Tamera Mowry-Housley and her twin sister, Tia Mowry-Hardrict, along with their younger brother, Tahj, literally grew up in Hollywood starring in shows like “Sister Sister” and “Smart Guy.” Mowry-Housley recently spoke with Yahoo!’s “Are The Kids Alright?” about some of the obstacles she faced growing up in front of the camera. One incident she discussed was being told that she and her sister couldn’t be on the cover of a popular teen magazine at the time because they were Black.
“I feel like as a preteen, a young woman growing up, you naturally have insecurities that start to arise ’cause I feel like women naturally compare themselves to others but it’s on a whole different level when you’re reading certain magazines and you see the women on the cover of these magazines that don’t look like you. Don’t have the body like you, don’t have the hair like you do, but they are being celebrated and being called beautiful, so growing up we didn’t have that and you start to question what’s wrong with me. What’s wrong with my hair? What’s wrong with my body? You naturally become insecure when you don’t see yourself being celebrated on things you like and love,” said the actress.
Mowry-Housley also detailed how mainstream news and entertainment sends messages sometimes that can be dangerous when there isn’t any representation.
“It’s important to see yourself in things because it then becomes relatable. When that magazine denied us, that’s when racism really started to rear its ugly head in our lives. When you are clearly not given the opportunity when all the other variables add up that you should, that’s when you go, ‘Oh d—.’ We’ve shown you the entire alphabet reasons why we should be on this cover but you’re choosing to not put us on your cover because ‘you guys are Black and don’t fit our demographic.’ Literally,” she said.
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