-
I'm a Plus-Size Runner and I Got Heckled at the NYC Marathon
This year, I ran my seventh and eighth marathons within four years of runningâall as a plus-size woman. I ran the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 8 and the New York City Marathon on Nov. 5âfollowed by the New York Road Runners 60K Ultramarathon less than two weeks later. The year 2017 was my most ambitious…
-
AfroArt: Immortalizing a New Generation
A few weeks ago, the fashion world swooned upon learning that Rihanna would be a host of the 2018 Met Gala, themed to coincide with the Costume Instituteâs upcoming exhibit, âHeavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination.â Imagining how âBad Gal RiRiââfirst of her name, currently ruler of three simultaneous covers of Vogue Paris (and…
-
A Tale of Lost Edges: Donât Try This at Home
Girl. Today in âWhat is you doinâ?â news: Popular beauty blogger Gigi Beauty shared a very personalâand teachableâmoment with her fan base, ending with a very big reveal: Girl. Through nervous laughter, Gigi explained that a beauty experiment (read: bad idea) had compelled her to relax her hair not once, but twice. In one day.…
-
Everything but the Burden: Why Weâre Done Getting Mad Over Makeup
Here we go again: Another day, another blackface makeup tutorial. Cue the moral outrage … and another horrible human goes viral. Todayâs transgressor is @notcatart, a Russian-speaking makeup hacker who claims to âlove skin of all colorsââwhich likely inspired this idiocy, after he apparently ran out of other looks and cultures to imitate. Of course,…
-
Winged Victory: The Victoriaâs Secret Runway Got More Colorful This Year … but Is It Enough?
âIâm rooting for everybody black.â Issa Raeâs now-famous quote from the 2017 Emmys is the gift that keeps on giving. Case in point: Now, in the season of giving, it was the exact phrase that came to my mind while watching the 2017 Victoriaâs Secret Fashion Show, which aired last night on CBS. This yearâs…
-
The Root 100 Is Tonight … and You Arenât Ready
Itâs. About. To. Go. Down. I know this because last night, despite having my dress and accessories planned weeks in advance, I found myself at the Zara store across from The Rootâs office holding a pair of red-black-and-green heels. âWoke-ass heels,â as I now call them. So woke, they felt too good to be a…
-
Say Something Nice: 7 Things That Have Actually Improved During Trumpâs Presidency
OK, now, before you start lobbing grenades into the comments section, let me start by stating the obvious, for the record: This presidency is both a sham and a shit show, and its accompanying administration a corrupt clusterfuck of epic proportions. Felt good to get that out. Donât you feel better? Glad weâre all on…
-
No Woman Left Behind: Has the Plus-Size Industry Forgotten Its Roots?
âI think Iâm literally the biggest, blackest model at IMG,â plus-size phenom Precious Lee says plainly, referring to the persistent lack of bodies and skin tones like hers at the world-renowned agency that represents her. In anticipation of another New York Fashion Week, Lee joined a bevy of models of varying races and sizes to…
-
Dancing With the Devils We Know: What the CDCâs New âIntimate Partner Violenceâ Report Tells Us About the Value of Black Women
The first time I was hit by a man, I was 11. Actually, he wasnât yet a man; he was 13, an eighth-grader to my sixth. And we werenât fighting, or even roughhousing. We were rehearsing for a school play when he abruptly asked me to be his girlfriend. Embarrassed and incredulous, I laughed and…
