It's not a secret that the beauty industry has often been criticized for being painfully white in representation and casting. Despite the reality that 35 percent of American women are women of color, many beauty brands remain behind the curve when it comes to producing shades
deep enough for darker skin tones. Models like Leomie Anderson, who is featured in the Fenty Beauty campaign, have been vocal about how ill-equipped many makeup artists are for working properly with darker skin.
"Why is it that the black make-up artists are busy with blonde, white girls and slaying their make-up and I have to supply my own foundation?" she lamented in a tweet last year.
Makeup can be a dismal experience for people of color. But with the growing visibility of their bodies and voices, women of color are using
social media to lobby for more diversity — and it seems may Rihanna have heard their cries. If you haven't already seen it, take a look and see what I mean:
Fenty Beauty has christened itself “the new generation of beauty,” boasting a cast of nearly 15 models in their video campaign, including Paloma Elsesser, Duckie Thot, Slick Woods, and Allure July cover star
Halima Aden. Elsesser is a plus-size model, so the video features size diversity, as well — a welcome deviation from most beauty and fashion campaigns.
Naturally, the video launched a thousand tweets from fans who are already living for Fenty Beauty.
