outsidethebeautybox

[outsidethebeautybox]

Highlight: Bald Beauty

I WISH I could rock short hair this immaculately. Shout out to adxnnart . The way the lips are rendered is so pristine.

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A post shared by Adanna (@adxnnart)

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Highlight: I'm in love with the art style

itsjambie has this awesome video series drawing insecurities (fabulously) which you should definitely check out. The artwork isn't limited to things revolving around being plus-sized but also being skinny, having crooked teeth, having acne etc. And you can suggest what you'd like to see drawn next in the comments. It's awesome.

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Not Activism, Just Incompetence

If I’m 100% honest, I’ve spent so much time in a dysmorphic mental state, (and a dysmorphic environment) that I have very little concept of my own weight or where I “stand” on a “fatness scale.” 

Weirdly (but fortunately) enough, I have learned to love and embrace my body in the midst of this dysmorphia. I no longer consider people’s judgement and rude comments a reflection of my beauty or worth. I am just also, not a great judge of how far I’ve come, and how much progress I’ve actually made.

I think many people deal with this, but I was reminded of it when my older brother (who has been one of my most ardent supporters) noted that I drew myself with a larger/more notable belly than I actually have in my most recent cartoon self portrait “Career Girl” (which you can see on my Instagram: leyellethecreator.)

I’ve spent so long learning to draw myself as beautiful AND chubby as a form of self-love and encouragement that I’ve actually not properly adapted my art to reflect my weight loss. It’s important to love and accurately represent ourselves at every stage of life, and that’s something I really need to learn how to do.

I also have a very bad habit of accidentally drawing real people much chubbier than they really are when drawing from reference. People might think this is a sort of body-positive activism, but it’s actually not. Thin bodies and muscular bodies are beautiful too, and they should also be celebrated. There are lots of beautiful chubby people that we can look to for encouragement when we need it, so it’s really not necessary (or helpful) for me to change the body types of real, non-chubby, people. This is 100% a, very unusual, form of artistic incompetence on my part, not activism, despite the fact that the faux-pas is pretty consistent.

I’ve drawn Naomi Osaka, Yoo Jeongyeon (pre-back injury), and Hwang Hyunjin when practicing drawing poses from reference and for some inexplicable reason, they all got 5-10 pounds chunkier.

So just to note, we should be careful not to project (even accidentally) the things we’re insecure about onto the people we admire to help us feel more confident about ourselves. I’ve seen people do this for so many things, not even restricted to weight, but it’s ultimately not positive or helpful. We can find different role models for different things and should always remember to celebrate all different body types, physical features, (etc.) equally.

Diversity is beautiful.

I also really need to improve my portrait drawing abilities. 

Have a very old, but more accurately proportioned sketch

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Highlight: Quirky is my method of operation

Shout out to manocki! This painting is so whimsical, and I LOVE whimsy. The hair and painted arms high-key give me mad-scientist vibes in the best way possible.

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A post shared by 𝐌𝐀𝐍����𝐍 (@manocki)

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On "Writing What You Know"

Someone asked me once if I had any OCs who were “normal.” This question was in response to the fact that many of my OCs have disabilities or illnesses.

My question is, what counts as “normal?”

Sure, it would be nice to believe that perfect health is the norm, but if we dig a little deeper into almost anyone, we’ll find a quirk or a nuance that makes them stray away from the societal standard for an ordinary joe or josephine. The idea of “normal” is impossible to pin down. Who decides what we call “normal?”

Now, I know that her statement was also a question of authenticity. Since I’ve never had vitiligo, albinism, or a neurodivergence (that’s been diagnosed anyhow) would I be able to write these characters accurately or would they “lose something?”

Well, the truth is, no one can experience everything. People always tell authors to write what they know, but if we only write our own life experiences then our characters and stories will be extremely limited. It might be nice for the (impossibly) small number of people that we can 100%, completely, relate to, but that’s simply not the kind of fiction I want to write.

One of my goals is to use writing to create worlds where everyone belongs. I write my characters, and express my characters, not based on our differences, but on our similarities. These are the traits that (I hope) will help them feel genuine and human, even when I can’t relate to every single detail about the character.

From a broader perspective, the irony of that whole question of ‘normalcy’ is how specific it was.

I can’t relate to having vitiligo, but neither can I relate to being male, yet I have male characters.

In my opinion, it’s no more of a stretch to try to write a character with a skin irregularity that I don’t have than it is to write a married person when I’m accutely single.

We all have more in common than we think, and we shouldn’t arbitrarily avoid writing diasporas or demographics that we’re not a part of just because we can’t relate. What’s important is that we research and get to know the details of other people’s points of view and life experiences so that we can write with empathy and understanding. 

Write from a place of human connection, not from a “me vs. you” mentality.

Many of the struggles of my neurodivergent characters are based on the life experiences and struggles of my best friends. They are undiagnosed, but their frustrations, difficulties and grievances are the basis of these characters. I am able to write them more accurately because I have a one-on-one connection with people who struggle the same way.

Rather than limiting myself, my characters, and the representation that I include in my stories, I choose to learn, grow and love with greater understanding.

Because, let’s be honest, my stories would be pretty boring if all the characters were exactly like me. (Though I admit, I have sarcastically contemplated making a comic where the entire cast is female, Dominican and/or black, and the world is falling to shambles because I am an artist and there would be nobody working any of the jobs needed to run society. We’ll see if that pans out.)

