Bisexual YouTuber challenges fellow South Koreans
Kelsey the Korean is a bisexual YouTuber best known for her refreshing directness and crazy life stories. Made obvious by her username, she is a Korean named Kelsey making videos in English about South Korea, LGBTQ issues, sex, mental health, her family feuds and more, with the aim of fostering a no-bullshit insight into South Korean society.
You’d never guess by watching Kelsey’s videos about her colorful sex life or uncensored stories about her over-bearing “tiger mom,” but Kelsey is actually an introvert. “A lot of people assume that I’m extraverted but it’s like, uhh … I’m not.
In reality it’s one of the best jobs [YouTuber] for an introvert ‘cause you don’t have any co-workers basically, and you can just talk to a camera,” she said. “People sort of get scared when they meet me in person — or startled — because they’re like, “You’re so quiet, are you mad?’” As an open bisexual woman in a conservative country, Kelsey is brave. “It’s harder than North America in general, it depends on which district obviously [of America] because I’ve heard even in America there are some places where it’s as conservative as Korea, so I don’t want to make it like a dichotomy where the West is so ‘open’ and Korea is ‘not,’” she said. “In Korea it’s definitely harder to find people in my generation [25- to 30-years old] that are open — which is a little bit shocking to me — but it’s easier in other ways because Korean people are not very outspoken.” A 2021 survey showed that 26.5 percent of South Koreans would accept an LGBTQ neighbor, 13.8 percent would accept an LGBTQ co-worker and 5.3 percent would accept an LGBTQ best friend.
