What’s up? It’s Emile Ennis Jr. back here with Clevver News and in her new book,
Priyanka Chopra apologizes for her past, controversial
skin lightening beauty campaigns. Let’s get into everything she said.
While we all know Priyanka Chopra from shows and movies like Quantico, Baywatch,
and Isn’t It Romantic, she had a long career before making it big in the United States.
Back in the early 2000’s, Pri won Miss India World
and landed her first major roles in Bollywood movies.
She eventually became prominent in American TV
and films around 2015 and her starring role in Quantico on ABC
made her the first South Asian actress to headline an American network drama series.
But before all of her major roles, Pri took some smaller acting and modeling gigs and
when looking back, she has some major regrets about some of these projects.
Over the years, fans have been taking to Twitter to call out
Priyanka for participating in skin lightening ad campaigns.
This criticism particularly picked up last year after
she spoke out on the Black Lives Matter movement.
Fans called her hypocritical as they shared Priyanka’s post
side by side with the problematic skin lightening ads she once modeled in.
One fan even shared this video clip of Pri during an interview saying she would never
want to lighten her skin, but then followed up with her skin lightening cream commercials.
“I would never go around saying that you need to become fair because that’s the
only way you’ll be beautiful, because I don’t endorse that.
Gives your skin a radiant pinkish white glow. One lighten skin tone, two reduces dark spots.”
According to Metro UK,
these commercials have continued to air in India throughout Priyanka’s career.
And in her new book Unfinished,
Pri broke her silence on these commercials and the subsequent backlash she’s received.
Priyanka’s book comes out on Thursday,
but Metro gave fans a sneak peak at what she says about this controversy.
The outlet said that Priyanka opened up about quote, “making homemade ‘fairness concoctions’
to try and “change her skin tone as a teenager – and often used
store-bought products which had a lightening aspect.”
She explained that quote, “the idea that a fairer skin tone is something
to aspire to has been drilled into Indian culture for centuries.”
And when speaking about the specific campaigns she was involved in, Priyanka said she even tried
talking to the brand about the harmful message their products push, but nothing was changed.
Priyanka writes quote, “In the ads, the lightening of my skin seemed to
be a primary point, while other attributes of the product were minimally showcased.
All I could think of was how I’d felt as a teenage girl using store-bought and homemade
fairness concoctions because I believed my skin colour made me unattractive.”
She continued on and explained that even while she was filming the commercials as a young actress,
she knew how problematic they were.
Priyanka said quote, “I thought about how pained I’d felt when I was called k***i as
a child. I was now promoting the destructive messages that had so eaten away at my sense of
self-worth when I was growing up, and I knew the only person I could blame was myself.”
She looked back on the experience with deep regret
and offered her sincere apologies to people who still have to see ads like this.
Priyanka wrote quote, “Looking back, this was one of the biggest missteps of my career
and is one of my most profound regrets. I can’t go back and change what I did, but I can apologise,
and I do so sincerely. To all the people who saw the harmful messaging that I contributed to, to
all the people who still have to see commercials like these in every medium – I am deeply sorry.”
She also shared her hopes that this discussion will lead to a time when people quote,
“will no longer feel the pressure to alter their skin tones.”
And we sure hope so, Priyanka’s skin tone and all skin tones are beautiful
and should be embraced exactly how they are.
Hopefully people around the world can embrace this
message and we’re glad Priyanka is having the conversation.
Huffington Post also shared another excerpt from Priyanka’s book, where a Hollywood director
told her that she needed plastic surgery to make it as an actress in the United States.
Priyanka wrote, “He stared at me long and hard, assessing me, and then suggested that I get a boob
job, fix my jaw, and add a little more cushioning to my butt. If I wanted to be an actress, he said,
I’d need to have my proportions ‘fixed,’ and he knew a great doctor in LA he could send me to.
My then-manager voiced his agreement with the assessment.”
Over time she said she’s learned to stand up for
herself and not let anyone think less of her skin tone or her body.
She told Elle that quote, “As a teenager, I was meeker. Then, as time went by and I
started feeling the support of the world, I started coming into my own as a woman.
It took a long time to be able to say, ‘I don’t want to be meek, I want to be bold.’”
If you want to read more about all of this, her book will be released everywhere on February 11th.
And if you want more on Priyanka Copra, click right over here for another Clevver News video.
Also, let us know down in the comments below what you think
of her response to the criticism and if you’ll be picking up her book to read more.
I’m your host Emile Ennis JR., bye guys!