photo courtesy of NPR
When asked about her new book title on The Daily Show With Trevor Noah, journalist, best-selling author, and Bravo’s Project Runway judge Elaine Welteroth responds:
More Than Enough is a mantra that I think we all need, particularly young women, women, people of color, people from marginalized communities. Because for generations we have been made to feel that we’re not enough. And I think it resonates with anyone, really. We all know that feeling of not feeling smart enough, successful enough, skinny enough, tall enough. We both have experienced not black enough, not white enough, coming from inter-racial families…
In an interview with Vladimir Duthiers on CBS News, she continues on the theme:
For generations, women and people of color have been made to feel – systemically – that we are not enough to be in certain spaces or to achieve certain things. So I think we need more counter-narratives that are pushing back against that. That are reminding us that no matter what the world says, no matter what we are telling ourselves because of the way that we internalize these messages over time, we’re more than enough. We have everything that we need to do what we are meant to do. Even if we are a work in progress. And I think that caveat is important, because it’s not about perfectionism. It’s not about reaching one singular destination that defines success. We get to define success, we get to redefine success, we get to dream, then we get to decide we can dream a bigger dream… liberation, from labels, from boxes we’ve been placed in.
Three years ago, Welteroth became the youngest person appointed editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue (and only the second person of African-American heritage to hold the title at any Conde Nast publication). After taking the helm, she shifted its focus to include politics and social justice. Speaking with Duthiers on CBS News, she explains that young people “were already having conversations on Tumblr and on social media around intersectional feminism and racism and reproductive rights and gender fluidity — all of these conversations were happening in the margins, but there was no mainstream media platform that created an intersection where all of those aspects of their identities could be celebrated, and we wanted to create that… It’s up to us to carve out space in the world for who we are. That’s where that subtitle came from, ‘No matter what anyone says’… Sometimes your activism is just showing up as more of yourself, and really leaning into your authenticity, and bringing that to the work that you do. And it’s inspiring. When you do that, it gives permission to other people to do the same.”
On The Daily Show, she described the shift at the magazine as a “critical responsibility… This is a generation that cares deeply about the issues that affect our world and that directly affect them, whether they can vote or not. And they see themselves as activists, they see themselves as change agents, and we needed to respect and reflect that. And so it felt like a real responsibility. We threw out the formulas. We didn’t know if it was going ‘to work,’ but we knew it was the right thing to do. We really ended up finding a much larger audience, actually, of really engaged, politically engaged young people… And hopefully more adults think of their young teenagers in new ways now, I hope they’re inviting them into the conversations to talk about politics, because they have an opinion and their voices matter.”
As a journalist, she talks and writes about the importance telling the full truth. With CBS News, she explained: “We live in sound bytes. We’re all scrolling social media, and we’re all perpetuating and scrolling through lies… we do a disservice to the next generation and to each other when we only see the headlines and the highlight reels, when there is so much more to anyone’s ‘success story’ than ever really gets shared. I think the underside of the dream realized or the harder stuff, I actually think that’s where the magic lies, that’s where the universal lessons are.”
And so she tells her truth – and our truth – on The Daily Show:
…you’re born into the world with this limitless sense of possibility and unbridled confidence. And then over time, the world starts to chip away at that. Particularly young girls. A stat I found when I was writing the book is that young girls’ confidence peaks at age 9. Which was so heartbreaking to me, and then I thought about my life and I was like, no – it makes sense. Think about all the messages we’re getting… if we’re lucky we get to a point where we start to reclaim some of that confidence and who we were really born to be…
Asked by Variety what advice she has for young women, she responds: “What I would say is find your tribe. Find someone or a group of women who will water that seed, put it in the sunshine, and help it grow. And protect the seed of your ideas and your dreams from people and spaces that will crush it early. I would not be where I am if I did not have women who banded around me, affirmed my vision for my career, and said, ‘Yes, you can do this!’”
Curated by The Circle’s Creative Director & Editor, Lara Herscovitch (Cohort 10). To reach Lara directly: thecircle@clpnewhaven.org or Lara@LaraHerscovitch.com