‘Queer Eye’ Star Tan France Admits To Bleaching Skin As A Child

Tanveer “Tan” France rose to popularity as the beauty and style expert on the Netflix reboot of the popular show, Queer Eye. Fans immediately fell in love with his gentleness with each episode’s makeover subject — and, of course, his signature French tuck. As an adult, Tan seems confident and is always preaching self-love — that wasn’t always the case, though. In his recent memoir, Naturally Tan, he revealed that he struggled with his appearance as a child — and even took some drastic measures to correct what he perceived as flaws.

As E! News reports, Tan shared a story of stealing his cousin’s skin-bleaching products when he was just 10 years old because he felt self-conscious about his skin tone.

“I haven’t had the balls to tell her I took it, because, since then, I’ve been ashamed of the fact that I succumbed to the pressure. I kept the dirty little secret to myself. I’d only use it at night, before bed, when no one else was going to catch me…I had been so conditioned to think that if you were white, you were automatically more attractive.”

Nowadays, Tan is always the first to embrace his heritage and his skin tone.

“If you ask me what my favorite thing about my appearance is, I’ll say my skin. I think my skin color is beautiful,” he wrote in his memoir.

Tan has certainly had an interesting life, even prior to his role on Queer Eye. As his accent suggests, he was raised in the United Kingdom by parents who were very religious. As PopBuzz reports, his family struggled to accept his sexuality, which led to a strained relationship between him and his close relatives. His role on the show apparently helped his family understand who he truly is, and to accept him for it.

While he spends time traveling from city to city for the show’s filming, during his downtime, his home base is the unlikely Salt Lake City, Utah. He lives there with his husband, Rob France, who he has been married to for over a decade.

Before he became a television star, Tan was involved in the fashion industry, and worked for a variety of brands including Zara. He already has one clothing line under his belt — he created the brand Kingdom & State — and also collaborated with popular Utah-based blogger Rachel Parcell on a line.

Given his new stardom, the sky is the limit for Tan France’s future career opportunities.