Lena Waithe Denies Stealing Nina Lee’s Project: I Would Never Steal Another Artist’s Work

Lena Waithe, Nina Lee

Lena Waithe Denies Stealing Nina Lee’s Project: I Would Never Steal Another Artist’s Work

Lena Waithe has spoken out after being accused of stealing writer Nina Lee’s work for “Girls Room”, Lena Waithe’s project with Dove.

She took to Twitter to clear the air and wrote,

“There has been an accusation floating around that I want to address. In 2019, I partnered with @Dove for their project #GirlsRoom. Prior to my joining the project, in 2017 a @Dove partner came up with the title and the concept from which my scripts were based. I was brought on to write the scripts and produce the content.”

She then denied even seeing Nina Lee’s project.

“I have never seen Nina Lee’s work nor would I ever steal another artist’s work. As a fellow creator myself, I can only imagine how she must be feeling and I love to #Dove to give us more clarity on the situation.”

Still, Lena Waithe ended by stating,

“Now that I’m aware of Nina Lee, I look forward to seeing her art.”

theJasmineBRAND exclusively spoke with Nina Lee regarding the accusations, and Nina Lee also said Lena Waithe didn’t steal her material.

Nina Lee first got into the mix after she commented on the “Girls Room” trailer.

“this looks awful, yes I’m hating.”

? this looks awful, yes I’m hating. https://t.co/doJXrMzGrJ

— Nina Lee (@NinaSerafina) February 23, 2020

Still, many fans compared the Dove/Lena Waithe “Girls Room” to Nina Lee’s project “The Girls Room” that dates back to 2017.

She told us,

“I honestly just saw it on Twitter. Somebody sent it to me, and they were like, ‘Are you a part of this?’ And I was just like, ‘Oh, no.’ And I really didn’t think much about it. I re-posted it and was like, ‘Oh, this sucks.’ And then I posted mine, but I never did think people were gonna say that she stole it from me. I was really just posting it saying, like, how much it sucks that nothing happened from my project.”

“It was so huge and it never came out. Literally nothing happened from the show. We had a whole bunch of people hyping us up, like MTV called us. And nothing happened. People knew about it, and we had some very major things happening…but nothing happened for us.”

She also said she never met Lena Waithe.

“I’ve written about her for [a publication], but that’s it…I don’t even know if they see what’s going on. I’m sure someone’s mentioned it, but, no. No one’s reached out to me. I’m sure they’re going to make it seem like a coincidental kind of thing. [But] people are blowing up my Instagram like, ‘This looks like so much more than a coincidence.’ They’re like, ‘It’s deeper than just the name.’…I just don’t want them to try to put me down as an artist. Literally, in none of my tweets did I ever say, ‘Lena Waithe stole from me.’ So I don’t want them to say that I’m trying to slander her name or anything like that.”

Dove also said in a statement:

“Dove started working on Girls Room with our partners in early 2017, and we’re proud to have teamed up with ATTN: and Lena Waithe to bring the vision to life. The name of the series was developed before Lena or ATTN: were added to the project and was selected because our scenes mainly take place in the “Girls Room,” any similarity to other creative projects is entirely unintentional.”

What are your thoughts on Lena Waithe’s statement? Tell us in the comments.