Teen Vogue Editor and Guilford High School graduate resigns after rage over racist tweets

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) - Alexi McCammond is a Chicago native and a graduate of Guilford High School in Rockford. She made her name as a political reporter for a Washington news site called Axios, before she accepted a job as editor in chief at Teen Vogue Magazine. McCammond was supposed to start last week, but social media users had other plans.

Sources confirm that Teen Vogue, social media users and advertisers pressured McCammond into resigning from her position, when offensive tweets she posted as a teenager resurfaced on Twitter. Sources said the tweets included comments on the appearance of Asian features, derogatory stereotypes about Asians and slurs for gay people.

According to several news outlets, McCammond deleted the tweets in 2019 and publicly apologized. But screenshots of the tweets started recirculating in March, when it was announced she was taking a job with Teen Vogue.

Some people said it’s fair for McCammond to be held responsible for her actions, despite the amount of time that’s passed since her comments. Others point out that she made these tweets when she was a teen -- a time where many of us make questionable decisions.

NIU Professor of Communications, Dr. David Gunkel said your actions have consequences, but social media doesn’t leave room for forgiveness.

“Social media doesn’t have much room for nuance,” said Gunkel. “When you’re working with the character limit of Twitter, everything has to be pushed to one extreme or the other, very readily and very easily, and nuance gets lost in the process, so I don’t think there’s a great deal of appreciation of nuance on these platforms, because one, there’s not the room for it in terms of technical exigencies of the platform, but it also doesn’t get attention. What gets attention is polarity.”

Gunkel said you need to be aware of what you post online. It could cost you your job.

Critics said the controversy of McCammond’s tweets comes at a time of heightened concern about violence and harassment directed against Asian-Americans.