Dana Owens
“She is a strong, established figure in the worldwide struggle for gender and racial equality” that she is very comfortable with her body and
canny valley. Unfortunately, the majority of the
has discussed how she finds the term ‘plus-sized’
population have become desensitised to these
in fashion to be offensive and outdated. She has
images and most teenage girls strive to attain
also voiced her disgust with the unrealistic beau-
the unachievable figures of models in magazine.
ty standards portrayed in the media that destroy
I find it refreshing that Queen Latifah is com-
women’s self esteem worldwide. In 2006, Latifah
fortable in her own skin and does not let the
promoted National Women’s Confidence Day
media’s perception of “perfect” affect her. She
and launched ‘Project Confidence’ in an effort to
proved that the size 0 image isn’t necessary for
promote self-esteem in women and young girls.
women to be successful, intelligent and to be
Latifah has teamed up with ‘Covergirl’ to launch
considered beautiful. She is a strong, established
her own makeup brand ‘The Queen Collection’,
figure in the worldwide struggle for gender and
a collection focused mainly around makeup for
racial equality and is in my opinion, the perfect
darker skin. She also has her own clothing line
example of a woman who stands up for what she
of the same name that is designed “for women of
believes in.
all shapes and sizes”, that was launched in 2011. She had her own experiences with negative I find Queen Latifah inspiring for a number of
body-image and lack of self-worth as a young
reasons. As a teenage girl living in a generation
woman, but has overcome that to become one of
where the media is considered vastly import-
the strongest, most independent and confident
ant, I understand that it is extremely easy to
women in the world, which is a feat I consider
be plagued with the idea that your’re not good
very admirable. In her autobiography “Ladies
enough and to have a very distorted view of your
First: Revelations of a Strong Woman”, she wrote
body. Every day, we are being bombarded with
“I don’t want to be a supermodel. I want to be
harrowing images of unhealthily thin models
a role model”.This quote suggests to me that
who have been photoshopped to the point that
she doesn’t care about being the most beautiful
they almost fall within the domain of the un-
woman in the world, but is interested in being a
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