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Laura Yuen

@laurayuenreports

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⌨️: features columnist @startribune
human interest, how we live, Minnesota-based stories and columns

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❤️😘 Our columnist @laurayuenreports writes: Just six months before chef Yia Vang’s first date with Love is Blind alum Amanda Burke, he had opened Vinai, then hailed by critics that it was one of the most anticipated restaurants in the country. Accustomed to the grind of restaurant work, Vang was OK with being romantically alone.

“I had a great system,” said Vang, whose nights after getting home from the restaurant typically involved Taco Bell, “SportsCenter” and a mixed drink before dozing off. For her part, Burke prided herself on being an “independent girlie.”

📝: @laurayuenreports
📸: NYC engagement photos by Tran Troung. Portraits with the pupper by @carlosgphoto/The Minnesota Star Tribune by @laurayuenreports

Have you ever gotten to meet your hero and thank them for helping change the trajectory of your life? This was an incredible moment that brought (happy!) tears to my eyes.

I had the honor of interviewing a living legend — Pro Football Hall of Famer, retired Minnesota Supreme Court justice and education advocate Alan Page at the @startribune stage at the State Fair.

What I didn't realize is that there in the audience would be Juventino Meza (@justiciajustice), a former Page Scholar and a crop-art enthusiast who submitted for judging a seed mosaic portrait of one of his heroes ... Alan Page.

They met, and Juve got to thank Alan for opening doors in his life as a Dreamer. Juve just passed the bar this spring and is now working as an immigration attorney. Alan and Juve represent the very best of what can happen when you blaze a trail while carrying others along the way. My heart is full to bear witness to this very Minnesota moment. ❤️ by @laurayuenreports

This is one mama bear showing up for her son, Louie Conn, one of two male dancers to join the Minnesota Vikings cheerleading squad this year.

Louie and another male cheerleader, Blaize Shiek, were subject to vitriol beyond the pale on social media this week after it was announced that they joined the Vikings cheer squad, the first males to do so in decades.

I talked to Louie’s mom, Kathleen, about his journey, from overcoming bullies in the Midwest as a boy who simply wanted to dance. He later joined the dance team at Iowa State that won a national title this spring. Now that he’s cheering for the NFL, people are throwing a fit. Don’t let the bullies win this time. Let’s stand up for Louie, Blaize, and all the other boys and young men out there who have the courage to follow their dreams, put in the work, and share their gifts with the world. Speak up and let them know we have their backs!

You can find the link to my column about Louie and his mom in my bio.

📷: Courtesy of Kathleen Conn by @laurayuenreports

Amazing press for @jimi.nguyen.222 and @alisonbromander in the @startribune part of a big article by @laurayuenreports about cool people #sharing with each other. If you visit our @stlouispark location make sure you bring your fingerboard 🛹💛📀

#repost @startribune
Minnesotans love their Little Free Libraries.
Sixteen years after co-founder Todd Bol planted his first book-sharing box in nearby Hudson, Wis., the miniature libraries continue to delight and connect communities. But in some of the latest iterations, no books are circulated.

Puzzles, seeds, VHS tapes, secondhand clothing, rocks, dog biscuits, canned food, menstrual products, Hot Wheels, fishing lures and winter sleds fill some of the curbside boxes seen in and around Minnesota.

Tap the link in our bio to read the full story by columnist @laurayuenreports. Video by Laura Yuen. by @laurayuenreports

No. 1 draft pick @paigebueckers is the WNBA's next superstar. But it's the way she carries herself off the court that continues to inspire me.

Her former youth basketball coach, Tara Starks, told me that when Bueckers was in high school, the teen showed up for her when many adults did not. Starks learned that her AAU coaching job was going to a white man and believed it was because of her race and gender. Bueckers knew it wasn't right.

“Oh, heck no. Team meeting!” Bueckers responded, who pulled out her phone and proceeded to call her teammates. She made it clear she wasn't abandoning the coach who molded her since fifth grade.

“I don’t think she realized how much that meant to me, as a 16-year-old young lady fighting for a Black woman,” said Starks, who this year led Hopkins High School to a state title.

Plenty of youth sports parents would love for their kids to become elite players. Chances are they won't. But they can grow up to become elite human beings — who stay grounded, stand up for others and lift up everyone around them.

They can grow up to become a little more like Paige Bueckers.

