Jezebel: Essence

A Visual Explanation Of Female Self-Loathing

Tracie Egan Morrissey — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 18:10:00 EST

In their admittedly unscientific study, Nina Orezzoli and Mark Robinson compared the ads in the March issues of Maxim, Cosmo and Essence that featured women's breasts, butts, and legs, as well as the amount of times that "T&A were used to sell T&A," like porn or phone sex ads. Essence featured 5% gratuitous body parts as compared to Maxim's 15% and Cosmo's 33%. (Click image to enlarge.) More »

Essence's First Lesbian Wedding

Irin Carmon — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 15:00:00 EDT

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Not long ago, Essence.com featured a lesbian couple in a popular, regular feature on weddings. The response surprised them. More »

Nina Garcia Is Not Worried About People Of Color In The Fashion Industry

Dodai Stewart — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 17:22:00 EDT

On a conference call just now, I mentioned the Essence/white fashion editor controversy, and asked Nina Garcia if there's enough diversity among fashion editors. Basically? She said yes. She did add that there's always room for improvement, however. More »

Leaving My Black Stylist for A White One

Keli Goff — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 16:39:00 EDT

One of the most intense and intimate relationships in our lives doesn't involve the words love or sex, but does involve the word hair. As I recently discovered, parting with a hairstylist is really not that different from a divorce... More »

Marion Cotillard Ditches Her Eyebrows For French Vogue Cover

Jenna Sauers — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 11:30:00 EDT

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Vogue Paris picked Marion Cotillard for its September cover, and bleached her eyebrows. Strangely enough, the French actress has never been on the cover of Vogue Paris before, though she made American Vogue's cover last November and this July. [@VogueParisLive]

See All The September Covers, By The Numbers

Jenna Sauers — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 15:00:00 EDT

Here are 29 covers from the hallowed, heavy September fashion issues (click to soak it all in). So how do Vogue, Elle, and the smaller titles stack up? Let's put September to a full statistical analysis. More »

Essence Picks A Trio Of Black Supermodels For September Cover

Jenna Sauers — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 11:30:00 EDT

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Naomi Campbell, Iman, and Liya Kebede grace the cover of Essence's 40th anniversary September issue. [Fashion Bomb Daily]
Two retail bigwigs got into a wee fight about how much of Martha Stewart's products they each sell. [P6]

Essence Editor Defends Hiring A White Woman

Jenna Sauers — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 11:30:00 EDT

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Essence editor Angela Burt Murray says the uproar about the hiring of Elianna Placas, a white woman, as fashion director is baseless. Placas, a frequent freelancer, was chosen for "her creativity, vision, [and] the positive reader response to her work."

Why Would Essence Hire A White Fashion Editor?

Geneva S. Thomas — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 14:00:00 EDT

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On Friday evening, cultural critic and writer Michaela angela Davis tweeted: "It is with a heavy heavy heart I have learned that Essence magazine has engaged a white fashion director, this hurts, literally, spiritually." More »

Anna Wintour Will Have The President Over For Dinner Tonight

Jenna Sauers — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 11:30:00 EDT

When he gets done taping The View today, Barack Obama's gonna head over to his close, personal friend Anna Wintour's house for an intimate, $30,000-a-plate, fundraiser with fashion friends like Calvin Klein and Donna Karan. [WWD]

Woman's World: Essence & Cosmo Make "A-List"

Dodai Stewart — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 11:00:00 EDT

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AdvertisingAge's magazine A-List is not about ad pages or circulation: Winners are magazines which "truly operate as brands." Some mags in the top 10 — The Economist; National Geographic; People — are no-brainers. But Essence and Cosmopolitan are interesting choices: More »

Boy Break

Anna Holmes — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:30:00 EDT

This one's for BeckySharper (and, well, me). Those of you who prefer McNulty to Stringer, you can go here. [LifeFiles, Guardian] More »

CNN Punk'd By Ashton Kutcher; Brooke Licked Blood Off Kiefer's Head

Dodai Stewart — Thu, 14 May 2009 09:00:00 EDT

Ashton Kutcher elaborately pranked CNN and Ted Turner:

Painting The White House Black

Dodai Stewart — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:40:00 EST

Talk about change: because of Barack Obama, Essence, the "top-selling magazine among black women," will, for the first time, have a full-time White House reporter. [MediaBistro] More »

