• The Real MVPs: My #Faves From Fenty Beauty (Hint: It’s Not the Foundation)

    I have a confession to make. I’m not a fan of Fenty foundation. *Ducks.* Don’t get me wrong: I’m enthralled by the range of shades, the marketing, beautiful packaging and even the specially trained Fenty specialists who color-matched me in Sephora. But after three tries, I had to accept that this foundation and I just…

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  • Bad and British: We Showed Up and Out at the British Fashion Awards 2017—Including The Glow Up’s Veronica Webb

    Last night, our very own editor and supermodel Veronica Webb took to the stage of the British Fashion Awards 2017 to honor her mentor and friend, iconic fashion designer Azzedine AlaĂŻa, who died suddenly last month at the age of 77. Dressed in—of course—AlaĂŻa, she was joined by both fashion-industry friends and fellow models and…

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  • Glow Up Goals: Carmen de Lavallade Is the Epitome of Ageless Glamour

    On Sunday night, dancer, choreographer and actress Carmen de Lavallade was honored during the 40th Kennedy Center Honors—a ceremony made more notable this year by the blessed absence of the cretin in chief, Donald Trump. At a still-stunning 86 years old, legendary performer de Lavallade did not disappoint, showing us that true grace and beauty…

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  • Oh, Honey: The (Budget-Friendly) Beauty in the Secret Life of Bees

    Yeah, we know, we know … we covered honey-based beauty just Sunday—Veronica Webb’s experience with a $725 luxury bee-venom facial, to be exact. Understandably, some of you were a bit stung by the premise and the price tag, but we want to pull back the curtain on beauty treatments that aren’t widely known to the…

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  • Like Father, Like Daughter: 20 Years After His Death, Biggie’s Legacy Launches a Clothing Line

    T’yanna Wallace was only 3 years old when her father, Christopher—the rapper the world recognized as the Notorious B.I.G., or Biggie Smalls—was brutally killed in a drive-by shooting in Los Angeles. I was 22 and a college senior, living across the street from his mother, Voletta Wallace, on St. James Place in Brooklyn, N.Y.’s Clinton…

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  • Killer in the Sack? Why You Might Need to Learn CPR This Cuffing Season

    Scenario: It’s a cold winter night, and you’re happily snowed in with bae. You’ve Netflixed. You’ve chilled. You’re now in the throes of passion, but instead of clutching you, all of a sudden, he clutches … his chest?  What would you do? Sex has long been one of our favorite winter sports—and has been linked…

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  • Dapper: Fashioning a Queer Aesthetic of Black Womanhood

    “Ain’t I a woman?” Black feminist pioneer Sojourner Truth famously asked that question of an all-white audience of abolitionists and suffragettes in 1861, to point out the erasure of black women from the social “protections” of womanhood. A century and a half later, black women, from Misty Copeland and Serena Williams to first lady Michelle…

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  • I Am Not Your Token: What Rihanna Taught Us This Week About ‘Diversity’ Casting 

    This week, one lucky Rihanna fan got an impromptu lesson in tokenism—from the star herself—after they suggested that she include transgender women in her next Fenty Beauty campaign. The new beauty mogul, who rocked the cosmetics industry this past September with her full-spectrum beauty launch, responded kindly and clearly on why even the question was…

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  • Before The Glow Up: The Root Staff Reveal Their Younger Selves in a #FlashbackFriday Series of Embarrassing Photos

    It’s never all work and no play here at The Root, y’all. Though we work hard, we always make time for fun—including making fun of one another—because we’re one big ol’ happy, dysfunctional family. And because our family is spread out across the country, most of these hijinks take place on our messaging system, Slack.…

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  • Treat Yourself … to Some #SelfLove

    I’ll bet we’re more alike than different. I’ll bet there have been seasons in your life when you, too, have felt like you had been incredibly blessed with so much, yet still felt a gaping sense of something missing—and you couldn’t quite put your finger on it? For me, this mysterious blanket of emptiness became…

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