Read my latest column by clicking the link in my bio.

📷: Courtsey of Tara Starks by @laurayuenreports

So much respect for @malloryweggemann, the four-time Paralympian from Minnesota, and her husband, @jaysnyder_tfa. This year they launched their documentary film, "Watershed," and Mallory won her first Paralympic medals as a mom.

Now they're speaking out in support of reproductive rights, including IVF, as they endorse Kamala Harris and Tim Walz in this election.

Here are my favorite quotes from my long-ranging conversation with the couple this week.

1) Jay: "Our daughter doesn’t exist in a world without science."

2) Mallory: "Not only is it how Charlotte got into this world, but she's a little girl in our world. You better believe I'm going to fight tooth and nail to make sure that my daughter has reproductive rights, and has more of them than my grandmother had."

3) Mallory: "It's about ensuring that we we building a society that is accepting ... and that includes me as a disabled woman. That includes Jay as a male with infertility. That includes our friends who identify as LGBTQ+. That includes individuals far and wide who have been a positive light in our lives and ensuring that all of us have access to basic rights and freedoms."

You can read my full column about this extraordinary couple by clicking the link in my bio. by @laurayuenreports

Woke up early to get some writing done. Writing is so much less stressful with a warm, sleeping puppy on your lap.

#dogs #dogsofinstagram #workfromhome #writing by @laurayuenreports

Important life update: We got a new puppy! Meet Frankie.

She is as playful as she is cuddly. She thinks our ornamental tall grass was created specifically so she could frolic. She pees in the house about five to six times a day. We are smitten.

We are learning that more than one dog in your lifetime can capture your whole heart. by @laurayuenreports

Can you have more than one dog love of your life?

Memphis, my complicated Rhodesian Ridgeback, was my first true dog love after I became an adult. He died nearly six years ago.

Over my career in journalism, I’ve interviewed refugees of civil war and parents of murder victims. To admit that losing my dog was one of the saddest things that has ever happened to me is to admit I’ve enjoyed a life of colossal privilege.

I don't miss having a dog, I've told friends over the years. I just miss Memphis.

But lately I've been having feelings of optimism, maybe blind naivete, about adopting a new puppy. It defies logic that we bring pets into our lives, knowing not only the commitment and responsibility they require but also that when they leave us, we’ll be in a world of hurt.

Please, someone talk me out of getting a new puppy! And if you've done this more than once, tell me how you made the decision it was time to bring another pet into your heart. by @laurayuenreports

We've all heard the saying, "Minnesotans will give you directions to anywhere except their own house."

Are we Minnesotans truly nice, or standoffish to outsiders? This is an ongoing debate that is usually fueled by personal experience.

But we should listen closely to the perspectives of Black professionals in the Twin Cities. A 2019 study from @greatermsp found that a third of transplants said they planned to leave within three to five years, but among Black survey respondents, that figure shot up to 49%. Many cited a lack of diversity and cultural awareness among their reasons.

Transplants of color have often spoken about struggling to crack the social network here. But Jhaelynn Elam of @the.bsuiteco is trying to change that, creating an ecosystem of professional and social events so newcomers can find their friends, mentors and village. Kudos to Jhaelynn and others who are working hard to give Black professionals more reasons to call Minnesota home.

Photos by @anthonysouffle and @assandrabaysahphotography by @laurayuenreports

@reedosell and his wife, Caitlin, tried for years to conceive, often under a cloud of what he describes as “silent hopelessness.” But while Caitlin eventually leaned on friends to help navigate her anguish and uncertainty, Osell rarely expressed his trauma in one-on-one conversations with his buddies.

He gets choked up when Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz shares his experience with infertility because he’s never heard a male public figure speaking so openly about a topic so vulnerable, even taboo.

Osell wondered: Did the governor, like him, suffer in silence?

“A lot of people go through infertility, and it’s one of the largest group of people no one ever talks about,” he said. “It felt validating to know that you can talk about it, and there shouldn’t be any shame.”

Friends, some of you would have given anything to be parents, and I know you'd be damn good ones. When Walz and other men talk about infertility, may other men yearning to be dads feel seen and know their pain is real, too. Thank you to Reed, Michael, and @juliebermanhere, who shared their stories with me.

Read my column by clicking on link in bio.

Photos by @reneejonesschneider @sarahkarnasphotography @angelinakatsanis by @laurayuenreports