Creating While Black: Beauty Influencer Calls Out Skincare Brand For Stealing Her Content

A skincare line is being accused of stealing the content of a Black beauty influencer.

Avonna Sunshine posted a video on both Instagram and TikTok to call out skincare brand Yours Skincare for stealing her video and running it as an ad on Amazon. Sunshine said the brand never met with her, nor did she give permission and showed the ad being run under the search “sunscreen black girl.”

“So not only did you steal my content, completely disregard my hard work and time put into to creating my content, but you run it as an ad,” Sunshine starts off saying in the video.

“Not only do you run it as an ad, but you push it as brown girl-friendly, using the color of my skin as a means to push your product. If that is not racist, then I don’t know what is.”

@avonnasunshine #stitch with @Avonna Sunshine @Yours Skincare #fyp ♬ original sound – Avonna Sunshine

As comments began flooding in her defense, the beauty influencer showed how Yours jumped into her DMs to apologize. A screenshot of Sunshine’s message Yours shows its response: “we’ve escalated it internally to our Ads team. This shouldn’t have happened.” Yours also said it would contact Sunshine again once the ad was removed.

Sunshine was less than pleased when she received word of the removal. “Hi Avonna, team has fixed it and taken down the creative,” @lovefromyours wrote. “Sorry again for the trouble.”

Sunshine then went off, listing several appropriate responses the brand could have given her other than what she got.

“Trouble? Not ‘sorry for stealing from you.’ Not ‘sorry for possibly tarnishing your reputation.’ Not ‘sorry for trying to profit off of your skin color,'” she shouts.

“But ‘sorry for the trouble.'”

For decades, and most recently since the pandemic, white-owned brands and influencers have been called out for stealing the popular content of Black creators and making it their own. The popular “Renegade” TikTok dance, created by 14-year-old Jalaiah Harmon, is a perfect example. Late-night talk show host Jimmy Fallon received infamous backlash after inviting white influencer Addison Rae on his show to perform the dance rather than Harmon, Cosmopolitan reported.

In January 2022, Forbes released a list of its highest ranking TikTok earners. None on the list were Black, despite funnyman Khaby Lame being one of the app’s most followed personalities.

Sunshine’s fans commented on what she should do, with suing the skincare brand a popular suggestion.

“Sue them expeditiously,” @msmallyboo wrote.

Another comment read “lawsuit pending,” while someone else pointed out the audacity of the brand: “Brown girl friendly without paying the f****** brown girl in question,” @dabqad said, adding laughing emojis.