A Victoria\u2019s Secret model is facing backlash after becoming the first Filipina woman to appear in the lingerie brand\u2019s annual televised fashion show.<\/p>\n
Earlier this year, Kelsey Merrit took to Instagram to celebrate her milestone casting with her more than 914,000 followers.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Teen Vogue, the 21-year-old said, \u201cIt feels like a dream. Getting [into] the show is a dream come true but being the first Filipino woman to walk in the show means I\u2019m making history. The show is broadcast on more than 190 countries with models from 20 countries and I got chosen to represent my region. I feel blessed!\u201d<\/p>\n
However not everyone is happy for the Philippine-born model, with many people from the Filipino community discrediting Merrit\u2019s hire for her \u201cWestern\u201d appearance and ability to \u201cpass\u201d as white.<\/p>\n
The criticism prompted Merritt to take to Twitter and defend her achievement.
\n\u201cI was born in the Philippines and I grew up in Pampanga. I finished my school in Manila before I moved to the US last year. My blood is more Filipino than the \u2018pure\u2019 who have never set foot in the Philippines,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Victoria\u2019s Secret model is facing backlash after becoming the first Filipina woman to appear in the lingerie brand\u2019s annual televised fashion show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5391"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5391"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5392,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5391\/revisions\/5392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}