5 Women of Color Discuss Why Diversity in Beauty Is So Important

We’ve talked at length about the ways in which the beauty and fashion industries are evolving: How social media has paved the way for a more diverse landscape; how customers have proven, time and time again, that representation is one of the No. 1 concerns when it comes to buying a product or shopping a certain brand. And yet, both the fashion and beauty industries remain bound to old standards, in which very few (largely, caucasian) attributes are considered the gold standard of beauty.

Not long ago, Allure’s editor-in-chief Michelle Lee sat down with five successful women of color (actresses and models Dasha Polanco, Zazie Beetz, Veronica Webb, Ebonee Davis, and Khoudia Diop) to discuss a question they had all, at one time, faced: "Why is being different so not beautiful?" Each of the women had their own stories to tell and recalled moments in their lives when the beauty standards perpetuated by the beauty and fashion industries made them feel less than beautiful: For the Senegalese-born Diop, it was a childhood desire to bleach her dark-toned skin; for Polanco, it was the realization that her body was unlike those celebrated as ideal in the fashion and beauty worlds. "I never really quite saw anybody who looked like me in the magazines or on television, and it definitely took a toll on my self-esteem [growing up]," says Davis.

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Their experiences (and those of every person who's ever been made to feel less than because they didn't fit into society's definition of "beautiful") are a powerful reminder of why representation of every form of beauty is so important. Our beauty lies in our differences, and nobody should be made to feel that their uniqueness is something to be ashamed of. Here's to celebrating beauty in all of its forms — and leaving stereotypes and antiquated beauty standards of the past behind — for good.

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