REVELATIONS OF A MAG ADDICT - THE COVER STORY

If you've followed me for a long time you may know that I am a fully-fledged magazine addict. Ask Nadine Baggott. :) I currently subscribe to approx 20 mags, around 15 are women's 'lifestyle' and the rest are music. So when I was laid up last week, I took the opportunity and caught up on about six months of mags. It was during this process that I had the idea to 'check a couple of covers' to see if they were inclusive. It was eye-opening. The beauty industry has quite rightly, been taken to task the last few weeks regarding inclusivity across staffing, board members, Instagram grid pictures, and of course, having enough darker shades for Black people. But the mag world is definitely not doing everything it can.. For clarification of how I came to these numbers:

I was looking only at the women's mags, and I was looking for Black women, not Latino, Asian, Indian, Pakistani etc.. Black women.
If I was unsure I checked how the woman identified herself. Zendaya, for example, has a white Scottish mother and a Black father, and identifies as a Black woman.
Where the woman can be widely recognised by her first name only, I used that, as a nod to her stature, not as a shortcut. We all know full well who 'Naomi' is.
If however, it was a group cover and the models were not known to me, I have counted how many models were on the cover and listed the fraction of Black models presented. I mean no disrespect to the models.
I didn't include Kanye when he was basically an accessory (albeit a very happy one I'm sure) for his wife, nor The Weeknd when he was in a white model sandwich. I did, however, count Billy Porter for Allure, because HE was the (brilliant) cover star, alone. So although I was looking for Black women, it's not a perfect science, but Billy is the only man.
I counted US and UK magazines, mainly because that's what I read. And I didn't count Oprah's mag, because she made the point at the launch of the magazine to use herself on every cover, and thus far has only deviated from that a handful of times.

And what did I find? Basically, Rihanna is carrying a heavy weight, and Edward Enninful is proof that a Black person in a position of power can bring real change. Vogue UK pre-EE, would be hovering near the bottom of the pile. In 2 and a half years Edward Enninful has put more Black people on the cover of Vogue than the bottom NINE magazines combined, in their lifespan (on a pro rata basis). See for yourself.. *Please feel free to correct me where need be, and request other magazines. MAGAZINE COVERS CONTAINING BLACK WOMEN - 'BEST' TO WORST - DATES AND AMOUNT OF COVERS GIVEN FOR REFERENCE - *source Zinio app

VOGUE UK Since January 2014 4 covers out of 47 opportunities - 8.5% Post Edward Enninful takeover: 13 covers out of 30 opportunities - 43% Jourdan Dunn - Feb 2015 Rihanna - Apr 2016 Imaan (note spelling, not Iman the Supermodel) 1/3 - Feb 2017 Zoe Kravtiz - Oct 2017 December 2017 - Edward Enninful took over - this is key. Adwoa Aboah - Dec 2017 Gugu Mbatha-Raw - April 2018 Adut Akech (cover), Selena Forrest (after the fold) Multi-model cover - May 2018 Oprah - August 2018 Rihanna - Sept 2018 Adut Akech - Dec 2018 7 Black models in one year. Almost double the amount in the entire previous 4 years. Naomi - March 2019 Zoe Kravitz - July 2019 Forces for Change cover, numerous Black women presented, including Munroe Bergdorf - edited by MM - Sept 2019 Jourdan - Nov 2019 Lupita - Feb 2020 Rihanna - May 2020 The New Front Line - Muslim woman and Black woman - July 2020

US VOGUE Since April 2012 24 covers out of 96 opportunities - 25% Serena - mixed cover - June 2012 Rihanna - Nov 2012 Beyoncé - Mar 2013 Michelle Obama - Apr 2013 Rihanna - Mar 2014 Lupita - Jul 2014 Joan Smalls - mixed cover - Sep 2014 Serena - Apr 2015 Beyoncé - Sep 2015 Lupita - Oct 2015 Rihanna - Apr 2016 Lupita - Oct 2016 Michelle Obama - Dec 2016 Ruth Negga - Jan 2017 Multi-model cover - Iman Hamman/Adwoa - Mar 2017 Zendaya - Jul 2017 Lupita - Jan 2018 Serena - Feb 2018 Rihanna - June 2018 Beyoncé - Sep 2018 Seven women/ two of colour (one black) - Apr 2019 Zendaya - June 2019 Rihanna - 2019 Beauty without borders cover - three women, one Black woman - large feature 6/28 models - Apr 2010

