How Fashion Magazines Are Evolving

I pulled a magazine out of my mailbox the other morning. I get a lot of magazines. It seems like every family member under age 35 and over the age of 35 are sending magazine subscriptions to my freaking house. Seriously, some magazines I get twice. Most of them I stack in a cabinet for the day I donate them.

{As a side note, a friend of mine suggested bringing my piles of magazines to women’s abuse shelters as the women there tend to have limited movement, and often, not much in the way of entertainment. Just a kindness thought. How To Help Your Local Women’s Shelter }

So, the other day, I pull this magazine out of my mailbox.

Now, this cover made me think a few things in a very short space of time. Let’s see if your thinking was anything like mine.

1. Damn this woman just stays beautiful.
2. I love the title of this article.
3. The end of anti-aging? This that really possible?
4. Which magazine is this?
5. Allure has been doing some interesting things lately. They keep getting my attention.
6. I wonder if they got a new editor-in-chief or something?

And so I went and googled it. This is where the minutes of my life go, googling shit.

Turns out, although I don’t consider myself the avid fashion follower, I was right. There is a new editor-in-chief at Allure magazine.

The question of anti-aging was an interesting one, but the thing that interested me more, even more than the striking image of Helen Mirren, was that the magazine is Allure. I’ve been paying attention to them for a while now. Always it’s their covers. Something grabs me; some difference. Here are some recent examples with my points of emphasis.

Let’s hear it for Alicia Keys deciding that makeup should never be required of a woman, and exemplifying it on the cover.

Women who go about their daily lives as normal people feel the need to “put on a face” before leaving the house. Imagine a celebrity woman, high-definition cameras with mile long lenses, expensive make up artists all around, and saying, “No, I’m good. I don’t feel like wearing makeup today.” Even the best among us might be shaken. It’s not that she’s banished makeup from her life; she just doesn’t feel an obligation to wear it; she also doesn’t feel hideous without it. Who wants to walk around in a prom dress all the time? Sometimes a girl just wants to be free.

A punk look for Allure? Cool. Smashing beauty’s glass ceiling and planned parenthood? Deep.

By the way, Zoe Kravitz’s face makes me want to lay down and die. I give up! I haven’t been in love with someone’s face more than hers since her mother Lisa Benet. I used to watch her mother on t.v. and dream of having that face, and now I get to be tormented all over again. I don’t know why they hate me.

Halima on the cover seems almost inevitable given her recent fame; however, the caption beneath her image speaks volumes.

This too is American beauty. America is a bit of everything, but my whole life I’ve seen one representation of what an American beauty looks like, and it was never like me. I remember a female student of mine crying when I asked why she doesn’t cover her hair. She told me that she was ashamed, but she was afraid. She was afraid that someone might hurt her if she wore it. Some people are dealing with things that we never have to consider.

“I want to show up to work and not care what I look like.”

This cover is by no means revolutionary, but I like that they highlighted Emma Robert’s quote. She isn’t trying to convince us that she should roll out of bed and stumble into work crusty eyed, but we can all agree that capturing photos of celebrities without makeup seems to be an Olympic sport. Or maybe it’s more a gladiatorial ring with women being the most victimized. Congrats to her for wanting to keep her head in her craft.

It’s nice to have a mainstream platform to tell our stories. The cover itself speaks to the beauty of diversity, not once but 3 times.

I don’t think I’ve ever told you all this, but the reason that I started using Pinterest some years back was because I was searching for and cutting out photos of beautiful non-white women to show my daughter who at 6 years old had already expressed a dislike of her complexion. My friend suggested that I create a board on this thing called Pinterest. I named this board Beauty Beast. Imagine, at 6 years old my daughter couldn’t express exactly why she didn’t like her complexion, only that lighter skin seemed prettier. She wanted to be my color instead of her darker self. So I made a board. And now she has a magazine too. See daughter, I’m not the only one who thinks you’re beautiful. That’s a powerful thing.

If you want to see how far Allure is willing to go to let women know that it’s okay to feel beautiful however they come, then you have to check this out. They wrote a story with portraits of women proudly bearing their pubic hair. Thank all goodness! I’ve been trying to figure out for years why pubic hair was always an acceptable part of a woman’s body until, what? The 80s or 90s. Someone please research that, but I know I shaved down there for the first time with a dry razor in my parent’s bathroom in middle school, and I unfortunately lived to tell the story. I wasn’t even having sex! Wtf? I’ll have to write that post one day. Allure also produced a video series on body image and accepting our differences here. Click the fucking link. It ain’t hard and you’ll be happy you did.

Teen Vogue is also killing the fashion magazine game with articles on healthy body image and activism. Here are some samples with very brief comments.

Newflash to all the parents of girls out there: Your daughters keep asking me what it means to be a feminist. They are confused. Also, most of them have no clue who the suffragettes were, or how far we’ve come. Speak!

Well, she doesn’t look like your typical cover model. The hair, the tattoos, the weird is respectable quote. There’s change in the air.

Dude! They put a guy on the cover. Can you imagine how many boys are into fashion and feel excluded? Fashion and activism is for everyone. Welcome boys.

Girls not speaking up for themselves is an epidemic. The stories I could tell you would shock and appall you. Smart girls, not pretty girls. Speak up , not quiet down. This is good.

You mean they are telling the youth to go out and do stuff other than find the perfect lip gloss? They are telling them to stand for something instead of sitting still and letting the adults handle it? Brilliant.

In a quick fix day and age, they choose the quote about struggle and it’s rewards. What’s not to love?

Here’s a podcast episode about Teen Vogue by the Stuff Mom Never Told You podcast titled How Teen Vogue Got Woke. Fyi, you should all be listening to this podcast. The link will open in a new window so do yourself a favor and click it, and after you listen and scroll through all of the insightful episode topics, come back and thank me.

Now listen, there are plenty of aspects of the beauty industry that I don’t like, but… I think some of the magazines are really trying.

I get it, you aren’t tripping over yourself to buy your daughter a fashion magazine, but I’m saying you may want to give them another look.

When everything was make up and looking younger, women had a fit. So how do we encourage and solidify change? By showing support.* Happy reading!

*This is not a sponsored post. All of the opinions and observations are my own.

So, Dear Reader, tell me what you think. Have you been noticing the changes or did they catch you off guard? Which cover or topic did you find most relatable? We’d love to hear your thoughts (yes, I speak for everyone 🙂 )

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My name is Lyz-Stephanie and I want to inspire you to live a more interesting, fulfilling and beautiful life. Think of me as your well-being and happiness guide. I know that things aren’t always easy. Life doesn’t drop dreams into our laps, but every day we can do something to make our lives happier and richer, make our minds more active and engaged. I’m on the journey. Will you join me?

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