Coco Gauff Defends Her Hair in Message for Young Black Girls

Coco Gauff is fresh off a finals run at the Miami Open. The 22-year-old almost missed her homecoming tournament due to an arm injury. While the tennis world was treated to another spectacular performance, discourse surrounding her hat and hair quickly took an uncomfortable turn.

That continued when Gauff starred in a Miu Miu photo shoot. We thought Gauff's hat, hair, and photo shoot all looked great. Unfortunately, outspoken trolls on social media forced Gauff to post an 8-minute TikTok video defending her personal appearance and sticking up for young black girls.

Gauff started her video by acknowledging she returned to Twitter (now called X) for the first time in over a month just to "see thousands of people talking about the way that I look and not in a positive way."

Gauff said there's nothing to address, but she wanted to talk about it. She began by defending her Miu Miu photo shoot, explaining it was meant to look candid, like a tennis player going about their normal day.

Gauff described her hair-care routine before saying, "So I'm not gonna apologize for the way that my hair looks because there are other girls who have the exact same hair as me and I just wanted them to see feel represented that your hair is literally fine the way is my hair was good enough for a high-fashion brand like Miu Miu to promotes one of their new newest launches.

So, if my hair force here is good enough for that then yours is yours is good enough to do whatever you needed to do so I'm not gonna apologize for that I'm not gonna apologize for my makeup I don't feel the need to put on a full face of makeup to take photos."

Gauff clarified that she was not "hating on people" who wear a lot of makeup; it just did not fit the Miu Miu aesthetic that day. Moreover, she emphasized, "But I made this video to just say to all the young black girls out there who have kinky hair like me, you do what you wanna do with your hair."

"Because at the end of the day people who hate on your appearance and hate on the way that you look have something deeply insecure about themselves the only reason people comment on people's looks especially people who present themselves in their most natural sense has something deeply wrong with them and they're insecure about themselves so they feel the need to put someone else down to make themselves feel better."

Gauff continued to give a pep talk to girls who feel self-conscious about their hair, while also demonstrating a strong understanding of hair and makeup routines. Stay locked into Sports Illustrated's Serve On SI for all of your tennis news from the court and beyond.