Content Warning: The following article contains screenshots with anti-Asian and homophobic language.
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Alexi McCammond was named Teen Vogue’s new Editor-In-Chief on Friday, which was a major career move for the political reporter.
However, not too long after that professional news, some controversial news followed her. The weekend following the news of McCammond’s appointment, previous racist (targeted toward Asians) and homophobic tweets surfaced, from 2011 when McCammond was a teen.
In response to the concerns of readers, Teen Vogue Senior Politics Editor Allegra Kirkland posted an official statement from the magazine’s staff on Monday.
“We’ve heard the concerns of our readers, and we stand with you. In a moment of historically high anti-Asian violence and amid the on-going 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 integrity granted to us by the audience,” the statement read.
Staff members shared their concerns with the publisher’s leaders, including chief executive officer Roger Lynch and chief content officer Anna Wintour, in a letter they sent on Monday. Condé Nast has been criticised in the last year for lack of diversity and inclusion in its ranks, and the publisher has been trying to set a new narrative.
A representative for Condé Nast said in a statement on Monday that McCammond was hired “because of the values, inclusivity and depth she has displayed through her journalism,” and that she “took responsibility for her social media history and apologized.”
In an internal email to publication staff members obtained by the Washington Post, McCammond apologized for her past tweets. “I apologize deeply to all of you for the pain this has caused,” McCammond wrote. “There’s no excuse for language like that.”
More controversy surrounding McCammond, via WaPo:
It also caps a month of turbulence for McCammond, who previously covered the Joe Biden campaign for Axios and whose relationship with a senior Biden administration press official, TJ Ducklo, recently became public. Ducklo resigned last month after reportedly threatening a Politico reporter who asked him about his relationship with McCammond. An Axios spokeswoman told People magazine that McCammond disclosed her relationship with Ducklo to editors in November and was reassigned to cover Vice President Harris and liberal politics.
The 27-year-old reporter’s previous experience includes covering the 2018 midterm elections as well as Joe Biden’s presidential campaign for Axios. McCammon is scheduled to officially begin her new role as editor-in-chief on March 24.
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