You’ll remember Lalaine Vergara-Paras as the sassy best friend on Lizzie McGuire but after mysteriously exiting the show, the actress seemed to vanish from Hollywood altogether.
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The now 31-year-old has taken to social media to reveal that her time in the spotlight was not a pleasant one, admitting that she was once “forced” to appear more white.
“Most of my life growing up I was forced to look as ‘NEUTRAL’ as possible,” she writes. “These days I struggle to find photos where I look as ethnic as possible. Like in this photo, the most East Asian I’ve ever looked. In order to see, for most people, you have to zoom in on ma face. And in case you still don’t understand, I love my face in this photo.”
As fans began to speculate that she’s specifically calling out the producers of Lizzie McGuire, she edited the caption to say that her intention isn’t to berate anyone specifically.
“THIS PHOTO WAS TAKEN 4 YEARS AGO. I DON’T ACT ANYMORE, HAVEN’T IN A DECADE AND NOT TRYING TO. SO THIS COULDN’T POSSIBLY HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH “THE SHOW” So to stop people from reading into this I edited my caption to a more appropriate choice, I guess, cause.. fools.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/BwFUOunhj6a/
She recently revealed that she lost touch with Hilary Duff after leaving the show but hopes to rekindle their friendship.
“Sometimes you lose touch,” Vergara-Paras told The Huffington Post. “I felt good when I saw [Hilary]. Hopefully we’ll keep in touch now. She and I exchanged numbers. She texted me a couple times, and it’s such a trip to randomly see her name pop up on my phone now. … Yeah, we may not have spoken for 14 years, but somehow it’s one of those things where it’s probably gonna just pick up where it left off. Or the way it’s supposed to — slowly but surely.”
