Teen Vogue’s staff is publicly taking issue with the publisher’s choice for its next editor in chief.

In the days following the news of Axios reporter Alexi McCammond’s appointment to the role, she was criticised on social media for past tweets that included Asian stereotypes. The response comes amidst a wave of activism against anti-Asian hate crimes and discrimination.

“We’ve heard the concerns of our readers, and we stand with you,” wrote 20 Teen Vogue staff members in an unsigned social media post published by several editors on Monday that described the incoming editor’s comments as racist and homophobic.

“In a moment of historically high anti-Asian violence and amid the on-going struggles of the LGBTQ community, we as the staff of Teen Vogue fully reject those sentiments,” read the statement, which asked for an “internal conversation” to “[maintain] the integrity granted to us by our audience.”

Staff members shared their concerns with the publisher’s leaders, including chief executive officer Roger Lynch and chief content officer Anna Wintour, in a letter they sent on Monday. Condé Nast has been criticised in the last year for lack of diversity and inclusion in its ranks, and the publisher has been trying to set a new narrative.

A representative for Condé Nast said in a statement on Monday that McCammond was hired “because of the values, inclusivity and depth she has displayed through her journalism,” and that she “took responsibility for her social media history and apologized.”

McCammond, 27, was a political reporter for Axios since 2017. She was named as Lindsay Peoples Wagner’s successor at Teen Vogue on Friday. Tweets she published in 2011 and 2012 resurfaced over the weekend. McCammond apologised for the tweets in 2019, stating “I am deeply sorry to anyone I offended. I have since deleted those tweets as they do not reflect my views or who I am today.”

In a statement McCammond sent to the Teen Vogue team on Monday shared by Condé Nast, she said she was “beyond sorry for what you have experienced over the last twenty-four hours because of me.”

“You’ve seen some offensive, idiotic tweets from when I was a teenager that perpetuated harmful and racist stereotypes about Asian Americans,” the statement reads in part. “I apologized for them years ago, but I want to be clear today: I apologize deeply to all of you for the pain this has caused. There’s no excuse for language like that.”