Allure Since May 2011 24 covers out of 116 opportunities - 20.7% Nicki Minaj - Apr 2012 Zoe Saldana - June 2013 Kerry Washington - Nov 2014 Taraji - Jul 2015 Naomi - Mar 2016 FKA Twigs - May 2016 Zoe Saldana - July 2016 Zendaya - Jan 2017 Alicia - Feb 2017 The Beauty of Diversity issue- 2/3 Black women - Apr 2017 Zoe Kravitz- Jun 2017 Kerry Washington - Nov 2017 Lupita - Mar 2018 Adwoa - Apr 2018 Sasha Lane - May 2018 Janelle Monae - Jul 2018 Rihanna - Oct 2018 Angela Bassett - Nov 2018 Serena - Feb 2019 Naomi Osaka - Aug 2019 Adut Akech - May 2019 Naomi Osaka - Aug 2019 Zendaya - Dec/Jan 2020 Billy Porter - Feb 2020 Elle USA Since Jan 2011 18 covers out of 108 opportunities - 16.6% Rihanna - May 2012 Nicki Minaj - Apr 2013 Kerry Washington - Jun 2013 Zoe Saldana - Nov 2014 Kerry Washington - Apr 2016 Beyoncé - May 2016 FKA Twigs - August 2016 Solange - Mar 2017 Rihanna - Oct 2017 Zoe Kravitz - Jan 2018 Nicki Minaj - Jul 2018 Women in Hollywood - Danai Gurrira, Lupita, Angela Bassett - Nov 2018 Michelle Obama - Dec 2018 Indya Moore - Jun 2019 Naomi - Jul 2019 Zendaya - Nov 2019 Beyoncé - Jan 2020 Zoe Kravtiz - Feb 2020 Harper’s Bazaar UK Since June 2007 14 covers in 141 opportunities - 9.9% Thandie Newton - August 2007 Leona Lewis - Feb 2008 Joan Smalls - May 2008 Beyoncé - Sep 2011 Supermodel cover - Naomi 1/5 - Dec 2011 Lupita - May 2015 New Season - 2/5 Black models - Aug 15 Fashion 1/5 - Aug 2017 Ruth Negga - Dec 2017 Multi model - 1/3 - May 2018 Serena - Jul 2018 Modern Swans - 1/3 - Aug 2019 Letitia Wright - Dec 2019 Gugu Mbatha-Raw - Apr 2020 Cosmo UK Since March 2007 14 out of 144 opportunities - 9.7% Beyoncé - Jun 2007 Alesha Dixon - Dec 2008 Beyoncé - Mar 2009 Beyoncé - Apr 2011 Kelly Rowland - Nov 2011 Rochelle Humes - 1/2 - Jun 2012 Alesha Dixon - May 2013 Naomi Harris - Nov 2015 Jennifer Hudson - Feb 2018 Zoe Saldana - May 2018 Rochelle Humes - Feb 2019 Yara Shahidi - Jun 2019 Jordyn Woods - September 2019 Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Little Mix - 1/4 - May 2020 Harper’s Bazaar - US Since Feb 2012 10 covers out of 118 opportunities - 8.4% Halle Berry - May 2009 Janet Jackson - Oct 2009 Beyonce - Nov 2011 Rihanna - August 2012 Rihanna - March 2015 Rihanna - March 2017 Zoe Kravitz - Oct 2018 Rihanna - May 2019 Serena - August 2019 Alicia Keyes - Sept 2019 COSMO USA Since Dec 2007 12 out of 151 opportunities - 7.9% Beyoncé - Dec 2007 Rihanna - Mar 2008 Rihanna - Jul 2011 Nicki Minaj - Nov 2011 Zendaya - July 2016 Jennifer Hudson - Nov 2017 Cardi B - Apr 2018 Ciara - Nov 2018 Yara Shahidi - May 2019 Mariah - Aug 2019 Normani - Dec/Jan 2020 Issa Rae - Jun 2020 Tatler Since Feb 2011 5 out of 108 opportunities - 4.6% Leah Weller - March 2013 Emma of Longleat - May 2013 Meghan Markle - May 2018 Young British Hollywood - 1/4 - Feb 2019 Meghan - Dec 2019

Good Housekeeping UK (Good Housekeeping USA was excluded because they have not used models consistently on their covers for a while, preferring home scenes and kitchen scenes etc) 6 covers out of 142 opportunities - 4.2% June Sarpong - 1/4 women - Sept 2008 Oprah - Feb 2009 Michelle Obama - July 2010 Lorraine Pascale - Oct 2012 Oprah - April 2017 Michelle Obama - Jan 2019 New Beauty 2 covers out of 65 opportunities - 3% Rihanna - Beauty Report Spring 2019 Angela Bassett - Fall 2019 Black faces on the New Beauty Brain Trust Total: 7/100 people - 7% And then, at the bottom of my pile, Red magazine. Fearne Cotton, Holly Willoughby, Yasmin Le Bon and Nicole Kidman have been on the cover of Red individually more times than the Black women combined. RED Since June 2012 2 covers out of 92 opportunities - 2.1% Naomie Harris - Feb 2014 Rochelle Humes - Apr 2020