Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

Miami

Journalist and Editor at Freelance

gay! writer! managing ed @autostraddle. managing ed @triquarterlymag. author of HELEN HOUSE, a queer horror novelette (@BurrowPress Oct ‘22) / views my own

Articles

'I Don't Want To Run Into My Ex and Ex-Friend WHO ARE DATING at Pride'

4 days ago | autostraddle.com | Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

Q:There’s a pride event in my town that i want to go to but i know my ex is gonna be there, we broke up two years ago. I’ll call her J. We haven’t spoken in a little over a year — I wanted to stay friends, she wasn’t ready for that because she still had feelings for me. Her current girlfriend of a few months, N, is someone she actually knows through me, but me and N had a friendship breakup while I was dating J.
Our Most Anticipated Queer Books for June 2025

5 days ago | autostraddle.com | Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

In the midst of Riese and I working on this list of upcoming LGBTQ+ books for June 2025, news began circulating that the Chicago Sun-Times and other newspapers had published a syndicated summer books reading list that was generated by AI. While the list was full of real authors, the books attributed to them were largely made up. Only five in 15 titles were real, the rest were cobbled together imagined descriptions pulled from the dregs of AI slop.
'Hacks' Is One of the Best Shows About Being a Writer I've Ever Seen

1 week ago | autostraddle.com | Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

Hacks concludes its excellent fourth season run this week with a quiet, contemplative, intimately character-driven episode written by the showrunning dream trio of Lucia Aniello, Paul W. Downs, and Jen Statsky and directed by Aniello (who truly deserves awards for her directing work this season). I felt mixed heading into this season finale, mainly because last week’s episode was so perfect. It would have been a great season finale. I imagine some viewers will wish it had been.
Dykes Discuss the Strangely Homoerotic Netflix Thriller 'Sirens'

1 week ago | autostraddle.com | Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya |Christina Tucker |Drew Gregory

Welcome to Dykes Discuss, where we discuss media and topics that aren’t necessarily lesbian-forward but that we still want to weigh in on! We have fun! Today, we are discussing Sirens, the Netflix limited series starring Julianne Moore, Kevin Bacon, Meghann Fahy, and Milly Alcock.
'The Valley' and Bravo's Problem With Queer Women

1 week ago | autostraddle.com | Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

I’ve been trying to make the term “Bravo Dyke” happen for half a decade now. We — the lesbians who watch Bravo — are often forgotten by the broader Bravo fandom. I get it; we’re a small crew. When my friend and I attended a Bitch Sesh live show, we were surrounded by the demographics considered Bravo’s main market: straight women and gay men. Our glaring minority status in that massive theater, though, surprised me. I’m so used to discussing Bravo exclusively with lesbians.
I Suddenly Hate Aging and It Makes Me Feel Like a Bad Lesbian

1 week ago | autostraddle.com | Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

This is The Parlour, a place for intimate conversation, a real-time archive, a shared diary passed between a rotating cast of queer characters every week in an attempt to capture a kaleidoscopic view of what it’s like to be a queer person right here, right now. Last weekend, I competed in a tennis tournament. In the semi-finals, I encountered an opponent who looked young, very young.
The Ultimatum: Queer Love Season 2 Trailer Is HERE. Time To Watch Lesbians Having Serious Conversations on Beds

1 week ago | autostraddle.com | Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

The trailer for the second season of The Ultimatum: Queer Love — every lesbian’s favorite messy dating show — just dropped, and oooooooh boy are we going to get some good gay drama from a group of unwell people once again!As we already reported, unfortunately, JoAnna Garcia Swisher is back as the show’s inexplicably heterosexual host. Does anyone know why Netflix is allergic to giving this series a queer host? Are they worried a contestant will fall in love with her?
'I Want To Eat More Protein Without Triggering My ED'

1 week ago | autostraddle.com | Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

Q:hey there AS!I have been loving so much of the inclusive and accessible strength training content being published here and have been following along as I embark on my own lifting journey, which in many ways has been great for my mental health and has made me better understand the concept of food as fuel after many years of seeing food as something to fear.
What Bad Decision Should You Make This Pride?

1 week ago | autostraddle.com | Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

Feeling like you’re ready to be a menace this Pride month but not sure how? Want to blow up your life or just sow some lite chaos in order to feel alive? Listen, we’ve got you. There are so many wild choices you can make during Pride month, so it’s okay if you don’t know where to begin! Take this messy af quiz, and we’ll tell you how to get messy. It’s OUR month, so let’s make the most of it (by acting on our worst impulses!).
This Is the Best Season of ‘Hacks’

2 weeks ago | autostraddle.com | Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya

While watching last night’s episode of Hacks for the third time (I have a problem!), I found myself thinking: This is the best season of the series so far. And it has achieved this against all odds. I’ve been writing about this all season, but it shouldn’t work so well when the series basically repeats the same arc for Deborah/Ava in a loop over and over again. And yet, it does. It shouldn’t be so laugh-out-loud funny when so many of its humorous setups don’t really follow the structure of jokes.