'I Am What I Am'

September 2024 · 2 minute read

Paris Jackson has only recently emerged in the limelight as an it-girl in Young Hollywood, but she’s already experienced the ups and downs of the business. Namely, the eldest daughter of Michael Jackson has fallen victim to botched Photoshop jobs to make her appear like something she is not. In an attempt to correct this, Jackson recently issued a statement, asking fans to not edit her photos to appear whiter or blacker.

According to Jackson, some of her fans have been darkening or lightening her skin in their fan edits. “I appreciate everything y’all make for me, i enjoy every single edit i see. But please stop lightening my skin to make me look more white. And please stop darkening my skin to make me look more mixed,” Paris wrote in a tweet on Mar. 7. “I am what I am. I’m aware of what I look like and I finally happy with it.”

Fans darkening and lightening photos of their favorite celebrities isn’t unheard of. Rihanna and Tupac have previously had photos of them edited, reimagining them as white people. Nevertheless, Jackson’s issue comes shortly after she stirred up conversation when she revealed that she identifies as a black woman in a 2017 interview with Rolling Stone.

https://twitter.com/ParisJackson/status/971257735756042240

I consider myself Black. [Dad] would look me in the eyes and he’d point his finger at me and he’d be like, ‘You’re Black. Be proud of your roots,'” she said at the time. “And I’d be like, ‘OK, he’s my dad. Why would he lie to me?’ So I just believe what he told me. ‘Cause, to my knowledge, he’s never lied to me.”Despite what her father told her, she said the outside world still sees her as white: “Most people that don’t know me call me white,” she said. “I’ve got light skin and, especially since I’ve had my hair blond, I look like I was born in Finland or something.”

‘Please stop lightening my skin to make me look more white and stop darkening my skin to make me look more mixed’ – Paris Jackson warns https://t.co/EU62B2Hm1k pic.twitter.com/rP4vF4sZgA

— Cute Berry (@cuteberry002) March 7, 2018

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