Eddie Huang is a restaurateur, an author of two books, Fresh Off the Boat and Double Cup Love, and the host of Viceland’s Huang’s World. And now he’s venturing into the world of underwear modeling. On March 22, Huang will partner with MeUndies (yes, the MeUndies of podcast ubiquity) to launch Pandamonium, an underwear with an exclusive panda design. We caught up with him to talk about underwear, male body image, and a ton of other stuff. Things got real very fast.

GQ: How did the collaboration with MeUndies come about?

Eddie Huang: All the collaborations I do, there’s always somebody in the family involved. Kristen Fraser, who has been a friend of mine since 2010 and was actually the first bartender at Xiao Ye when we were doing the Four Loko parties, she brought MeUndies to me and asked if I knew about it. I’ve seen their billboards, and it seemed like they made quality, comfortable, accessible underwear. It was everyman, everywoman underwear. And it’s actually really comfortable. When she said they wanted to work with me, I was like, stop playing. I was really excited because you rarely see Asian people in anything. I don’t want to make it just about being Asian. I’m Asian, fat, and I’m short. These are like the three cardinal sins of being an underwear model.

The collaboration is meant to celebrate self-identity and encourage people to not take themselves too seriously.

I’ve never been that comfortable with how I look, or my body. When you’re a dude, you’re not really asked to talk about that. You hear women talk about their bodies, their appearances, and how they’re uncomfortable with it. I read a lot of feminist literature. My girl is a beauty director at Elle. I read her articles and her friends’ articles. I definitely had a lot of self-image stuff I dealt with personally, but I don’t think it’d be fair to compare to women’s body issues, since it’s a lot more complex for a number of reasons for them. But I don’t hear a lot of men write or talk about positive body image. I think it’s pretty cool that I’m doing the underwear with MeUndies, because for me, the whole campaign and the product is about positive body image. Also, everybody loves pandas. They’re not necessarily the sexiest animal in the kingdom, but they’re cool and people love them. They’re the most popular animal at the zoo. They’re black and they’re white. They’re chubby. They’re funny. They’re quirky.

“I don’t want to make it just about being Asian. I’m Asian, fat, and I’m short. These are like the three cardinal sins of being an underwear model.”

In terms of body image, how long did it take you to stop being self-conscious, or to stop caring?

I cared when I was fat and wasn’t good at sports. I was always very athletic. I was always the quarterback when we played in the backyard. I could throw a good spiral. But because of my eating habits, I got fat. Around fifth grade, it became apparent that I was fat. When I went out for football tryouts, I said I wanted to play quarterback, but they said, yo, you’re not tall enough, you can’t see over the line, so I went to try out as receiver. I was too fat and slow. I got put on the offensive line. I was like, fuck, this is a real handicap being fat. I’m not going to get to the things I want to do. It’s an interesting realization for every kid around that age, like, wait, I’m not going to be able to play all the sports and be good at things? I have no real control about how tall I’m going to be or what I’m going to look like, and that’s going to affect the opportunities I have in life. That was always an interesting thing to deal with.

Yeah.

And Asian parents are especially always telling their kids how fat or ugly they are [laughs]. It’s just an old tradition. My parents made it very apparent that I was the fat kid in the family. It bothered me a lot. For me, there were three things I was negative about: my height, my weight, and how my face looked. Down south, kids were very racist; they would always make Ching Chong Eddie Huang jokes, call me chinky eye, all that stuff. A lot of times, as a man, you don’t feel empowered or enabled, or you’re not given the opportunity to speak about negative body image or how insecure you are about the way you look. We’re supposed to just be measured on our abilities and our work. This was a thing I really struggled with. I wouldn’t say I struggle with it anymore, and it’s not because I lost weight recently. After I put out Fresh Off the Boat, I was like, wait, I get a lot of love from people. People really understand me, regardless or in spite of how I look. That was really cool to realize no matter how you look, or who you are, as humans, we all have this innate ability to connect with each other simply because of the fact that we’re human.