Skai Jackson on Classy Clapbacks and Using Her Voice for Anti-Bullying

Many fans know Skai Jackson from her time on the Disney Channel, starring as Zuri Ross in a number of series such as the beloved Jessie and Bunk’d. More recently, you might have caught her in the futuristic music video for Lil Nas X’s “Panini,” where she zooms around a technologically advanced metropolis trying to get away from the rapper before ultimately getting her happy ending. The 17-year-old has made a name for herself as not only a rising actor with an amazing sense of style, but also a queen of memes.

When looking at Skai’s history on the internet, there, of course, is one majorly notable moment: when she and musician Azealia Banks duked it on out Twitter. But instead of letting the spat spin out of control, Skai used the event as an opportunity to stick up against a bully and use her platform to speak out against harassment.

Skai wrote about the incident in her new book Reach for the Skai: How to Inspire, Empower, and Clapback, which hits bookshelves on October 1. Below, Teen Vogue has an excerpt from the memoir along with Skai’s tips on composing a classy clapback.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve started to find my voice. I’ve even become kind of well-known for taking on some bullies online. One of the most notable is the pop star Azealia Banks. Even back when I was ten years old, I would listen to her songs “1991” and “The Big Beat” all the time. Her beats are really good, and I connected with her just as a Black girl.

When I was fourteen, she came after Zayn Malik, who was previously in the group One Direction. I don’t know Zayn personally and I don’t know his exact race—I just know that we’re both people of color. She attacked him with all sorts of racial slurs. I can’t even repeat them, that’s how bad they were.

So I took it upon myself to tweet, “Azealia Banks needs to simmer down a little.” I didn’t think it was that bad. I didn’t even @ her to get her attention.

“I just tweeted at Azealia Banks.” I told my mom I’d seen her go off on the internet before. It’s like once she starts, there’s no stopping her.

“What did you do?” my mom asked, then looked at my tweet. “Oh my gosh, Skai, she responded.”

Of course, it was foul. Azealia said that I have no boobs and no butt and I need to grow some hips. But I was only fourteen—I wasn’t supposed to have big boobs and a big butt.

“Don’t say anything,” my mom told me. “No, I’m gonna say something,” I said. “Skai, please…”

“No, really, I am.” Apparently, my mom forgot that she was the person who taught me to stand up for myself.

Then I started typing my response: “When a no hip having 14 year old has more class than you. Worry about your career. Get one.”

Of course, Azealia didn’t know when to stop. She tweeted, “LOL, says the Disney Channel Reject. You know they don’t like girls your color. Enjoy it while it lasts.” And then, “lol ur mom’s been pimping you out to disney since you were a lil girl. lets see what you end up like at 21. bye!”

She really should have stopped when she still had some dignity. And since the things she said about my mom were extremely uncalled- for, I thought, “Nope, I am coming back at you!”

I typed: “and I’m sure my mom did a wayyy better job then yours did! You give black women a bad name. I’ll be praying for you.” And then, “I had a career before Disney and I’m sure I will after! And I know I won’t turn out like you bitter and misera-ble! Fix ur life.”

Then I got off my phone. The long list of people Azealia had a Twitter war with had grown longer: Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, me. I didn’t want to give Azealia Banks any more of my time and attention. Plus, I thought her tweets were going to get really, really bad. And I worried that the feud would reflect poorly on me.

But that’s not what happened. It turns out she got all the negativity.

I got a lot of positivity. People tweeted supportive things like: “A 14-year-old girl stood up to a 24-year-old.”

“Wow, she really put her in her place without seeming disrespectful.” All of a sudden, people from MTV, a number of magazines, and many blogs started calling my publicist: “We need to do an interview with her!”

I was like, “Oh my gosh, what is going on? What did I do?” But once I saw the positive reactions coming from it, I was really proud that I got to use my voice.

Many organizations also started reaching out to see if I wanted to do anti-bullying advocacy. I thought, why not use this opportunity to make a change for good? So I really started to preach anti-bullying and use my voice for change.

In the meantime, Azealia got kicked off Twitter for saying racially offensive things. And now nobody says, “Oh, yeah, Azealia Banks, her song ‘1991’ was so good.” Instead, they say she’s out of control. Which is sad because she’s a very talented artist. If she just focuses on her music, maybe some positive things will come to her.

I actually feel bad for her. Why aren’t her friends telling her to get off Twitter or delete her tweets? Who is helping her get a proper support system?

I wish her some good help and better friends.

FIVE STEPS TO COMPOSING A CLASSY CLAPBACK

• Take ten deep breaths. Never tweet while you’re angry; you’ll probably regret it later.

• Get sassy. Never use curse words, foul language, or racial slurs, or say anything about a person’s appearance. Just work with being smart-mouthed.

• Stick to the facts. See if you can educate them a little bit.

• Less is more. As in fashion and daytime makeup, go light. Say what you have to say, make sure you’ve been clear, then keep it moving. You don’t have to use all 280 characters.

• Get ghost. Type your reply, then turn off your phone or close the app and don’t open it for at least forty-five minutes.

Excerpt from the book REACH FOR THE SKAI: How to Inspire, Empower, and Clapback

Text copyright (c) 2019 by Skai Jackson

Cover photo copyright (c) 2017 by Jessie English

Used by permission by Random House Children’s Books.

Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue