Tia recalled when a magazine wouldn’t feature her and her twin because the Black twins “wouldn’t sell.”
“It was around Sister, Sister days and the show was very popular. We were beating, like in the ratings, Friends around that time. So, my sister and I wanted to be on the cover of this very popular magazine at the time. It was a teenage magazine. We were told that we couldn’t be on the cover of the magazine because we were Black and we would not sell,” said Tia as she began to cry.
“Here I am as an adult and it still affects me, you know?” she said. “How someone could demean your value because of the color of your skin. And I will never forget that. I will never forget where I was—and I wish I would have spoke up. I wish I would have said something then. I wish I would have had the courage to speak out and say that wasn’t right. That’s why, even ’til this day, I’m always telling my beautiful brown skin [daughter] that she is beautiful.”
In the mid-to-late 1990s, Sister, Sister dominated television. The twins-centered sitcom starred Tia and Tamera Mowry along with Jackée Harry, Tim Reid, and Marques Houston, and it didn’t take long for the blended family appeal to launch the teens into stardom.
Tia and Tamera’s styles were emulated in schools across the globe and the twins’ catchphrases—like “Go home Roger!”—are still echoed by fans who remember watching Sister, Sister in real-time. It seemed as if the teen twins were sought after by any and every brand, but according to Tia Mowry[-Hardrict], there was one publication who refused to give them a feature because they girls were Black.
