If you’re on social media, chances are you might have seen Simone Shepherd’s face. She, along with her collaborator and boyfriend King Keraun, have completely changed the game when it comes to content creation. The two, who got their start on Vine, utilize all social media platforms to not only make users laugh but also collect some checks along the way. Simone has said that when she found she wasn’t getting the roles she wanted, she decided to create them for herself.
And the rest is history. By history I mean, more than just internet popularity. Simone creates advertisements for large companies, including car companies. She’s done more than well in surviving in the fickle, entertainment industry. Since Simone is the one starring in a majority of her videos, her fans know her face. And they were the first to notice some changes in it.
Particularly, her nose job.
On a recent, Instagram picture, one fan pointed out the shifting of Simone’s face and expressed a bit of disappointment.
Source: Instagram
Simone responded to the comments on Instagram.
Source: Instagram
Later, she got on Facebook to offer a more in depth response.
Source: Facebook
At the end of the day, I understand that our personhood is so much more than our outward, external appearance. We are souls, who just so happen to be housed in a body. And no matter what you do to your exterior, your soul, the essence of who you are, does not change. Still, it literally makes my heart hurt to think that Simone found her physical appearance lacking in some way before she got the nose job. I’m not against plastic surgery. I can understand how it can improve confidence and self esteem. The fact that she had a boob job bothers me much less than the decision to alter her nose.
While I don’t think tampering with your nose negates your Blackness, (Blackness is more than a wide nose.) I do believe that the notion that her nose needed to be smaller, narrower is based on a standard of beauty that doesn’t celebrate Black features. To make it plain, it’s a Eurocentric (read: White) standard that for far too long, has been one of the only representations we’ve seen in Hollywood. And it saddens me to think that Simone, who was and still is beautiful, might have fallen victim to that non-inclusive, “White-is-the-only-way-to-be-right” standard.
I don’t want to be too hard on Simone because I know that a barrage of negative or dissenting opinions on social media can be a bit too much for the psyche. Still, I feel like the reason her fans and I are so saddened by this decision is because for as long as we’ve seen Simone Shepherd out here on the social media scene, it appeared that she was succeeding on her own terms. We’ve watched as far too many of our favorite actresses and personalities of color have sliced and diced their faces. And while it might be a bit disappointing, it’s not all that surprising. People play the game to win. And plastic surgery is often a part of the recipe for success. But with Simone, it was clear that she had done it without all of that. She tried to cookie-cutter Hollywood formula and it didn’t work. And instead of giving up, changing her career path or living in the street as an embittered, starving artist. She took control over her own destiny, determined to do her own thing in a new and innovative way. And it paid off. Simone is so talented and so intelligently in tune with her audience and her brand, I’m sure she’ll be wining for a while. It just would have been nice if she could bucked another Hollywood standard and decided to kick down doors, defy tradition and succeed with the undeniably Black nose she was born with.
