How Victoria’s Secret Exposed the Jealousy Behind the Beauty Hierarchy

Victoria’s Secret crowned 21-year-old Cameroonian model Solange Omon its newest Angel this week, and some people immediately lost their minds.

Solange won Angels Among Us, the brand’s six-part YouTube competition searching for a new Victoria’s Secret Angel. She beat fellow finalists Andreína Martínez Fournier, a Dominican model and former Miss Universe runner-up, and Tatyana Tinsley. Her prize included a place in the 2026 fashion show and an exclusive contract with IMG Models.

You can prefer another contestant. You can think Andreína had more experience or Tatyana had a stronger walk. What you cannot do is pretend the reaction to Solange’s victory was simply about modelling.

The racism became so ugly that both Solange and Andreína addressed it publicly. Solange said she had received racist comments across multiple platforms and made an important distinction: people were entitled to be disappointed that their favourite lost, but the attacks had moved well beyond disagreement.

“This is racism!!!” she wrote. Andreína backed her. She told supporters that she was happy for Solange and refused to let people use her name as justification for tearing another woman down. Dominican coverage of her statement specifically described the backlash as racist and said she wanted the attacks to stop. That tells us something.

Solange Looks Like a Model — So What Exactly Is the Problem?

The “DEI hire” argument becomes particularly ridiculous when you look at Solange. She is six feet tall, striking, extremely slim and has exactly the kind of proportions fashion has celebrated for decades.

Victoria’s Secret executives praised her confidence, individuality and potential, while the competition itself was designed to find someone the company could develop into a new Angel. Before this, Solange had considerably less professional experience than some of her competitors. That makes her victory a bet on potential, not proof that she was somehow handed a consolation prize.

And that is where the reaction becomes revealing. For years, people complained that brands had abandoned the traditional model aesthetic in favour of “inclusivity.”

Now Victoria’s Secret chooses a tall, thin, conventionally model-shaped woman and some of those same complaints remain. The difference? This time she is a very dark-skinned Black woman.

You do not have to believe everyone criticising the decision is racist. But when criticism immediately turns to Solange’s race, skin tone and claims that she only won because of diversity, it becomes impossible to pretend race has nothing to do with the conversation.

Andreína Did Exactly the Right Thing

I also think Andreína deserves credit here. This could easily have become a manufactured Black-woman-versus-Latina feud. She refused to participate. Andreína was allowed to be disappointed. Her supporters were allowed to think she deserved to win. What she would not accept was people using support for her as cover for racist abuse of Solange.

That is what healthy competition should look like. Two beautiful women can compete for one opportunity without one woman’s existence becoming an insult to the other.

The ugliness came from people who apparently could not process a dark-skinned Black woman winning without interpreting it as something being taken away from someone else.

Victoria’s Secret Is Also Following the Money

The broader backlash against Victoria’s Secret has another layer. Former Angel Romee Strijd recently became emotional on TikTok after learning she would not walk in this year’s show. She said rejection was part of modelling, but criticised the confusing way the decision had been communicated after weeks of uncertainty.

Her disappointment is understandable. But the online response quickly expanded into complaints that Victoria’s Secret now uses too many influencers, too many body types and too much “inclusivity” instead of returning to its old fantasy.

Here is the problem: Victoria’s Secret is a business, not a museum preserving the 2005 runway. Its customers are not exclusively wealthy fashion collectors. They are everyday women buying bras, underwear, fragrances and Pink sweatshirts.

And financially, the company is currently growing. Victoria’s Secret reported second-quarter 2026 net sales of $1.61 billion, up 10.4% year over year, while international sales rose 20%.

The company has every incentive to make more women feel connected to the brand. That does not make Victoria’s Secret some altruistic champion of representation. Inclusivity is also marketing.

But Black women do not need to apologise for benefiting from a business strategy that finally recognises their beauty as commercially valuable.

For decades, fashion benefited from presenting a much narrower beauty ideal. Now women like Solange Omon are being placed directly inside the fantasy. Judging by the reaction, that shift is making some people very uncomfortable. And perhaps that discomfort tells us exactly why the representation matters.