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The Best Book Club You’ll Ever Join: The Free Black Women’s Library Places Us Front and Center
It’s the weekend, and all I want to do is curl up with a good book and be transported to another realm. Instead, I’m curled up with my laptop this fine Saturday afternoon, editing and writing blogs for The Glow Up. But there’s definite gratification in writing about an amazing project like the Free Black…
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Your Black Barbie Could Never: Naomi Campbell Is Still #SlayGoals
Fun fact: I work alongside a supermodel, and can tell you firsthand to believe the hype. They really are that preternaturally beautiful, have clearly never experienced inner-thigh chafing and seemingly possess some sort of vampiric-level knowledge of how to eternally slay. And I can’t even be mad because they’re so mesmerizing to look at. So…
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This Is How You Use Your Privilege: How Jessica Chastain Helped Octavia Spencer Earn Her Worth
Golden Globe-winning actress Jessica Chastain is well-known as one of the most vocal women in Hollywood when it comes to demanding equity, insisting that she be paid on par with her male co-stars. As she told Newsweek in 2017: What I do now, when I’m taking on a film, I always ask about the fairness…
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Love Without a (Price) Limit: Love Mary J.’s Look at the SAG Awards? Get It With Black Opal!
It’s no secret that we’re all about Mary J. Blige’s glow up this awards season; in fact, we’re not sure we’ve stanned this hard for her since What’s the 411? The singer and actress has been nominated for Golden Globe, Critics Choice and Screen Actors Guild awards, and now a history-making two Oscar nods for…
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Making Hair-Story: This Artist Is Styling Her Insecurities Away
Artist Laetitia Ky has had enough: enough body-shaming, self-doubting and denying the natural beauty all of us possess—no matter what form it takes. The 21-year-old self-proclaimed “Ivorian goddess and polyvalent artist” has taken matters into her own hands—and hair—creating an Instagram full of surrealist imagery that tackles our worst insecurities head-on (pun intended). Using her…
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Now They’re Just Trolling Us: An Italian Beauty Company Gets In on the Racist Branding Trend
Fellow black folks, our collective outrage is clearly proving very lucrative because trolls keep trolling, and fashion and beauty companies keep trying it with racially insensitive marketing. Hot on the heels of H&M’s absolutely irresponsible and boycott-inducing use of a black boy to market a sweatshirt proclaiming him the “Coolest Monkey in the Jungle,” Italian…
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Join The Glow Up for the SAG Awards Tonight!
Glow Up gang, we’re back! Tonight we’ll be hosting a thread for the 2018 SAG Awards ceremony, starting with the red carpet at at 6:15 p.m. EST. You can join us by joining our Facebook group, where we’ll be dishing on our faves and hopefuls! (We’re personally pulling for a first-time win for supporting actress…
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Sighted Eyes/Feeling Heart Is a Loving Look at the Legacy of Lorraine Hansberry
I wanted to be able to come here and speak with you on this occasion because you are young, gifted and black. … I, for one, can think of no more dynamic combination that a person might be. … And that is why I say to you that, though it be a thrilling and marvelous…
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Yara Shahidi Performing Assata Shakur Is More #BlackGirlMagic Than Our Hearts Can Stand
As media partners for the Blackout for Human Rights-produced MLK Now event at New York City’s Riverside Church on Monday, The Root found a lot to be inspired by this Martin Luther King Day. But at The Glow Up, we were pleasantly surprised to also find #BlackGirlMagic in full effect. From actress Lupita Nyong’o reciting…
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Calling Professional Black Girls Everywhere! Ready for a Road Trip?
“Professional Black Girl is, like, my favorite thing that I didn’t plan to do.” Dr. Yaba Blay is talking about her self-produced sleeper-hit video series, Professional Black Girl, which quietly rocked our worlds when it debuted in fall 2016. The 14-episode first season was an exploration of what Blay calls “black-girl culture”—in all its regular,…
