Source: Michael S. Schwartz / Getty
Teen Vogue editor Alexi McCammond, 27, resigned from the publication days before her first day was slated to begin on March 24.
McCammond, who is Black, is at the center of controversy after social media users uncovered homophobic and anti-Asian tweets from 2011. The tweets resurfaced around the time the publication announced McCammond as the new editor-in-chief on March 5.
The decision between McCammond Vogue’s publisher, Condé Nast, amid pressure from readers, employees at the publication as well as Ulta Beauty and Burt’s Bees suspending their ads.
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The move comes as violence against AAPI communities has spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, culminating in a targeted attack on Tuesday in Georgia where six Asian-American women were killed in massage parlors.
“After speaking with Alexi this morning, we agreed that it was best to part ways, so as to not overshadow the important work happening at Teen Vogue,” Stan Duncan, the chief people officer at Condé Nast, said in the email obtained by The New York Times.
In a statement on Twitter McCammond apologized and said that her past indiscretions “overshadowed the work I’ve done to highlight the people and issues I care about.”
“I wish the talented team at Teen Vogue the absolute best moving forward,” she continued.
McCammond first issued a public apology in 2019 and deleted the tweets. She recently apologized on March 10 once the tweets again made their rounds on social media.
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“I’ve apologized for my past racist and homophobic tweets and will reiterate that there’s no excuse for perpetuating those awful stereotypes in any way,” she wrote. “I am so sorry to have used such hurtful and inexcusable language.”
A Condé Nast spokesperson told The Times that leaders chose McCammond from a wide pool of candidates because of her 2019 apology. They felt McCammond portrayed “values, inclusivity and depth” in her career.
“Two years ago she took responsibility for her social media history and apologized,” he said.
McCammond rose through the ranks of journalism, and in 2019 was awarded the emerging journalist of the year award by the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ). McCammond followed two former Black women journalists who served as Teen Vogue’s editor-in-chief, Lindsay Peoples Wagner and Elaine Welteroth. Most recently McCammond worked for Axios where she extensively covered the 2020 presidential election.
In 2019 she called out former NBA star Charles Barkley after he made a troubling comment towards her.
“I don’t hit women, but if I did, I would hit you,” Barkley reportedly said to her during a Democratic presidential debate in Atlanta. The two were reportedly talking about former presidential candidates Deval Patrick and Pete Buttigieg.
Barkley later apologized for the incident once McCammond called him out on social media.
In February McCammond’s boyfriend T.J. Ducklo resigned from the White House as deputy press secretary after he threatened a Politico reporter who was working on a story about the couple’s relationship.
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