Model Carissa Pinkston is being called out for pretending to be trans

30 July 2019, 14:12

Model Carissa Danielle Pinkston during London Fashion Week September 2018.
Model Carissa Danielle Pinkston during London Fashion Week September 2018. Picture: Kirstin Sinclair/Contributor
Jazmin Duribe

By Jazmin Duribe

Oh, she really tried it.

A model named Carissa Pinkston is being called out for pretending to be a transgender woman just to avoid the backlash of transphobic comments she had made in the past and, seriously, the whole story is truly wild.

READ MORE: Alyssa Milano is being slammed for calling herself a "trans, disabled, person of colour"

Basically, it all started when Carissa – who has modelled for Marc Jacobs, Savage x Fenty and featured in Vogue Japan – made transphobic remarks on Facebook in May 2019. Under the name Rissa Danielle, she posted: "Being Transgender does NOT make you a woman. It makes you simply Transgender."

Another post read: "This is how they want to be perceived. In a biological context there are Females and Males. This is the world in 2019."

Apparently, this wasn't the only time she was caught being transphobic either. Paper magazine reports that Carissa allegedly went as far as likening trans women to pedophiles, which is obviously just wrong. Carissa was reportedly dropped from her agency as a result and that's when the web of lies started.

After receiving backlash for her comments, Carissa offered up an apology and "came out" as a trans woman in a lengthy Instagram post.

"I wasn't ready to come out about it yet, but today I got fired and I've been receiving hate mail and death threats ever since, so I'm being forced to tell the truth," she wrote. "I'm Transgender. I transitioned at a very young age and I've lived my Life as a Female ever since. It's been very hard to keep this secret but what I said about Trans-Women is a direct reflection of my inner insecurities and I have since come to realize that I am a Woman... WE ALL ARE!"

Carissa Pinkston Instagram Post.
Carissa Pinkston Instagram Post. Picture: @twistpinkston via Instagram

However, it wasn't long before her lies were exposed by other models in the industry.

Aaron Phillip, a model who is transgender, was left fuming with Carissa's Instagram post, especially because she knows her IRL.

She tweeted: "imagine being a model who got exposed for being a raging transphobe/saying extremely transphobic shit in the past and then resorting to LYING ABOUT BEING TRANSGENDER ONLINE FOR CLOUT IN ATTEMPT TO SAVE YOUR CAREER...? i know this person irl and she is SO CISGENDER?? Y’ALL I-?"

Aleece Wilson, who is also a model, had worked with Carissa on a Nike campaign. She believed that Carissa was lying about being trans too.

Just days later, Carissa admitted that she lied about being a transgender woman on Instagram. Carissa claimed that she only lied because she "panicked" and believed it would "make things better", after she received hateful messages because of her transphobic Facebook posts.

She wrote: "I apologize for any transphobic remark I've ever made towards the Trans community. I panicked and I thought if I came out as Trans that I could somehow make things better for myself but it appears I've only made things worse. I'm truly sorry. I'm only 20 and I'm human. I make mistakes but I refuse to let them define me. I hope you all can forgive me and move on from this because I'm so much more than this incident and I'm not a coward."

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Carissa also added that Euphoria actress and trans model Hunter Schafer is no longer friends with her.

Understandably, people have been really dragging her on Twitter and calling for the brands and publications that feature her to never work with her again.

Carissa hasn't commented any further on the matter, but she has now deleted all of her apology posts from Instagram.

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