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My time in the blogging space has been short compared to others. However, I feel like I’ve been sharing my frustrations with the lack of representation for black women in fashion since the beginning. In fact, it’s the entire reason I started blogging in the first place. Time and time again we have the same conversations about demanding change but it seems like I’m screaming into a void.
My fellow content creator and inspiration, Alicia (@aliciatenise) sparked a huge discussion on Twitter about the insanity that is influencer trips. Unsurprisingly, the thread went viral and was featured on INSIDER, Metro UK, Yahoo Finance, and other publications. If you follow more than a few bloggers on social media, you’ve probably noticed a rise in sponsored trips with brands like Revolve, Red Dress Boutique, Amaryllis, Pink Lily Boutique and more. In every instance, the group consists of about 8-10 white women who are between a size 0-4. As a business student, I can’t help but applaud influencer trips as a great marketing strategy. With a saturated blogger and retail industry on Instagram, the only way to grab the attention midst the endless scrolling is by creating inspirational and aspirational content. What’s more interesting than following a bunch of hot women prance along the beach- for their job?
Thes lavish, tropical getaways allow bloggers to grow their audience from the brand’s followers and vice versa (along with the other creators invited). Here’s the catch: black women are included about 5% of the time- ultimately stifling our growth in the industry. And if we are invited, it seems to be more from the token perspective. Of course, they’re featured in the group shots to promote that they’re “woke.”
Are they heavily promoted weeks after the event? Are they included in your giveaways and behind-the-scenes coverage from the trip? Is the shade of melanin even dark enough to be noticed from a quick scroll realizing they’re in fact, 8 separate women?! Highly unlikely. During my blogging journey, I’ve been able to work with some amazing brands that want me to share their products with my audience. Unfortunately, they fail to highlight the black influencers as much as their white counterparts and I refuse to stand for it anymore.
Growing up without the visibility of black women in the majority of fashion and beauty campaigns made me feel like I wasn’t beautiful or good enough. I still struggle with self-worth and comparison in predominantly white spaces because of it. While the word diversity does a great job encompassing everything I WISH to see from the fashion world (racial, body, orientation, etc.) It allows brands to get a free pass after they’ve ticked off ONE box. When I’m scrolling through your feed as a brand, it shouldn’t take me several swipes to find someone that looks like me.
After sharing these thoughts on my Instagram, I loved reading everyone’s feedback about what diversity and inclusion mean to them. One follower shared, “Diversity is an invitation to the party. Inclusion is an invitation to dance.” How perfect is that?! It’s not enough to have a diverse space if the people of color in the room aren’t comfortable enough to feel empowered and truly be themselves.
Everyone deserves to see themselves represented and we won’t see the change unless we demand it. From now on, you might see some changes with who I partner with until I see strides being made to create more inclusive marketing. With any space that I’m invited to in the future, I’ll always go the extra step to see if I will be the only black woman (not just POC) in the room. And even as a size 0, I can hardly comment on how frustrating it must be to be straight-sized or plus-sized in this industry, too. I believe we should focus our energy (and our coin) on brands that truly care about representing the different types of confident women that make up our world.
Swimwear:
What do you think it means to be diverse or inclusive? I’d love to know who you think is doing a great job at TRUE inclusion right now.
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Absolutely love this post! I feel like I see a lot of content about supporting sustainable brands (which is also important in its own right) but never anything about inclusive brands. It’s so refreshing to get on a website or a brand’s Instagram and see a girl that has my body type and not just the typical model. I will definitely be taking this into consideration when i shop from now on.
I loved, loved, loved this post!! It’s so important to support the brands that make inclusivity a priority. There’s a few brands you mentioned that I haven’t tried yet, but I’ll definitely be placing some orders!
Rachel
http://www.hello-her.com
This was such a beautifully written post!! I totally agree that brands need to diversify their campaigns more and include a variety of people! Thansk for sharing :)
Nicolette Muro | thebrightestbrunette@gmail.com