Alexi McCammond

In late 2011, when McCammond was a freshman at the University of Chicago, she posted a series of tweets that contained derogatory language directed at Asian Americans. 

The first tweet, written September 3, said, “now googling how to not wake up with swollen asian eyes...”

The second tweet was posted October 15 and read, “give me a 2/10 on my chem problem, cross out all of my work, and don’t explain what I did wrong..thanks a lot stupid asian T.A. you’re great.”

The third tweet on November 8 said, “Outdone by Asian #whatsnew.”

Around the same time frame, McCammond retweeted news of MLB umpire, Dale Scott, coming out as gay, saying, “Why is this ‘newsworthy’? It’s not.” She also retweeted a Twitter user who wrote, “I thought you were a lakers fan, you bandwagoning homo,” and replied, “hahahahahhaaaa Thanks Robbie.” Another of her tweets mentioned a Twitter user followed by, “hahahahah you’re so gay.”

On November 20, 2019, McCammond called out former NBA star, Charles Barkley, on Twitter for threatening remarks he had made off the record. In response, Twitter users found McCammond’s tweets from 2011 and posted screenshots of them in the comments. 

McCammond later tweeted, “Today I was reminded of some past insensitive tweets, and I am deeply sorry to anyone I offended. I have since deleted those tweets as they do not reflect my views or who I am today.”

After Condé Nast announced McCammond as the new editor in chief of Teen Vogue on March 5, 2019, many social media users voiced concerns over her past tweets. 

One of the most widely shared and interacted with Instagram posts came from Diana Tsui, the Editorial Director of the restaurant recommendation website, The Infatuation. On March 7, Tsui, wrote in the first image of the carousel, “Let’s talk about Condé Nast HR and this questionable hire for Teen Vogue EIC.” The captions reads, “I’m tired of big media organizations pretending to give a damn about diversity and inclusion. And this especially is a slap in the face given what’s happened to Asian Americans in the past year.”

The next slide reads, “Maybe we can give her some benefit of the doubt as these were done when she was still a student. But her ‘apology’ which was only after people caught them in 2019, referred to them as ‘deeply insensitive’. They are not ‘insensitive’, they are racist.” 

She continued in the next slide, “When we talk about accountability versus cancel culture, we need to talk about how this should have been addressed […] in light of the current national discourse about Asian racism.” Tsui disabled comments for this and other posts she made about McCammond and Condé Nast. 

Writer and influencer, Arabelle Sicari, also posted about the controversy on her Instagram story, saying, “The number of TIMES Condé Nast has exhausted the good will and efforts of queer and people of color leadership and then hired a MESS to take over for them with LESS experience and LESS goodwill and NO investment in the communities they serve. It’s like they WANT to fail into obsolescence.”

In the next post, Sicari wrote, “Anti Asian sentiment has been in the fashion and media industry for ever [...] To intentionally hire someone with this public history - right now - is an affirmation of white supremacy.”

Skincare and cosmetic formulator, Stephen Alain Ko, posted about the controversy on March 7 as well, calling McCammond’s tweets “racist.” Ko wrote of McCammond’s 2019 apology, “It’s not my desire to accept this apology. Instead I would like to share with you some experiences that I would like to ‘delete’, that have shaped ‘who I am today’ and ‘reflect’ what it means to move in our culture as an Asian.” 

Ko goes on to list his experiences from birth to present in which he experienced discrimination as an Asian American, finally ending with, “In 2021, I would be disappointed in a magazine that I contributed free labour to — make a decision that pushed me back into the margins.”

On March 8, 20 members of the Teen Vogue staff wrote a letter to Condé Nast management expressing their dissent of McCammond’s appointment “in light of her past racist and homophobic tweets.” In addition, several staff members posted a statement to Twitter acknowledging to the public their disagreement with Teen Vogue’s decision to hire McCammond. 

The statement said, “In a moment of historically high anti-Asian violence and amid the ongoing struggles of the LGBTQ community, we as the staff of Teen Vogue fully reject those sentiments. We are hopeful that an internal conversation will prove fruitful in maintaining the integrity granted to us by our audience.”

Twitter users responded to the staff notes, some applauding their actions and others defending McCammond’s character. Jim VandeHei, a fellow Axios journalist, wrote, “She apologized long ago; grew bigtime. […] great, strong, caring leader,” while another user emphasized that “... The future means someone w/o racist, homophobic, transphobic, sexist or predatory tendencies will get the job.”

