Redefining Beauty in America

Update on Project: 


                         Instead of compiling all the interviews that I've conducted, I created a blog. The blog is called Coloring Out of the Lines and it will be accessible to the public once I transcribe all of the interviews that I've recorded. Afterwards, I plan to write non-fiction narratives of the people that I've interviewed because I've never seen that done before. Here is the introductory piece that I wrote for my blog. Please tell me what you guys think about it: 

                   When I was a child, back to school shopping was my favorite thing to do during the summer. My mother would take my brother and I in the back of her white Toyota Tercel with a bundle of coupons that were held together by several rubber bands, which I wasn’t allowed to touch. As she drove us to the nearest sale, I couldn’t help but to think of all the things that I would throw inside of our cart. Notebooks, pencils, erasable pens and my ultimate favorite: crayons. I made sure that they were the 24 count of crayons by Crayola because anything bigger wouldn’t fit inside of my floral print pencil case. My brother didn’t care about conveniency, so he opted for the 120 count box of Crayola crayons, which is how I became familiar with colors such as Robin’s Egg Blue, Screamin’ Green and Wintergreen Dream.

                 As we packed all of our merchandise in the car, I couldn’t help but to think of my brother’s newest box of crayons. I felt incredibly envious of him because as I looked down at my basic set of complimentary and primary colors, I knew that I made a big mistake. As much as I wanted to run back into the store to exchange my 24 count of Crayola crayons for the 120’s, I couldn’t help but to ask myself, “but how would it fit?”

               When I grew up, I noticed that a lot of adults asked themselves that question, especially when they spoke about color and race. It was a never ending battle, one that transcended from small chats by the water cooler at work to the pages of my favorite fashion magazines, television shows and novels. After awhile, I started to open my eyes to the world around me and noticed that there wasn’t a large representation of Carnation Pinks or Atomic Tangerines. There was just white. It has been that way for a while and if it were up to me, I’d say that we should bend the rules a bit. Forget what teacher so and so said and let’s color out of the lines for once. This blog celebrates those who have.

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Chinwe A. Onuoha

Convergence

October 23, 2014

Midterm Project Proposal

Changing the Definition of Beauty in America

For my midterm proposal, I would like to help redefine the meaning of beauty in America. One of the ways in which I would like to do that is by talking to beauty professionals that have created a more diverse beauty/fashion industry in their work. After each interview, I would like to write articles about them, which will explain the contributions that they have made in trying to make the beauty industry more diverse and then I'd publish it on BENotedonline.com. Afterwards, I would like to compile all of the articles that I have written into a book I plan on turning the articles that I will write for each one of them into a book because I want to show others the importance of implementing more diversity in fashion and beauty. 

            So far, I have interviewed the Chief Creative Director of DooBop, which is a e-commerce beauty site, for women of color who need help in identifying what their beauty needs are instead of picking up skin care or make up products based on their ethnicity. Jodie Patterson, the mastermind behind this successful business, has worked towards achieving this goal and I plan on disseminating her efforts, a long with all of the other women that I plan to interview, on BeNotedonline.com, a site that’s catered to women who love entertainment news, fashion and beauty.

            In an effort to keep the conversation of the need for diversity in the beauty industry, I have interviewed up-and-coming high fashion models, such as 23-year-old Virginia native, Destiny Owusu, who is currently working towards being featured in a Marc ByMarcJacobs modeling campaign and I have another interview scheduled several make up artists, fashion stylists, beauty bloggers, beauty editors, artists and supermodels. I plan on gaining all of my interviews by utilizing Twitter. Currently, Twitter has been a great networking tool for me because I was able to communicate with Jodie Patterson –who, if I should add –was featured in Oprah Magazine, Vogue Italia and Essence Magazine.

            The reason why I am so passionate about redefining the meaning of beauty in America is because advertisers have succumbed to the fact that women of color aren’t marketable in the beauty industry. I am here to debunk that claim because young girls and women need to see a positive representation of diverse women so that they’ll know that white women aren’t the only ones that have a universal, all-American appeal.

            I am challenging for beauty companies, fashion designers, photographers and advertisers to push for more diversity in their work because the world as we see it is changing. Multiculturalism is all around us and there’s no way for us to avoid it, but it baffles me when I look at the beauty industry and see a white caste of models that don't necessarily reflect the melting pot that exists in the United States of America. It’s time for that to change and if it doesn't, women and young girls especially will grow up with the belief that they are inadequate. The beauty advertising industry is extremely influential that it can make a young girl like me believe that I’m not beautiful. Just imagine if women band together to change that ideology. We’d have more women walking up and down the streets with their heads held high and their confidence levels spewing out of the seams of their newly tailored dresses.

            When I was a little girl, I remember sitting on my mothers Rubbermaid stool dreaming of what I’d become. I’d toss my hair in a ponytail, clasp my fingers with those obnoxious hair clips that came in every color imaginable, and pretended to be Oprah Winfrey for just a second. I never came up with what I wanted to pursue as a career by doing that, but I knew that I wanted to do something that would impact the lives of a lot of people’s lives. Pursuing a career as a global beauty advocate is far from what I imagined myself doing professionally, but I believe that creating an ongoing conversation about the need for diversity in beauty and fashion could change the way people view beauty in America.

            One of the ways in which I plan to forgo this goal successfully is by using the articles that I have published on BENotedonline.com and turning it into a book. It’ll be a good way to show women how they can pave their way in the beauty industry regardless of how they look –which may expel America’s cookie cutter fascination with tall, blonde haired, slim beauties.

                                                                      Resources:

1. Folan, Kerry. "Glamour's New Beauty Director Ying Chu on Ethnic Diversity."Racked National. Racked National, 8 May 2013. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.

2. Grinberg, Emanuella. "Sex, Lies and Media: New Wave of Activists Challenge Notions of Beauty." CNN. Cable News Network, 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.

3. Paul, Pamela. "Flattery Will Get an Ad Nowhere." The New York Times. The New York Times, 11 Dec. 2010. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.

4. Russell-Cole, Kathy, Midge Wilson, and Ronald E. Hall. The Color Complex: The Politics of Skin Color among African Americans. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992. Print. 

5. Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth: How Images of Beauty Are Used Against Women. New York: Harper, 1991. Print.