While Carissa Pinkston has modelled for brands such as Prabal Gurang, Edie Parker, Coach and Marc Jacobs, the 20-year-old really made waves when she linked with Rihanna for her Savage X Fenty collection. Carissa became relatable to some and probably even a role model since she identified as a transgender woman but unfortunately, it was all lies.
Things started to crumble with Carissa got exposed for past tweets she made that came off as disrespectful to the LGBTQ community. "Being Transgender does NOT make you a woman. It makes you simply Transgender," one post read, via Paper Magazine. "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."
Carissa apologized for her comments in an official statement but still clung to the lie of being a transgender woman, detailing how she transitioned at a "very young age." Finally, seemingly after the death threats continued, Carissa finally told her truth:
"I apologize for any transphobic remark I've ever made towards the Trans community," she wrote in a post that has since been deleted. "I panicked and I thought if I came out as Trans that I could somehow make things better for myself but it appears I've only made things worse. I'm truly sorry. I'm only 20 and I'm human. I make mistakes but I refuse to let them define me. I hope you all can forgive me and move on from this because I'm so much more than this incident and I'm not a coward."