Carissa Pinkston was making big moves in fashion, having modeled for names like Coach, Marc Jacobs, Prabal Gurang, Edie Parker, Nike, and Rihanna's Savage x Fenty; however, the 20-year-old's career has stalled in recent weeks after she received backlash for a series of transphobic Facebook messages she allegedly wrote back in May.
"Being Transgender does NOT make you a woman. It makes you simply Transgender," one post read. "Being Transgender does not make you a woman in a Transgender context according to gender and sex [....] This is how they want to be perceived. In a biological context there are Females and Males. This is the world in 2019."
The screenshots of the since-deleted messages were shared on social media, and, according to Paper magazine, Pinkston was subsequently dropped by her agency.
In an apparent effort to combat the backlash, Pinkston took to Instagram to apologize for her comments as well as to come out as a trans woman.
"I goy fired and I've been receiving hate mail and death threats ever since, so I'm being forced to tell the truth. I'm transgender," she wrote. "I transitioned at a very young age and I've lived my life as a female ever since [...] what I said about trans-women is a direct reflection of my inner insecurities and I have since come to realize that I am a woman ... WE ALL ARE!"
But, as pointed out by those who know Pinkston, she isn't trans.
Though the model has admitted to lying about her gender identity, she recently told BuzzFeed that she "feels" trans ... "in a way."
"[...] In high school I was really bullied," she recently told the outlet. "I remember being in school being little and taking tissues and trying to put them in my shirt."
She went on to defend her dishonest "coming out" message, insisting it was written out of panic.
"It was never to avoid any backlash, but I did panic," she said. "And I do know what it’s like to be bullied and picked on for being different. And I wanted to fit in a community. Just in that moment, I didn’t know what to do. I got an experience of what a transgender person goes through."
