More and more disruptors are marking the fashion and beauty industry more inclusive. At the recent Beautycon Festival NYC 2019 these powerful women talked about those issues in a panel titled “I Deserve To Be Seen: Beauty Bias and Representation.” Presented by Dove, Amanda de Cadenet, Nabela Noor, and Julee Wilson joined with moderator Elaine Welteroth, of Teen Vogue, to talk about shattering unrealistic beauty standards and increase inclusivity in media.
(From left) Elaine Welteroth, Amanda de Cadenet, Nabela Noor, and DatJulieChic talk about beauty bias and representation at BeautyCon
Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images North America
“Not only does it affect our self esteem to see ourselves positively reflected in the media, but it also affects how we dream,” said Welteroth. “If we can’t see it, we can’t dream it, we can’t believe it.” Wilson, who is Global Beauty Director at Essence adds, “More and more brands are starting to get hip. I don’t want to just see a skinny girl putting on makeup. I want see someone who has a fuller face, a fuller body, l loving on herself. They should be landing major beauty campaigns.”
Dove, Getty Images and Girlgaze debut Project #ShowUs at Beautycon
Photo by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Dove
According to Dove, 70% of women say they still do not feel represented in media and advertising. And they wish media and advertisers did a better job of portraying women of physical diversity when it comes to body shapes, scars, freckles and skin conditions. So Dove partnered with Getty and De Cadenet’s organization Girlgaze, to help change that. In fact, Dove has made it their mission to show real women. “It has always been a core belief of the brand,” says Amy Stepanian, marketing director of Dove, USA. “It is our goal to make the world a place where beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety.”
De Cadenet shared how three years ago she founded @Girlgaze on Instagram as a call to action for female identifying creatives to share how they see the world through their images. “As we know there is such little representation from the female perspective in media and I wanted to change that,” explained de Cadenet. “There should be a disclaimer on social media that says this is not real life.” One things that really bothered her is that people who are in a position to inspire positive change don’t often use their voice or platform to do so.
So a movement began. Asking how do you wish to be seen, Girlgaze received hundreds of thousands of submissions from around the globe using #Girlgaze. A brain child of Dove, Getty Images and Girlgaze, the Project #ShowUs initiative is developing the world’s largest stock photo library. It features more than 5,000 photographs representing a diverse global community of non-binary individuals and female-identifying photographers. “Anyone can go to the bank, access the photos and use them in their own campaigns,” says Stepanian.
#ShowUs features women from 39 countries and continues to grow. Each person is photographed by women who understand the beauty landscape of that country for a more authentic, hyper-local and inclusive representation of beauty. “We basically hired all of these creatives to make images that smashed stereotypes in their communities,” says de Cadenet. “When have you ever seen a woman who has had a double mastectomy in Times Square? When do you see that?”
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