WaPo‘s Ylan Mui is a unique beauty in Washington’s journalism community. But she’s not a willing participant in Fishbowl’s Finest. When we informed her she had been chosen, Mui replied, “I’m very flattered but I think I’ll take a pass on participating.”

Fortunately for readers, we don’t allow people to turn down their beauty – Scarlett Johansson, Angelina Jolie and Robert Pattinson can’t shun People magazine, and Ylan Mui can’t run from the honor now.

So let’s get down to business. Mui covers the “business of shopping” for WaPo‘s Financial section. She covers big business like Macy’s and Target; she covers small business as well. She first came to the publication in 2002. She teaches beginning journalism at the University of Maryland in College Park.

Story topics she has covered include a first-person account of how her parents rebuilt their lives in New Orleans after the Hurricane Katrina, tofurky, tightwads and Crocs. Find these stories and more of her work here.

On a dark but interesting note, she began her journalism career as an obituary writer and, as she describes it, “glorified phone-answerer and fax-passer” at the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, where she was born and raised.

Outside of work she enjoys cooking, running and hip-hop.