Women's Interest

Sadie Stein — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:40:00 EST

Nylon may be safe, but according to a breakdown of ad page performance that mediabistro.com just posted (from WWD), things are scary indeed in the world of fashion magazines. In the third quarter, the industry saw a 10% decline as categories like pharmaceutical and beauty slashed their ad budgets. Some of the hardest hit are Vanity Fair (down 15.3% since last year - approximately 84 ad pages), W, Glamour and Essence, with even stalwarts like Vogue dangerously diminished (9.6%.) Bucking the trend is Elle, which, Stylista notwithstanding, had an increase in ad sales. Fingers and toes crossed for everyone — we may mock the ladymags, but we hate to see people lose jobs. [mediabistro] More »

MagHag

Dodai Stewart — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 10:20:00 EDT

The best coverline on this new issue of Essence magazine — featuring Beyoncé — is "Broke? Money Tips To Stop Living Paycheck To Paycheck." Sure, sure, Mrs. Jay-Z could probably help with that. [The.Life Files] More »

MagHag

Dodai Stewart — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 13:20:00 EDT

Seeing a non-whittled, non-Photoshop of Horrors woman on the cover of a magazine at the newsstand — along with the cover line, "135 looks to flatter your curves" — prompted us to pick up this issue of Essence. But the "special survey," Why men cheat: "3,000 Black Men Tell All"? Mildly depressing. (Click to enlarge.) More »

Is There Such A Thing As A Black Female 'Voice'?

Dodai Stewart — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:30:00 EDT

Essence magazine has announced plans to re-launch Essence.com and make it a daily destination for African-American women 18 to 49 years old. Two media units of Time Warner are teaming up with the 38-year-old magazine: Warner Brothers Television Group (Extra) and Telepictures Productions (The Tyra Banks Show). The number of African-American internet users is expected to grow to 25 million in 2011, up from 19.6 million in 2006, and advertisers are taking note: according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth, African-Americans will spend $1.1 trillion in 2011, up from $799 billion in 2006. While it's great that the industry recognizes that black people (gasp!) use computers, can one website hope to capture this "under-served" market? More »

At Essence's Hollywood Event, Glamour Girls Abounded

Jennifer — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:30:00 EST

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Last night in Beverly Hills, Essence hosted a red-carpet event honoring Black Women in Hollywood. Katie Holmes (not black) came! Star Jones (not Hollywood) was also on hand! Katie, of course, looked gorgeous, as did so many of the other women in attendance, including Jada Pinkett Smith, Tatyana Ali (who embraced the best of California casual), Gabrielle Union (who made basic black glam), and Paula Patton, who was over-the-top in polka dots. Less successful looks were worn by Rashida Jones, Garcelle Beauvais, Layla Ali, Nia Long, Vivica A. Fox, and Kerry Washington. The full Good, Bad, and Ugly, after the jump. More »

Study Says Magazines For Black Women More Likely To Shill Fad Diets

Jessica G. — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 13:00:00 EST

The way "black" magazines and "mainstream" mags discuss diet strategies is very different, according a recent study done at the University of Iowa. According to a U of Iowa press release: "African-American women's magazines are more likely to encourage fad diets and reliance on faith to lose weight, while mainstream women's magazines focus more on evidence-based diet strategies." "Fad diets" include Atkins and South Beach, as well as any diet that "may work in the short term," but doesn't ultimately result in longterm, lasting lifestyle changes. The authors of the study based their findings off 406 articles published between 1984 and 2004 in Ebony, Jet, Essence, Good Housekeeping, Better Homes and Gardens, and Ladies' Home Journal. The problem with almost all the weight loss strategies employed by both African American and mainstream publications, explains researcher Shelly Campo, is that they rely too much on individual accountability, and do not consider the external factors. More »

Susan L. Taylor, The Soul Of Essence, Leaves Mag After Almost Four Decades

Jessica — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 09:30:00 EST

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In an industry where corporate loyalty has gone the way of the dodo, Susan L. Taylor has been synonymous with the Essence brand since the magazine's launch in 1970. Today, the NY Times reports that Ms. Taylor is stepping down from her post as publications director (she held that title for 7 years; she was editor-in-chief of the magazine from 1981-2000) to focus on the nonprofit she started, the National Cares Mentoring Movement. (As described in the Times, the organization's mission "is a call to action for every able black adult to take under wing a vulnerable young person, which costs nothing.") More »