--- title: Jessica Alba Was Told She's 'Not Caucasian Enough' description: Honest Beauty's Jessica Alba reveals she was deemed "not Caucasian enough" and "not Latina enough" for certain roles. canonical: https://time.com/4670463/jessica-alba-not-caucasian-enough/ author: Megan Lasher article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-14T17:18:14.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:04:48.322Z og:title: Jessica Alba Says She Was Deemed ‘Not Caucasian Enough’ For Lead Roles og:description: She also struggled to find appropriate makeup for her skin tone og:url: https://time.com/4670463/jessica-alba-not-caucasian-enough/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt304a639a19ba17c4/6988ba497cdbacd6dad5723f/jessica-alba-honest-company-latina.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Marie Claire's Image Maker Awards 2017 - Arrivals og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Jessica Alba Says She Was Deemed ‘Not Caucasian Enough’ For Lead Roles twitter:description: She also struggled to find appropriate makeup for her skin tone twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt304a639a19ba17c4/6988ba497cdbacd6dad5723f/jessica-alba-honest-company-latina.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Jessica Alba Says She Was Deemed ‘Not Caucasian Enough’ For Lead Roles by [Megan Lasher](/author/megan-lasher/) ## Megan Lasher Feb 14, 2017 5:18 PM CUT  Jessica Alba attends Marie Claire's Image Maker Awards 2017 at Catch LA on January 10, 2017 in West Hollywood, California. Jessica Alba attends Marie Claire's Image Maker Awards 2017 at Catch LA on January 10, 2017 in West Hollywood, California.Frazer Harrison—Getty Images by [Megan Lasher](/author/megan-lasher/) ## Megan Lasher Feb 14, 2017 5:18 PM CUT Actress and entrepreneur [Jessica Alba](http://motto.time.com/4540389/jessica-alba-feminism-means-equality/ "undefined") launched Honest Beauty, the cosmetics line within the [Honest Company](http://motto.time.com/4477845/jessica-alba-bipartisan-diapers/ "undefined"), with the mission of expanding the definition of beauty. In a [video for _Popsugar_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVpfeUfeNLc "undefined"), the star says that part of her inspiration came from the struggle to find acting jobs and makeup [as a Latina](http://motto.time.com/4450710/latinas-business-work-survey-people-en-espanol/ "undefined"). “They couldn’t figure out my ethnicity. I would always go out for ‘exotic,'” Alba said. “They were like, ‘You’re not Latin enough to play a Latina, and you’re not Caucasian enough to play the leading lady, so you’re going to be the ‘exotic’ one.’ Whatever that was.” She added: “So then I was even more determined to become a leading lady to show that girls can look like me, and we can be leading ladies.” The inability to fit into Hollywood’s rigid categories also informed Alba’s decisions in developing her beauty line. “I didn’t feel like, when I was younger and certainly when I started acting, that there were a lot of things that were offered to women of color,” she said. “I found it really difficult to find even a foundation. I would have makeup artists constantly talk to me about how hard it was to match my skin tone and how they had to use three different types of foundations and mix them together every single time.” Watch the video at [_Popsugar.com_](http://www.popsugar.com/latina/Jessica-Alba-Her-Ethnicity-Video-43132591 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4670463/jessica-alba-not-caucasian-enough/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4670463/jessica-alba-not-caucasian-enough/"},"headline":"Jessica Alba Says She Was Deemed ‘Not Caucasian Enough’ For Lead Roles","datePublished":"2017-02-14T17:18:14.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:04:48.322Z","description":"She also struggled to find appropriate makeup for her skin tone","url":"https://time.com/4670463/jessica-alba-not-caucasian-enough/","keywords":["motto"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt304a639a19ba17c4/6988ba497cdbacd6dad5723f/jessica-alba-honest-company-latina.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan Lasher","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-lasher/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt304a639a19ba17c4/6988ba497cdbacd6dad5723f/jessica-alba-honest-company-latina.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Marie Claire's Image Maker Awards 2017 - Arrivals","caption":"Jessica Alba attends Marie Claire's Image Maker Awards 2017 at Catch LA on January 10, 2017 in West Hollywood, California.","creditText":"Frazer Harrison—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4670463/jessica-alba-not-caucasian-enough/","name":"Jessica Alba Says She Was Deemed ‘Not Caucasian Enough’ For Lead Roles"}}]}] ```