Tia Mowry Recalls Facing Discrimination During ‘Sister, Sister’ Days
Tia Mowry recently recalled a time she and her twin sister Tamera Mowry-Housley were discriminated against during their Sister, Sister days. The 42-year-old actress explained to ET how her own relationship with fame, self-image, and beauty has evolved and how she’s now passing lessons down to her children.
“To this day, I’m always telling my beautiful brown-skinned girl that she is beautiful,” Mowry says in a candid conversation on Unfiltered. “And the same thing even with my son. I tell him how handsome he is, I tell him, you know, he is smart. Because I know what it feels like for someone to devalue your worth, and I don’t want my children to ever, ever, ever, feel that. And not have the strength, or the foundation, to not believe it. To believe that they are worthy.”
LOS ANGELES, CA – MARCH 23: Cree Taylor Hardrict (L) and Tia Mowry attends Nickelodeon’s 2019 Kids’ Choice Awards at Galen Center on March 23, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images)
The actress cited an example during the height of Sister, Sister’s popularity. “So my sister [Tamera] and I wanted to be on the cover of this very popular [teen] magazine at the time,” Mowry recalls. “We were told that we couldn’t be on the cover of the magazine because we were Black and we would not sell.”
“I will never forget that. I will never forget where I was,” she continues. “And I wish I would have spoken up. I wish I would have said something then. I wish I would have had the courage to speak out and say that wasn’t right.”
UNIVERSAL CITY, CA – AUGUST 11: Actresses Tamera Mowry (L) and Tia Mowry attend the Teen Choice Awards 2013 at Gibson Amphitheatre on August 11, 2013 in Universal City, California. (Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images)
Mowry also talked about how she was full of insecurities growing up in the industry as a young Black girl. “I would feel insecure about my hair because being young and being in this business, I never saw girls like me. I never saw girls that, you know, were embracing their curls or I never saw curly hair being portrayed as beautiful,” Mowry said.
“I love that now I’m seeing images that are really embracing natural, beautiful, curly hair and just beautiful Black women in all shades — dark, light skin, brown,” she continued. “Representation is important and that really helped me, meaning me seeing those images is what helped me embrace my natural beauty.”
