Coco Gauff answers critics
Tennis star Coco Gauff publicly pushed back against criticism of her natural hair in a recent Miu Miu campaign, framing her response as about confidence and representation rather than just an ad dispute (nytimes.com). Coverage says she returned from a month‑long social hiatus and posted an eight‑minute video rebuttal, which has spurred a wider conversation on beauty standards in athlete campaigns ( ).
Coco Gauff disappeared from TikTok and X for about a month, came back on April 9, and found thousands of comments about her hair instead of her tennis. She answered with an eight-minute video after criticism of her look in a recent Miu Miu campaign spread across social media. (theathletic.com) The campaign photos showed Gauff with her natural hair for Miu Miu’s Vivant bag push, and she had posted the shoot on Instagram on April 2. In her response, she said the styling was intentional and fit the “minimal” look of the shoot. (iheart.com) Some of the backlash called her hair “unkempt” and compared the style to earlier eras of Black American history. Gauff said those comments were not just rude but familiar to Black women who wear natural textures in public-facing spaces. (nationaltoday.com) She told young Black girls with “kinky hair” to do what they want with their hair and not wait for approval from strangers online. She also said she was “not going to apologize” for wearing her hair the way it grows out of her head. (theathletic.com) Part of her argument was practical, not just symbolic. Gauff said she is a professional tennis player with a year-round schedule, and she chooses styles that keep her hair healthy instead of forcing it into slick looks that can cause damage. (nationaltoday.com) That is why this landed harder than a normal celebrity comment fight. The criticism was aimed at a 22-year-old athlete who is ranked world No. 3 by the Women’s Tennis Association and has already won the 2023 United States Open and the 2025 French Open. (wtatennis.com, wtatennis.com) Miu Miu is not a random side project for her either. The fashion label has co-designed some of Gauff’s tennis kits in recent years, so her appearance in the ad sat at the overlap of sport, luxury branding, and image control. (theathletic.com) The video changed the conversation from “did you like the ad” to “who gets called polished.” Coverage after the post focused less on the bag and more on how natural Black hair is still treated as a debate point when it appears in elite fashion campaigns. (tennis.com, yahoo.com) Gauff’s line that “the girls who get it, get it” summed up the split. One side saw a simple backyard-style shoot with natural hair, and the other saw something they still do not read as finished or glamorous. (theathletic.com) By answering directly, she turned a comment section into a statement about who fashion campaigns are allowed to reflect. The post did not ask people to like her hair; it told them she was done asking permission to wear it. (theathletic.com)
