COVER STORY

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SPOTLIGHT

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the latest

Representation Matters 🔥 #Hermione living her best life by @sophia.canning
Shout out to all the girls working on loving their bodies because that shits hard we're so proud of you. 🧡 muse: @slimpugg
“If people in powerful positions continue to hire and cast only people who look like them, sound like them, come from the same neighborhoods they grew up in, they will never have a greater understanding of experiences different from their own. They will hire the same models, curate the same art, cast the same actors over and over again, and we will all lose. The beauty of social media is it’s completely democratic. Everyone has a say. Everyone’s voice counts, and everyone has a chance to paint the world from their own perspective.” - #Beyonce photographed by the insanely talented #TylerMitchell for Vogue
There was a time we could be proud and we felt cared for. We were in beautiful, intelligent but humble, eloquent, and compassionate hands. 🧡 Happy Birthday, President #Obama!
🌱"I contemplated for a while with making this post broadcasting feminine body hair bc part of me was afraid of what everyone would think. Plus, I come from a string of beautiful women who take pride in the things we put out, so they'd probably think I'm crazy lol. I rarely say much but, what's the point of having my platform if I can't use it to share what's inspiring me lately? It's looked upon as such a freaky act of nature, when it's indeed nature's form of recreation. So here's a way of recreating what it means to me. How freeing it feels to not be ashamed by the laws of change & free"dom" of choice: Change spawns growth. Growth spawns evolution. Majority of people only want to see "something natural like afros on Richard Pryor" if it's marginalized to fit into that utopian box of what's "hot" or acceptable. Extracting a numerous amount of things. But why should we mold ourselves in favor of a distorted paradigm? If I was given the gift of a free will, why must I use my gift on someone else's standard? We should have complete control over the things we want for our bodies. Whether that's to preserve body hair or remove it, to get that boob job or not, to be modest or "sexy". We could be all that someone else wants us to be yet, still not be considered good enough. Therefore, it is not our job to make a peer feel at ease. Those qualities can only come from within & are projected through speech, action, & eventually empathy. It's one thing for social media to take on a trend (like stretch marks) & glorify it + make it cool. But in reality, these things are extremely taboo. Although in some way, others aren't at blame for your mental conditioning. We do grow our own fruit & sometimes, have to eat our rinds after all. The underlying issue of it all is awareness. Do we ever take time to decide if we're happy with what we do with our bodies? Do we ever really think about ourselves in respect of preliminary desires or fears? & how are we to know, when choices are inspired by what we've seen or heard? Take time to figure out what you genuinely like. For in that spectrum of introspection, you can choose or simply choose not to choose freely.” - @airrozz
"There's beauty in the struggle..." 🧡 Shirt: @burgundycollection by @thomasburgundy Photo: @jayphoria Muses: @goldschool_ @hoodprofet
Summer mood brought to you by Princess #BlueIvy 💕👸🏽💅🏾
“As I walked through the picturesque, petite streets of Saint-Louis, Senegal, I spotted a young boy bathing in the Senegal river. The water of the river wasn't clear, it had this earthy brown hue which made it feel like a solid canvas. It gave the illusion of the boy floating on liquid clouds and not on ordinary water. As I approached the boy and asked him if I could photograph him two of his friends who were bathing nearby decided to join. What had started with one, turned into a duet and ended as a trio. This is the one, the two, the three.” - @denisseaps ✨