Before the 2010s the beauty industry was lacking in diversity. There were few non-white models without established names. Male and transgender models were practically non-existent.
However, as the beauty industry has grown so has its diversity. According to Forbes, in 2016 the beauty industry experienced a significant amount of growth with Ulta gaining a net income increase of 28 percent to $409.8 million. This increase in beauty sales has given people the platform they need to demand diversity in the beauty industry.
In the past year the beauty industry has made many strides to become more inclusive. When Covergirl announced male Youtuber, James Charles, as their new spokesmodel other brands were left behind in the race to appeal to a larger audience.
Maybelline also added a male Youtuber to their campaigns: Manny Gutierrez, also known as Manny MUA. The use of male makeup spokesmodels in mainstream media allows men and boys who wear makeup to feel more accepted.
Hahn Nguyen is a second year at UGA majoring in Advertising from Morrow, GA. Nguyen says that there has been an increase in males who wear and are open about the fact that they wear makeup because of this representation.
“The Youtube beauty industry includes guys like Patrick Star and Manny MUA who continue to encourage guys and girls that it isn’t ‘abnormal’ for guys to wear makeup and wear feminine clothing.”
Answering the call for more diversity, some brands have featured transgender women in their campaigns. In April 2015 Make Up For Ever signed Andreha Pejić as the face of their brand.
Pejić became the first transgender model signed to a major makeup campaign and the first transgender model to be featured in Vogue. Another transgender woman who is changing the beauty industry is Jazz Jennings.
Jennings is the first transgender teen to be a part of a campaign for skincare company, Clean & Clear in March 2015. Lea T became the first transgender woman to represent Redken haircare in November 2014.
One of the most influential transgender women in the media today is Gigi Gorgeous. Gorgeous is a beauty vlogger with 1.4 million subscribers. She had a very public transformation as she shared it with all of her subscribers on her Youtube channel. In December 2014 Gorgeous partnered with Too Faced Cosmetics as a member of their Lipstick Mafia.
Plus size models have also appeared in the push for more representation. Since the average American woman is a size 16 it makes sense that these women would want to feel, not only represented but beautiful. Nguyen says that plus size models have started to emerge in popularity, citing Ashley Graham.
“Ashley Graham really proved that you can be beautiful without looking like a typical model.”
Model Ashley Graham is at the forefront of this movement. Graham is the first plus size model to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated and Vogue.
So far Graham is one of the only plus sized models that has appeared in a mainstream media campaign. The public still has yet to see a plus size model in a makeup campaign for more affordable products such as Covergirl or Maybelline.
Diversity in the race of models has improved too. Lindsay Thomas is a first year at UGA majoring in Linguistics from Roswell, GA. Thomas says that although she is not a huge fan of makeup she does love seeing the diversity of the advertisements. She goes on to describe a L’Oreal campaign that used multiracial models for the advertisement and how she felt she was represented.
“I am multiracial and usually when the media is ‘more diverse’ it only represents minorities of one race,” Thomas says.
However, there are groups that still feel left behind. When asked in a survey, some Hispanic and Latino students feel that they are underrepresented in beauty campaigns. There are almost no Hispanic or Latinx spokesmodels that are not already a household name like Sofia Vergara or Jennifer Lopez. There are also no Indian or darker Asian models represented in campaigns. Vandana Krishnan is a first year at UGA majoring in Marketing and Finance from Cumming, GA. When asked about representation Krishnan said that she felt left out.
“Representation for people of color in makeup campaigns is increasing despite the fact that it continues to be unequal.”
The responses from those who feel underrepresented highlights a big issue in beauty advertising. It is the mindset that by having one black model they are meeting their “diversity quota” and therefore do not have to include any more models of color other than the one black model. The world population is more diverse than the representation that it is given.
Recently the beauty industry has made some miraculous strides in the way of diverse representation, however there is still a long way to go.
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