Laverne Cox Blames Snapchat for Altered Appearance

Orange Is the New Black star Laverne Cox doesn’t need any help to look gorgeous, but like most social media users, she likes to play with filters now and then. When she used Snapchat’s “pretty filter,” or “beauty filter,” as people have nicknamed it, fans were in an uproar, speculating that the transgender actress had a nose job.

Cox, 32, responded publicly on Instagram by posting side-by-side shots of her face with and without the filter, which seems to lighten complexions and slim down facial features. “For everyone who thinks I had a nose job, the surgeon is snapchat,” she said to clear the air on the issue. “I try to love, embrace and accept myself everyday, filter or no filter, make up or no makeup, weave or no weave. Filters are fun but they are no substitute for me waking up, looking in the mirror and seeing the unfiltered me as beautiful and worthy of acceptance and love. #TransIsBeautiful,” she continued.

Her inspired fans were generous with their support of the star. “I prefer the nofilter one :)” wrote @antonietta1958. hannahgold37. “Adulting done right. You’re confidence and maturity is awe-inspiring,” @ninjaginga22 added.

Related: Why Do People Keep Doing 100 Layers Videos?

Cox has worked hard on her confidence, growing up in Mobile, Ala., in a single-parent household, having no friends, and being bullied and beat up as a young boy for being feminine, according to the Telegraph. Now she’s an LGBT activist and one of the first commercially successful transgender people on television. “When I got the script, I said to my brother, ‘This is the moment that I’ve been waiting for my entire career,’” she told the Telegraph.

Snapchat has been the subject of criticism for its filters in the past. Some social media users have accused the app of “whitewashing” people, or lightening their skin tones, in the name of beauty. They’ve also been taken to task for subtly altering facial features and producing large “doe” eyes and even making them lighter — implying that blue eyes are more attractive.

In April, the app was under fire for promoting black face by posting a filter of reggae legend Bob Marley on 4/20, the unofficial holiday that celebrates marijuana. Kylie Jenner wasted no time using the filter, but others found it offensive. “I love #bobmarley but, um … isn’t this technically black face? @Snapchat,” wrote @danny_ruiz on Twitter.

Snapchat hasn’t commented on any of the filter controversies.

Let’s keep in touch! Follow Yahoo Beauty on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest.