Sydney Locuato explains she felt the pressure ‘of the entire Asian race’ on The Bachelor

Sydney Lotuaco is opening up about her season on The Bachelor, where she was the only Asian woman of the 30 vying for Colton Underwood’s heart.

The 27-year-old NBA dancer dropped out of the show in 10th place during the show’s sixth week, and now she’s opening up to US Magazine about her time on the show.

She revealed that during her time on the show, she felt the pressure of being the only Asian woman.

‘I’m a half-Asian woman. 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,”‘ Lotuaco began.

‘It’s kind of sad. And it puts a lot more pressure on me to not have anything go wrong,’ she added. 

‘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,’ she added.

The show has come under fire in the past for its lack of diversity within its casting, and most recently this new season of The Bachelor which was mired by controversy with one of the contestants pictured at a plantation-themed party.

Host Chris Harrison made a number of controversial remarks seemingly defending the contestant, and now he’s stepping away from Bachelor Nation for the time being.

‘It’s very skewed and that’s really sad to see. I will say from [a] behind the camera perspective, [it’s] definitely better [now]. The production team definitely needed more diversity too and I think they’re starting to do that,’ Locuato continued.

‘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. But we still have a lot of steps,’ she added.

‘You want to be able to relate to the people that you’re working with and all those things,’ she continued.

‘And even for, like, a young girl or boy watching the show, they can see, “Oh, that person looks like me and they’re falling in love. And that means I can have that too,”‘ she added. 

‘If you’re not seeing that then there’s that discrepancy and it’s really difficult when you think of it in that regard. There’s always more that can be done,’ Locuato said.

She added that she ‘really liked’ Harrison, but it was ‘disappointing’ to see how he reacted in that interview.

‘It’s so clear that there was this disconnect and some things that needed to change. And I think some things that have been going on for a long period of time that needed to shift, and I still think that there still needs to be more shifts because I think this past season was kind of like a band-aid put over a bigger issue. And now we need to still continue pushing the envelope,’ she added.