The Bachelorette's Jenn Tran reached out to another Bachelorette for guidance before her season

When it comes to becoming the Bachelorette, Jenn Tran is learning from the best. 

The 26-year-old physician’s assistant student tells Entertainment Weekly that she personally reached out to another Bachelorette for advice prior to filming her season of the ABC reality series, which begins airing on July 8. 

“I had a phone call with Michelle Young, because I felt like she was, like, a good person to guide me before I started it,” Tran explains. “She really was just like, ‘Be as open as you can be and stay as true to yourself as you can be, because oftentimes you can get caught up in the craziness of it all and kind of forget who you are.’” 

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She continued, “But really, just stay true to yourself. Because at the end of the day, you want whoever you're dating to really be able to know you for you.” 

A runner-up in Matt James' season of The Bachelor, Young went on to hand out her very own roses on season 18 of The Bachelorette in 2021. She got engaged to Nate Olukoya at the end of the series, but the couple announced that they’d gone their separate ways the following year. 

In addition to gleaning advice from Young, Tran plans on bringing all of the love lessons that she learned from starring on Joey Graziadei’s season of The Bachelor to the show, too. 

“I think being on Joey's season… it was kind of the first time that I really had to open up about certain things in my childhood that I had never really done before in a relationship,” she says. “So, in doing that, I kind of learned that it's okay to be vulnerable and, in fact, you show strength in showing vulnerability. It allows other people to really get a better insight on who you are and understand you a little bit more.”

It was important to her that she maintain that level of honesty and sensitivity throughout her entire journey to find love.

“This time around, as the Bachelorette, I really pushed myself to open up a lot and to really be vulnerable with these men,” she said, “because they're here and they're being vulnerable with me, and so I had to be able to do the same for them.” 

The Bachelorette airs July 8 on ABC and streams next day on Hulu.