Teyana Taylor is the talk of the town on TikTok— but it’s not because of her hard launch with rumored boo Aaron Pierre. It’s actually because of a newly resurfaced Vogue video that has fans all over questioning what really is going on. We’ll explain.
Suggested Reading
In a now viral post from ET Inside (not affiliated with the Entertainment Tonight/ET brand), they show a clip from a video Taylor did with Vogue Runway as she was getting ready to don the steps at the 2025 Met Gala. And while seeing her get ready was fine on the surface, things started to go left when the post was compared to another video taken by one of Taylor’s makeup artists the same day. In it, you can clearly see the “Straw” actress’ brown skin was more vivid and warm as opposed to the first video with Vogue where she looked shades lighter and washed out.
“As you can see, her [Taylor] skin color is in tact with no apparent signs of skin bleaching. But Vogue will have you believe otherwise. Why?” the video said.
As more and more users began looking at the difference, many took to the comments section to question and theorize of why the legendary magazine made Taylor’s face looked so different. Some people blamed it on the simple lack of lighting while others surmised that the outlet’s video was yet again an attempt a to whitewash Black faces.
“They didn’t make her white, she’s bare-faced in a well lit room…then she has on makeup. If TT felt like they lightened her skin, she would say so!” wrote one user.
“It’s just a lighting difference, it’s not that deep,” said another.
“They want her to appear light-skinned,” one other user wrote.
Added another, “I thought the same thing immediately when I saw the video when it aired. So weird.”
Check out the video below. Is it really just a case of cooky lighting? Or is in an intentional whitewashing. You be the judge.
Straight From 
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.