Though 2019 has felt like the year that will never end, I’ve loved watching the beauty industry get a much-needed wakeup call. Sure, newbie brands and cutting-edge innovation will never be in short supply; I love my microcurrent tools and shade-adjusting foundation as much as the next product junkie. However, an authentic grasp of inclusion was beyond needed and now we’re finally getting somewhere. Being that it’s something brands should embody holistically, moves that impress me most are ones the go beyond “Hey, we have a foundation in 40 different shades. Let’s throw a party!” So when one with major clout like L’Oreal Paris links up with a celeb who wants to do some good, like Amber Heard, I’m all ears.
“I think it would be a waste for us to not use our voices to advocate for voices that are often not heard. I have also said this before, but this isn’t just applicable to celebrities,” Heard recently told StyleCaster. “We are now sitting at the podium of increasingly large platforms and with that power comes great responsibility. We all have access to the same tools, but it’s how you use them that makes all the difference.”
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With that being said, Heard is doing the actual work in many ways, one of which is championing L’Oreal’s Women of Worth Program, where 10 women are honored for doing game-changing work in their communities. This year’s honorees are doing everything from supporting survivors of conversion therapy to providing guidance to parents of babies with Down syndrome. To say they deserve the spotlight would be an understatement and next month, Heard will be a presenter at the Women of Worth gala where one of these women will be rewarded with an additional $25,000 to support her cause.
The coolest part of this whole thing is that we can actually play a part in choosing who wins by casting a vote on the Women of Worth website, where you can also learn more about each person before making a choice. (Voting is open through November 15, so you should handle this ASAP.)
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L’Oreal’s celebrity roster has always included some of my faves, but what I find so refreshing about Heard is that she is going above and beyond the typical “celebrity do-gooder” stuff because she actually wants to. From advocating alongside past Women of Worth honorees on Capitol Hill to forming friendships with women like Corey Rae who are activists in their own right, she has made it undoubtedly clear that “equality starts with visibility.”
Ahead, Heard dishes more on Rae, the 2019 moments that leave her hopeful for a more progressive 2020 and how to get involved with a cause if you’re overwhelmed by, well, everything.
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On Corey Rae and Supporting the Transgender Community
I met Corey through my sister Whitney. She introduced us and thought we would find a lot of similar qualities within each other and most likely have a lot in common. She was right. I was so taken aback by her almost from the very beginning. I thought Corey was and is wise beyond her years and conducted herself in a manner that is so self-possessed, unapologetic, brave, and sensitively aware of the world around her. She is just as intelligent as she is beautiful.
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All women and female-identifying people are in very similar fights, realizing that alone is a huge part in supporting the community. The more you familiarize yourself within this community, the more you realize that the challenges we all face are inherently the same in ways, as all prejudices and injustices tend to be. The first step is educating yourself with the similarities that we share. Within that, you will see the obstacles and the responses that they require are shared among us and therefore that we must overcome them together. Familiarity will lead to care and engagement and within that, we can expand and change the community together.
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The Best Collab of 2019
Becoming an ambassador for the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI) and combining forces with the brilliant minds of Dr. Holly Jacobs and Dr. Mary Anne Franks for sure. They’re not only survivors of non-consensual pornography (NCP), they’re also tireless advocates for human rights, women’s rights, and I can now proudly say they’re dear friends of mine.
Dr. Holly Jacobs and Dr. Mary Anne Franks both came from totally different backgrounds, but their initial motivations and survival experiences helped them to find each other in a collision course with history and their unstoppable wills. Because of them joining forces the number of states that now have laws protecting people against NCP went from 3 to 46, and we are not stopping there! This is actually the perfect example of what personal integrity, bravery through difficulty, and how our sheer will power and dedication to change can lead to real results.
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Power in Numbers
When I started fighting for the #ShieldAct there was hardly any recognition or support behind that movement, and now, the nation watched as Katie Hill bravely chose to make a stand about the nature of our society’s double standards for women. Instead of being defeated by her recent experience of becoming a victim of non-consensual pornography, she instead rallied us to stand behind her in solidarity. Bringing attention to and addressing these double-standards head-on in a way that we as women, don’t do enough.
I think we have all seen over the last couple of days, this past year, and even in recent years how important it is for us to stand together and support one another. It gives me so much hope to see women like Katie Hill using their voices to call attention to these core issues we all face. The more that we band together and challenge the long-standing institutions that we have consistently battled, the more of a chance we will have with making even more progress in 2020.
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Pro-Advice: Get Up and Do Something
With our polarized world, I can understand how it’s easy to become overwhelmed or feel helpless insight of these huge challenges that we are currently facing. However with that in turn, comes the awareness of our power we actually do have at our disposal and that alone makes you realize there is just still so much to do or that we could be doing. We have seen firsthand in recent elections how much can change if we join together.
When we choose to empower ourselves within this awareness we can enact change on a much bigger and more permanent scale. We need to remember that the same system connects us to one another and also gives us an immense and subsequently, the responsibility and power, to do something with it. Seek the causes you admire and simply get involved.
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