“It still affects me, how someone could demean your value because of the color of your skin.”
Tia Mowry is opening up about the discrimination she experienced when she starred on “Sister, Sister” back in the ’90s.
While speaking with Entertainment Tonight’s “Unfiltered,” the actress, 42, revealed she and her twin sister, Tamera Mowry, were once told they couldn’t be on the cover of a magazine because they were Black.
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When asked if there was a time she wished she had “spoken up,” Tia began to cry and she recalled an emotional memory during the height of her “Sister, Sister” fame.
“The show was extremely popular. We were beating — like in the ratings — ‘Friends’ around that time,” she began. “My sister [Tamera] and I wanted to be on the cover of this very popular magazine at the time. It was a teenage magazine. We were told that we couldn’t be on the cover of the magazine because we were Black and we would not sell.”
“Here I am as an adult,” Tia continued, pausing to wipe away her tears. “And it still affects me, how someone could demean your value because of the color of your skin.”
“I will never forget that. I will never forget where I was,” she added. “And I wish I would have spoken up. I wish I would have said something then. I wish I would have had the courage to speak out and say that wasn’t right.”
Because of this, Tia, who shares son Cree, 9, and daughter Cairo, 2, with husband Adam Hardrict, said she always reminds her children of their worth.
“To this day, I’m always telling my beautiful brown-skinned girl that she is beautiful,” Tia explained. “And the same thing even with my son. I tell him how handsome he is, I tell him, you know, he is smart. Because I know what it feels like for someone to devalue your worth, and I don’t want my children to ever, ever, ever, feel that. And not have the strength, or the foundation, to not believe it. To believe that they are worthy.”
Also during her conversation with “Unfiltered,” Tia reflected on growing up as a Black girl in the spotlight.
“I was insecure. I used to take diet pills,” she recalled. “I would also feel insecure about my hair because being young and being in this business, I never saw girls like me. I never saw girls that, you know, were embracing their curls or I never saw curly hair being portrayed as beautiful. Let’s say that.”
Tia continued, “I love that now I’m seeing images that are really embracing natural, beautiful curly hair and just beautiful Black women in all shades: dark, light skin, brown…representation is important and that really helped me, meaning me seeing those images, is what helped me embrace my natural beauty.”
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