It happens every few months, or weeks lately. A celebrity “discovers” a new trend and shares it with their followers. It goes viral. People from all over start following this “new” and “innovative” trend. Except it turns out whatever it is this celebrity has “invented” isn’t actually new. It’s something WOC had already been doing, and likely being criticized for. Now it’s Hailey Bieber’s turn, and the internet has been quick to point out the issues.
The controversy started when Bieber posted a video on Tik Tok with the caption “ready for all the fall things including brownie glazed lips.” In the video, she can be seen sporting a trend she has actually worn before, a dark brown lip liner and a glossy lip. The problem is, of course, that by naming it in the way she did, it gave way to users jumping on the trend, sharing tutorials on how to recreate “Hailey Bieber’s go-to autumn lip combo.”
Bieber herself did not take credit for the trend on the video – and her fans were quick to point out that brown lips were very popular in the 90s, and noting the trend could have been inspired by Bieber’s mother, who is of Brazilian descent. But considering Bieber has come under fire before for profiting off beauty trends made popular by women of color, it’s easy to see why the internet is giving her no quarrel.
In the end, the lesson from this situation is pretty clear: If you see a beauty trend being credited to a celebrity, stop and check if any communities have done it before. And if you’re a celebrity, please, please, don’t try to pass off aesthetics created and used by WOC as a new thing by giving them cutesy names. It really is that simple.