Love Island Australia 2021 winner Tina Provis has penned an insightful post about how her race affected her reality TV experience.
Tina cemented herself as a fan fave Islander when she first competed on the show, during which she found short-lived love with Mitch Hibberd. She’s since appeared on Love Island Australia 2022 and Love Island Games 2023.
Taking to Instagram in early July, the 28-year-old said she “faced the reality of [her] own thoughts” when inside the Love Island villa for the first time.
“If you told me three years ago that I’d have the title of a Love Island winner under my belt (regarded as honourable and prestigious), I would have considered it near impossible for someone like me,” she expressed.
Tina detailed how her “biggest fear” stepping into the villa should have been “romantic rejection”. However, she claimed to be “well-versed on that front” thanks to her IRL experiences.
“Looking back on my first foray into reality TV and my Love Island experience, I see how the environment amplified an existing fear I can barely admit to myself,” she continued.
“I am not as good as someone who is white.”
Love Island’s Tina Provis questioned whether her race ‘made her less desirable in the villa’
Tina went on to admit that she had one prominent thought while in the Love Island villa: “Does nobody want me because I’m Asian?”
“It was around day three I had a conversation with another POC Islander, where we questioned whether our race made us less desirable in the villa,” she penned.
“At the end of the day, it is a social experience and everything that happens on Love Island is an amplification of real-world behaviour.
“Everyone who steps into the Love Island villa has a degree of anticipation about how they will be perceived and fears of rejection. But I can almost guarantee that every person of colour that walks through those villa doors is wondering if their race will be the reason they leave alone.”
While Tina confessed that this “doesn’t make it true”, it is “f*cking sad that it is even a thought”.
Love Island‘s Tina Provis said it’s taken ‘years’ to stop ‘harbouring prejudices’ about herself
Tina said her schooling experience — which was comprised of “over 80 per cent white” students — caused her to “harbour prejudices” against herself.
“It’s taken years to start deprogramming this way of thinking,” she told her followers.
“I’d like to think admitting how I feel brings me a bit closer to owning my identity, being freed from insecurity, and, more importantly, helping even just one more person feel like they aren’t alone.”
Tina added that she often “looked for faces [she] could relate to” in every facet of her life growing up.
“When you can’t find representation, eventually you stop expecting to find it, and that’s where people start to doubt their face and worth,” she deduced.
“The same way a lack of representation can affect you growing up, seeing more POCs in the media can make all the difference for young people looking for faces that help them feel seen.”
Tina concluded: “And while I joke about the honour of being a Love Island winner, I am grateful that through my experience, I got to be this for some people.”
The reality star’s post comes after she shared how racism “can last a lifetime” after receiving a xenophobic DM in January.
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