Alexi McCammond is leaving Teen Vogue before she even begins.
The 27-year-old journalist, who was scheduled to start as the editor-in-chief of the publication on March 24, revealed Thursday in a statement that she has resigned amid the backlash over racist and homophobic tweets she posted in 2011 when she was a student.
“My past tweets have overshadowed the work I’ve done to highlight the people and issues that I care about issues that Teen Vogue has worked tirelessly to share with the world — and so Conde Nast and I have decided to part ways,” McCammond wrote. “I should not have tweeted what I did and I have taken full responsibility for that.”
McCammond said that she became a journalist "to help lift up the stories and voices of our most vulnerable communities."
"As a young woman of color, that's part of the reason I was so excited to lead the Teen Vogue team in its next chapter," she wrote.
McCammond made her name as a political reporter at the Washington news site Axios, and has also been a contributor to MSNBC and NBC. In 2019, she was named the emerging journalist of the year by the National Association of Black Journalists.
She came under fire in early March when her past racist and homophobic tweets resurfaced after publisher Conde Nast announced her hiring at Teen Vogue.
Screenshots of the decade-old tweets were shared in an Instagram post by Diana Tsui, editorial director at the Infatuation. One tweet found McCammond remarking that she was "now googling how to not wake up with swollen, asian eyes." Another found her criticizing "a stupid asian (teacher's assistant)." in her classroom.
Tsui called the tweets "a slap in the face given what’s happened to Asian Americans in the past year," in reference to the rash of horrific violence against Asian Americans happening across the country.
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In an addition to remarks about Asian people, McCammond also referred to gay people using slurs in her posts, according to the New York Times.
McCammond originally apologized for the tweets in 2019 and then deleted them.
She apologized again in early March after more than 20 Teen Vogue staff members criticized McCammond's appointment in a widely shared note on Twitter.
“I’ve apologized for my past racist and homophobic tweets and will reiterate that there’s no excuse for perpetuating those awful stereotypes in any way,” she wrote in a March 10 letter posted on her Twitter account.
"I am so sorry to have used such hurtful and inexcusable language," she added.
McCammond was embroiled in an earlier controversy in February. White House deputy press secretary TJ Ducklo was suspended when a report surfaced detailing allegations that he verbally harassed and threatened a female Politico reporter.
The suspension followed a report from Vanity Fair that said he had threatened the reporter after learning Politico was planning to publish an article on his previously undisclosed relationship with McCammond. He later resigned.
Ducklo was a former employee of the NBC News communications department, and McCammond was previously a contributor for NBC and MSNBC.
McCammond's resignation is the latest incident surrounding racial issues at Condé Nast.
In June, Adam Rapoport, the former editor-in-chief of Bon Appétit, resigned after a photo surfaced showing him in brownface and amid allegations that the magazine discriminated against people of color.
Later that month, Vogue editor Anna Wintour sent an email the magazine's staff members acknowledging her shortcomings in uplifting the voices of people of color in her newsroom.
"I know Vogue has not found enough ways to elevate and give space to Black editors, writers, photographers, designers and other creators," Wintour wrote in a June 9 email. "We have made mistakes too, publishing images or stories that have been hurtful or intolerant. I take full responsibility for those mistakes."