*White Instagram influencer Aga Brzostowska, 20, has hit back at accusations that she’s ‘blackfishing’ online – a term used to describe people who pretend to be black or mixed race with the help of makeup, hair products, and surgery, per The Daily Mail.
Polish-born Brzostowska, who is known as Alicja, describes herself as “olive skinned” and claims she received death threats after a photo of her aged 13 went viral, showing her natural appearance.
But the photos shared on her Instagram account highlight the extreme changes to her features – such as darker skin, thick thighs, curvy hips, and full lips, the report states.
OTHER NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED: SZA Reveals She Was Racially Profiled at Sephora, Fans Obliterate Store’s Rating
The University of Birmingham student has denied accusations of cultural appropriation, and insists she has not had any surgery and denies “trying to look black.”
Check out some of the images below from her IG account and judge for yourself:
View this post on Instagram
Little did u know I wore this jumpsuit backwards
A post shared by @ alicja_ab on
Brzostowska told the BBC she’s ‘not “white”… noting that she’s naturally olive-skinned, even though she does use fake tan, and adding that her lips are not surgically enhanced.
Alicja, who has more than 25,000 followers on Instagram, has reportedly received free clothes and products in exchange for posts and many have accused her of “reaping the benefits without standing up for the rights of ethnic minorities,” The Daily Mail writes.
In a November post, she slammed the “alarming” amount of “white girls cosplaying as black women” and the comment was liked nearly 50,000 times on Twitter.
View this post on Instagram
Little did u know I wore this jumpsuit backwards
A post shared by @ alicja_ab on
Speaking to the BBC, Alicja said: “I’ve had no surgery, so I can’t take off these lips. I can’t remove my ‘fake bum implants’. I’m not going to stop going to the gym to grow my thighs.”
“I’m not white white,” she added. “I might be Polish but I’m not white, white. I’m not saying I don’t [fake] tan and I just wake up brown. Occasionally I do tan but I don’t do it in a malicious way to look black. I don’t think about it.”
“With things like tanning, I don’t think I’ve done anything in a malicious way,” she added.
“My captions aren’t anything to do with black culture,” she said.
Alicja has allegedly received over 200 direct messages on Instagram after her pictures went viral, some of which suggest she “kill herself.”
View this post on Instagram
Just a thickums??♀️ Jumpsuit: @badekfashion
A post shared by @ alicja_ab on