Once shadowed by scoliosis, Eli grew up negotiating a quiet war with his own reflection. His body, marked by a curve the world rarely makes room for, once felt like something to conceal rather than celebrate. Today, as a model, he steps into the light with intention, using his presence not as proof of perfection, but as a declaration of worth. In every image, every runway stride, Eli offers a gentle rebellion, a reminder that beauty is not found in symmetry, but in the courage to be seen, to take up space, and to live without shame.
There are people who enter your life quietly and leave echoes everywhere.
ELI YEUNG IS ONE OF THEM.
When he first joined The Corey Podcast, he spoke about scoliosis, self doubt, and the pressure of being visible in a world that demands perfection. What none of us expected was how deeply his story would settle into people’s lives. Listeners wrote in weeks later. Some shared their own bodies, their own fears, their own longing to be seen without being reduced.
So when Eli returned to open the new year, something felt different.
He was still gentle.
Still thoughtful.
Still quietly luminous.
But there was a steadiness in him that had not been there before.
“I feel more ready than ever to be myself.”
It was not said for effect.
It was said like truth that had finally learned to stand.
THE WORK NO ONE SEES.
Eli describes the months between our conversations as a time of inner clearing. He laughs softly when he names it.
“I did not even realize I was doing shadow work,” he says. “But I was releasing things I had carried for a long time.”
There was no ceremony to it. No announcement. No reinvention arc.
Just quiet honesty.
As a model, Eli had learned how to hold posture, expression, and silence. But inside, there was a different posture he had never been taught.
How to sit with fear.
How to name it.
How to stop hiding from it.
“People think fear is weakness,” he says. “But fear connects us.”
He is right. Fear is what unites us beneath our masks. It is what makes our hands shake when we want to be seen. It is what makes us stall at doors that could change our lives.
And it is what Eli began to walk through.
LIVING WITH SCOLIOSIS, LIVING WITH TRUTH.
For years, scoliosis was something Eli tried to minimize. He wore loose clothes. He learned angles. He learned how to disappear inside beauty.
Then came Living With Scoliosis, the documentary that changed his relationship with his own body.
At the premiere, strangers approached him. Young people, older adults, families. They shared stories he had never heard aloud before.
One teenage girl brought him a small poetry notebook and asked him to sign it.
“I had never experienced that before,” he says. “I did not know how many people were carrying this quietly.”
He pauses.
“I realized I was not alone. And neither were they.”
The film did not make him louder.
It made him braver.
He no longer speaks about his body as something to protect or hide. He speaks about it as part of his story.
“I do not want pity,” he says. “I want people to know you can still live creatively, confidently, and fully.”
THE JUST TRY METHOD.
Eli does not call himself a philosopher. But he has given us one.
JUST TRY–
It is how he left Singapore.
It is how he moved to Cambodia.
It is how he began photography.
It is how he became a model.
“Just speak to the person. Just take the step. Just see what happens.”
This mindset carried him through years of uncertainty. It taught him to move before he felt ready.
But something new is emerging now.
“You just try first,” he says, “and then you learn to just be.”
The striving softens.
The becoming settles.
The self steps forward.
“You just try first, and then you learn to just be.”
— Eli Yeung
LEARNING TO NAME HIMSELF.
For a long time, Eli introduced himself cautiously. He would soften his truth. He would minimize his role.
Recently, something changed.
At a family gathering, surrounded by strangers, he said it plainly.
“I am a model.”
No shrinking.
No nervous laughter.
No disclaimers.
“I was ready,” he says.
The room responded with curiosity. With interest. With conversation.
And in that moment, Eli realized something essential.
You do not wait for permission to be who you already are.
You accept it.
BECOMING MORE THAN THE ROLE.
Eli does not want to stop at modeling.
He is writing a children’s book.
He is teaching himself illustration.
He is planning to self publish.
“I have never written a book before,” he admits, smiling. “But I will become a writer.”
Not someday.
Now.
Because he has learned the secret.
You do not become something by waiting until you feel perfect.
You become something by stepping into it.
WHAT HE LEAVES US.
Eli does not leave us with hustle culture.
He leaves us with humanity.
He leaves us with patience.
With gentleness.
With courage that does not shout.
He leaves us with permission to grow quietly, to evolve slowly, to honor who we already are becoming.
And he leaves us with two words that feel like a hand on your back.
JUST TRY.
If Eli’s story stayed with you, there is so much more waiting for you beyond these pages. His full, unfiltered journey unfolds in the Season 4 premiere of The Corey Podcast, where he speaks openly about modeling, visibility, resilience, and what it truly means to take up space in a world that often asks you to shrink.
You can hear the complete conversation in Season 4, Episode 110 of The Corey Podcast.
Thank you for reading. Thank you for being here. And thank you for holding space for stories that remind us we were never meant to hide.
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