After the public statement from Teen Vogue staff members, McCammond wrote an internal letter to the team that was later leaked to the press. 

The letter stated, “I’m beyond sorry for what you have experienced over the last twenty-four hours because of me. You’ve seen some offensive, idiotic tweets from when I was a teenager that perpetuated harmful and racist stereotypes about Asian Americans. I apologized for them years ago, but I want to be clear today: I apologize deeply to all of you for the pain this has caused. There’s no excuse for language like that. I am determined to use the lessons I’ve learned as a journalist to advocate for a more diverse and equitable world. [...] I want you to know I am committed to amplifying AAPI voices across our platforms ...”

On March 9, former Teen Vogue Editor in Chief, Elaine Welteroth, spoke about McCammond’s tweets as a co-host on the CBS show “The Talk.” Welteroth said, “Her tweets were racist and abhorrent and indefensible. Period. And I think at a time like this where there is this call for accountability around anti-Asian sentiment and racist, violent actions against Asian people, we do need to speak up. And I think that we also need to elevate the voices of the Asian community especially within the fashion and media industry.” Welteroth then read a quote from Diana Tsui’s Instagram post.

The Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA) published a statement on March 10 regarding McCammond’s tweets. The statement, written largely by Jessica Xiao, AAJA’s Director of Communications and Strategic Engagement, called on Condé Nast to “[...] publicly, forcefully and concretely show its commitment to fair, accurate and comprehensive coverage of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities, and to ensure a safe and inclusive workplace for its AAPI employees.”

The statement further read, “We denounce the racist tweets. But we also believe that there is room for everyone to acknowledge, learn and grow from past mistakes. We support the long overdue appointment of more journalists of color and women for top leadership positions. And we believe in this moment’s potential for difficult conversations around allyship, and learning how we can better support each other.”

Xiao wrote that AAJA had been in conversation with McCammond and Condé Nast, saying, “Today, we spoke with McCammond and the chief diversity officer at Conde Nast about their efforts to understand and address our community’s concerns. We look forward to continuing our dialogue and being a resource and thought partner as they work to build an even more inclusive newsroom and produce thoughtful and equitable coverage that includes AAPI communities. As always, AAJA stands ready to help.”

On March 10, McCammond tweeted a lengthy apology addressing readers, staff, and management. Though the tweet has since been deleted, the document containing the apology is still publicly accessible.

McCammond began the letter writing, “This has been one of the hardest weeks of my life, in large part because of the intense pain I know my words and my announcement have caused so many of you. [...] I am so sorry to have used such hurtful and inexcusable language. At any point in my life, it's totally unacceptable. I hear that you're hurt, angry, confused, and skeptical of how we move on from here. I probably would be too if I were you."

The letter ends with an address to the staff at Teen Vogue and to the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, “In the coming weeks, I’ll be putting together and sharing a more comprehensive plan about Teen Vogue’s editorial commitment to uplifting and reflecting the true complexities and beauties of the [Asian American and Pacific Islander] community. I’m heartened by the conversations I’ve had thus far with [Asian American Journalists Association] and other industry leaders who are willing to help me think through how I will begin implementing lasting, longterm, critical changes to our coverage and who share my desire to ensure that we remain a safe and inclusive workplace.”

On March 18, 2021, McCammond announced her resignation as editor in chief for Teen Vogue in a statement via Twitter. 

McCammond wrote, “My past tweets have overshadowed the work I’ve done to highlight the people and issues that I care about — issues that Teen Vogue has worked tirelessly to share with the world — and so Condé Nast and I have decided to part ways.”

She went on to say, “I should not have tweeted what I did and I have taken full responsibility for that. I look at my work and growth in the years since, and have redoubled my commitment to growing in the years to come as both a person and as a professional. I wish the talented team at Teen Vogue the absolute best moving forward.”

Following the apology, social media users commented with varying degrees of support and criticism of McCammond and Teen Vogue. One user said, “you don’t get to say ‘let’s move on’ if you aren’t a part of the community that was on the receiving end of [McCammond’s] comments-”, while another user wrote, “I’m sorry that we live in such an unforgiving environment where deeply heartfelt contrition for ignorant childhood words will not be granted any grace. ...”