In a now deleted Instagram post, former Savage x Fenty model Carissa Pinkston apologized for lying about being transgender.
Pinkston, who Vogue once credited her for “revolutionizing the freckle movement across all skin tones,” said she’s “taking full responsibility” for falsely coming out as a male-to-female trans after she came under fire for her anti-trans comments.
The 20-year-old model told BuzzFeed News Tuesday that “the only reason I had lied was because of the death threats. And I was scared, so I thought they would accept me only if I said I was trans.”
She continued: “I definitely feel like a trans person in a way — in high school I was really bullied … I got an experience of what a transgender person goes through.”
Anti-trans comments recently surfaced that Pinkston wrote on Facebook in May. One said: “Being Transgender does NOT make you a woman. It makes you simply Transgender.”
Pinkston received backlash for the comments, claiming she was also fired from her modeling agency and received “hate mail and death threats.” In response, she took to Instagram to come out as trans.
“I’m being forced to tell the truth. I’m Transgender. I transitioned at a very young age and I’ve lived my Life as a Female ever since,” she wrote on Twitter July 22. “What I said about Trans-Women is a direct reflection of my inner insecurities.”
Models who personally know her then proceeded to call her out for lying about being transgender, including Aleece Wilson, who said faking transgender is “terrible and disgusting.”
As scrutiny mounted, Pinkston was forced to confess the truth.
“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,” she wrote in a post that has since been deleted.
In addition to Savage x Fenty, Pinkston has modeled for Marc Jacobs, Coach, Fendi, Tommy Hilfiger, Nike, Miu Miu and Mac Cosmetics.
