Yash Jain: When I Write About Vulnerability, I Am Not Trying To Make It Poetic (Bestselling Writer)

Yash Jain Interview

Dreamy quotes and aesthetics are beautiful, but I wanted my work to be rooted in real moments, real readers, and real spaces.

Q. Your bio says “Tall enough for your heels.” Beyond humour, who is Yash Jain when he’s not a bestseller writer or an Instagram personality?

Hi, I’m Yash Ranjit Jain, and people call me “tall enough for your heels.”

Most days, you’ll find me at my father’s shop. There are only two of us working there, my father and me. Every morning, I come to the shop, and every night I go back home. No weekends, no holidays. Just work.

I love being around my dogs. I have five stray dogs who stay near the shop. Every afternoon and every night, I make sure they are fed before I go home. That is why my bio says “human dog,” because I genuinely love dogs.

Whenever I get some time at the shop, I write. I note down my thoughts and feelings and try to express them honestly through words.

That’s who I am in real life. 

Q. You’ve self-published four books, an unusual path for young authors. What was the hardest non-writing skill you had to learn to make your books successful?

The hardest non-writing skill I had to learn was patience.

Writing comes from emotion, but publishing and making a book reach people takes time and consistency. I had to learn how to trust the process even when sales were slow and when my work was ignored. I learned how to handle rejection, silence, and self-doubt without letting it stop me.

I also had to understand how to present my work, how to market it honestly, and how to keep showing up every single day even when there was no immediate reward. It taught me discipline, belief, and resilience. 

That part was harder than writing, but it made the journey meaningful and real.

Q. A recurring theme in your writing is unrequited love, emotional neglect, and small heartbreaks. Why do you think readers, especially women, connect so deeply with this vulnerability?

I think readers connect with it because it feels real and familiar.

Many people, especially women, have experienced loving quietly, being understanding even when they were not chosen, and carrying emotions that were never acknowledged. Unrequited love and small heartbreaks are not dramatic moments. They happen slowly, in silence, in everyday situations. That is what most people relate to. 

When I write about vulnerability, I am not trying to make it poetic. I am simply honest. I think readers see their own feelings in that honesty. They feel seen, understood, and less alone. And sometimes, that is all they need from a story.

Q. Many young writers imitate Instagram aesthetics: dreamy quotes, romanticism, and pain. But your reels show actual readers, bookstores, and real reactions. Was this a conscious strategy to ground your work in reality?

I always felt that writing should feel lived, not performed. Dreamy quotes and aesthetics are beautiful, but I wanted my work to be rooted in real moments, real readers, and real spaces. Bookstores, people holding my book, and genuine reactions matter to me more than perfection.

Showing reality keeps me honest as a writer. It reminds me that these stories are not just for screens, but for people who feel deeply. That grounding is important to me, because my writing comes from real emotions and real experiences.

Q. You often meet readers at bookshops and sign copies. What emotions do people confess to you in these personal interactions that never make it to your DMs?

In person, people open up in ways they never do online. They talk about the love they stayed in even when it hurt, about waiting too long for someone who never chose them, and about the words they never had the courage to say. Many tell me they see themselves in my books, in the silence, the patience, and the letting go. Some smile while saying it, some get quiet, and some tear up. 

These emotions rarely make it to my DMs because they need presence and trust. In those moments at bookshops, it feels less like meeting a writer and more like two people sharing something they have both felt.

Q. 'Tall Enough for Your Heels' seems to balance confidence and softness. What insecurity of your own did you bury inside that title?

The insecurity was never about height. It was about feeling enough. The title sounds confident, almost playful, but deep inside it hides my need to be chosen without having to prove anything. I have always carried a softness that the world often mistakes for weakness. There was a time when I felt I had to be something more to be worthy of love or attention.

That line became a way of owning both parts of me. The confidence people see and the vulnerability I rarely show. It is light on the surface, but it holds everything I was afraid to say out loud.

Q. Your readers treat you more like a friend than an author sending reviews, making edits, gifting fan art. How do you maintain that intimacy without losing boundaries?

I think it comes from being honest while still respecting space. I listen, I read what they send, and I appreciate the love they show through reviews, edits, and fan art. I never forget that it comes from trust. At the same time, I remind myself and them that I am human too, with my own limits and quiet moments.

I simply stay kind, grounded, and clear. That balance allows connection without confusion, and warmth without crossing boundaries.

Q. A lot of Indian young authors depend on algorithm-friendly one-liners. Your captions read like incomplete chapters. Is that intentional forcing readers to imagine the rest?

Yes, it is intentional.

I have always believed that writing should leave space for the reader. My captions are not meant to give complete answers or perfect endings. They are moments, pauses, and unfinished thoughts, like a chapter that stops mid-breath.

When something feels incomplete, people fill it with their own experiences and emotions. That imagination makes the words more personal. I do not want to tell readers everything. I want them to meet the writing halfway.

Q. Every writer has a moment when they feel they’ve crossed from hobbyist to storyteller. What was that moment for you?

For me, it happened when people started trusting my words with their stories.

When readers came up to me and said they cried, healed, or felt understood without me explaining anything, I realized it was no longer just self-expression. It had become a connection. My writing was no longer only about what I felt, but about what others were carrying too. 

That was the moment I stopped feeling like someone who writes, and started feeling like a storyteller. 

Q. What’s something you’ve written that you personally found ordinary, but your readers turned into a phenomenon?

Was I Ever Enough? was that piece for me.

When I was writing it, it felt ordinary, almost too simple. It came from thoughts I had lived with for a long time, so I did not see anything special in it. It was just honesty, written quietly, without trying to impress anyone.

But readers turned it into something much bigger than I expected. They saw their own doubts, relationships, and unanswered questions inside it. What felt ordinary to me became a mirror for them. That response reminded me that even the simplest truths can mean everything to someone else.

Q. If a 16-year-old comes to you saying 'I want to write but my life isn’t dramatic enough,' what would your advice be?

I would tell them that drama is not what makes writing meaningful. Attention is.

You do not need a loud life to have something worth saying. Small moments, quiet feelings, and thoughts you never say out loud are often the most powerful. Writing begins when you start noticing what you feel and letting yourself be honest about it.

Your life does not have to be extraordinary. If you can observe, feel, and listen to yourself, you already have enough to write.

Q. If your next book could only be titled using an emoji just one which emoji, would you choose and why?

I would choose 

Because 'Under the Same Sky' is about distance and connection existing together. The sky stays constant even when people change, argue, leave, or grow closer. That emoji holds silence, waiting, hope, and the feeling of being small yet connected at the same time.

It represents everything the story tries to say without using too many words.

Bio:

Yash Jain is a writer and national bestseller with over 13K followers. A self-published author of four books, he has built a passionate reader community, especially around his book “Tall enough for your heels.” Known for his witty online persona and close engagement with fans, Yash often shares book launches, reader meetups, and moments from his journey as a young Indian author.

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Interviewed by: Nidhi