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Birchbox Gets Unbothered: A Popular Subscription Box Gets a ‘For Us, By Us’ Curation
It’s not news that black women are the beauty and hair care market’s biggest spenders; as Nielsen research famously revealed in 2017, black women spend approximately nine times more on beauty and hair care than our white counterparts. And yet, until recently, we have been persistently ignored and marginalized by the same market we help…
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Let Michelle Obama’s #SelfCareSunday Be the Motivation You Need This Monday
I don’t know about you, but my Mondays hit me hard. I don’t know if it’s the 6:30 a.m. start time (CST) or the result of my body clock being thrown off by sleeping most of the preceding weekend, but 9 times out of 10, I feel like I’m pushing a boulder uphill through the…
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Fleurotica: Inspiration—and Education—Bloom in Chicago With a Floral-Fueled Fashion Show
Anyone who thinks the most imaginative looks on the runway happen during Fashion Week has clearly never been to Fleurotica, the incredible merging of floral and fashion design that took place at Chicago’s Garfield Park Conservatory on Friday night. Garnering my first invitation to the 11-year-old event this year, I wasn’t quite sure what to…
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'I Thought It Would Be Fair': Meghan Says She Was Warned the British Tabloids Would Destroy Her Life, but 'Didn’t Get It'
As Harry & Meghan: An African Journey premiered on ITV in the United Kingdom on Sunday, more insight into the challenges facing the Sussexes’ courtship and eventual marriage were revealed. As Meghan disclosed in a clip last week, she’s ‘not really OK’ after enduring years of abuse from the British tabloids—which remained relentless even as…
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'We Still Doing This?' The Online Abuse of Rapper and Calvin Klein Model Chika Proves We Have Intimacy Issues
No, she’s not your average girl in an intimate apparel campaign —and thank God, since last time I checked, most of us—of all sizes and shapes—buy and wear underwear. But Montgomery, Ala.-born, Nigerian-American rapper-on-the-rise Chika—who first rose to fame last year with a “Jesus Walks”-backed freestyle calling out Kanye’s MAGA metamorphosis—has already been proven a…
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Oh, You Didn’t Know About the 'Texture Tax'?
It costs a lot to be a woman. It’s well known that we pay more for clothes, grooming and even health care—all while making less on average than our male counterparts. That disparity is called the “Pink Tax.” Less acknowledged is that it can cost even more to be a black woman, particularly when it…
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'We Stand Here to Honor Her Life': Melina Matsoukas and Lena Waithe Memorialized #AtatianaJefferson at Elle's Women in Hollywood Awards
Queen & Slim director Melina Matsoukas was somber as she accepted her award at Elle’s 2019 Women in Hollywood awards ceremony on Monday night. As she explained to the assembled guests, her mind was on Atatiana Jefferson, the 28-year-old killed in her own home on Saturday by police officer Aaron Dean in Fort Worth, Texas.…
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Marriage, Ministry and Misogyny: In Kanye's Criticism of Kim, His God Complex—and Hypocrisy—Hit Home
“And I always find, yeah, I always find somethin’ wrong/You been puttin’ up with’ my shit just way too long/I’m so gifted at findin’ what I don’t like the most/So I think it’s time for us to have a toast.” —Kanye West Beware of false prophets—or at the very least, be careful what you ask…
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She’s a Natural! Gabrielle Union’s Cropped Curls Make Waves on Instagram
Fun fact: This past weekend, I hightailed it to the Chicago salon I’ve been frequenting for over 20 years, marched right up to the owner (my longtime stylist), and dramatically proclaimed, “I can’t take another day!” while pulling at my hair. Coveted lengths be damned, I was planning to park myself in his chair on…
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'Shame on Everybody': Hillary Clinton Acknowledges That Racism Is 'Certainly Part of' the Treatment of Meghan Markle
Hillary Clinton is the latest public figure to throw her support behind Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, in the midst of the Sussexes’ legal battle against British tabloid the Mail on Sunday. “I do want to say that the way she’s been treated is inexplicable,” the former secretary of state—a self-proclaimed “huge Meghan Markle fan”—told UK…
