Tia Mowry has opened up about discrimination she and her sister Tamera have faced as teenagers.

When she and Tamera were at the height of their teenage popularity on Sister, Sister, Tia said they wanted to be the cover girls of a popular teen magazine. But the magazine refused because of their race.

“So my sister and I wanted to be on the cover of this very popular [teen] magazine at the time. We were told that we couldn’t be on the cover of the magazine because we were Black and we would not sell,” Mowry said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight, according to TODAY.

Mowry’s experience reflected her internal strife growing up in Hollywood without many Black role models she could rely on.

“I would feel insecure about my hair because being young and being in this business, I never saw girls like me,” she said. “I never saw girls that, you know, were embracing their curls or I never saw curly hair being portrayed as beautiful.”

For many young girls, the Mowrys were the first time they had seen natural hair shown as beautiful. Even though the Mowrys might have felt isolated in Hollywood, their presence on-screen provided many Black girls the role models that informed a positive self-image.

Sister, Sister is currently streaming on Netflix.

 

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Photo: Tim Roney/Getty Images