney Lotuaco says Bachelor Nation has 'a long way to go'
She continued, "And I think because of that, maybe in some ways, I could have been more guarded because I just wanted to represent that role well because I [had] the pressure of the entire race on my shoulders. Whether that was true or not, that's kind of what I put on myself."
Sydney acknowledged that the franchise is changing, but that it is still far from perfect. "I just feel like we still have a long way to go in a lot of ways and I think this franchise is huge and they can really make some good changes from it," she said.
Another Bachelor alum, Catherine Lowe, opened up about the pressure she felt in an Instagram post last year. "When I was originally cast, I was very flattered but somewhat grounded by the fact that I would be one of the faces that represented people of color," she said. "I knew that one of the reasons I was probably chosen was because I was Filipino... I thought I was there just to check a box."