Disabled people, neurodivergent people, people with albinism and vitiligo (etc.) are all beautiful people and they deserve to (finally) have a chance in the limelight. We need more writing that lets people be people, because there are different kinds of normal. Not every story starring a different kind of normal person has to be about what makes them different, but they still belong in the world of fiction, because it’s our differences that make the world colorful.

So yes, I have stories about “normal” people. All of my ocs are normal people.

They are normal people with albinism. Normal people with autism. Normal people with CPTSD. Normal people with vitiligo.

Normal people just like me, who want a chance to be called beautiful.

You’re beautiful.

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Highlight: The bed head tho XDDD

Honestly, we need more adorable plus-sized queens. Shout out to arcadeloser ! I high-key love this character design.

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A post shared by Channah Contreras (@arcadeloser)

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Boys Need Better Representation Too

If we stop and think about it, most of the content trying to help people work through their insecurities and build confidence is catered toward women. 

Sure, there’s self-improvement content catered toward more general audiences, but when it comes to helping people celebrate the physical features they were born with, most of us prioritize women’s insecurities over male insecurities.

Whether you’re self-conscious about curly hair, dark skin, a few extra pounds or acne, there’s an encouraging artwork or inspirational video out there to remind you you’re beautiful. But once again, most of this content is by women, for women.

I’m guilty of this too.

The artists I follow (and love) who do ‘drawing insecurities’ videos are all drawing women. The fashion brands I watch videos for (and love) which feature inclusive sizing are all made for or marketing to women.

But boys have insecurities too, and they are also seriously lacking representation.

Those of us who really care about encouraging diversity-positivity and self love are pouring our hearts and souls into creating content to help women across the world realize that they are beautiful.. We make dark skinned female leads. We make drawings of beautiful plus-sized queens.

But there aren’t a whole lot of relevant dark-skinned or plus-sized guys in the media either. Or skinny superheroes. Or short male leads. The list goes on.

There are a LOT of male beauty standards that many guys still feel frustrated and depressed by being unable to fit, whether they’re “not muscular enough” or they can’t grow a beard.

In countries where colorism is an ongoing issue, it often affects boys as well as girls, and yet, when I read webcomics like “Your Smile Is a Trap” and “Love Love Fighting” (again, stories that I love) the female leads stray outside the beauty box, while the male leads still fit the cultural beauty standard.

How many Black superheroes can you think of who have TV shows currently airing? 

How many male superheroes can you think of who don’t have the quintessential square jaw and perfect hair?

I know of a few Asian romance webcomics with brown skinned female leads but I’ve not seen any with brown skinned male leads.

Part of what it means to work outside the beauty box is to prioritize people other than ourselves. We work to help more people feel seen. I spend a lot of time promoting diversity positivity for women, hispanics and members of the black diaspora, but with the world the way it is now, there is almost always some demographic or another being ignored or overlooked, and that means we need to keep widening our perspectives.

The media needs more male leads who are shorter than the female lead. We need male characters who are plus-sized or disabled or dark skinned but aren’t deemed second rate or stuck playing second fiddle to the guys who fit the beauty standard.

I’m not sure why, but working outside the beauty box actually seems to be even harder to manage with male characters than it is with female characters. I think it’s because of a subconscious global bias. We know girls are sensitive about their looks and so anyone who wants to diss a girl for not fitting the beauty standard is labeled a monster. Yet people constantly dismiss guys coldly and carelessly and they’re just expected to suck it up.

I had to cancel a comic project I was working on because the artist didn’t want to give the male lead dark skin, and I still haven’t found a new artist to work with. The project before that, the artist didn’t mind the female lead being black but was bigoted against the male lead for being Korean.

People of every ethnicity, shape, and size deserve to see themselves in the media.

Our bodies are beautiful. Individuality is beautiful, and men’s mental health and self-esteem matters every bit as much as women’s mental health and self-esteem.

Guys deserve to live in a world that accepts and loves them. They shouldn’t have to quietly deal with being bullied for their physical appearances while being expected to ‘suck it up’ or ‘be a man’ and get over it.

Beauty standards are hurtful. Period. Everyone needs to hear the words ‘you’re beautiful’ sometimes.

So I’ll be the first one to say it.

You’re beautiful.

[outsidethebeautybox]

Highlight: I'm getting berry bitty/Thumbelina vibes

She's a berry bitty queen with berry big possibilities. A manocki illustration. This friend be slaying.

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A post shared by 𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍 (@manocki)

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Manifesting a Beautiful Ending

For some unfathomable reason, it seems that modern society has decided to start ‘ranking’ racism, and we have decided that some kinds of racism are ‘not that bad.’

While most people in the western world have (finally) acknowledged that racism is very wrong when directed toward black people, many many people still seem to think it’s acceptable to be racist toward white people and other more specific ethnic groups. 

It’s absolutely baffling. 

Bigotry is always wrong, no matter who you hate. And yet, you don’t have to look far to find people making harsh or unkind statements about people of European descent. Many people in this diaspora even make disparaging comments about themselves. It feels like some kind of dichotomous charade. They nod along with the prevailing idea that white people are ‘the enemy’ so that people of color will feel more comfortable around them, never mind the fact that it is 100% possible to say “I’m not a white supremasist” without disrespecting your diaspora, your family and your loved ones. 

Self-hate is no better than any other kind of hate. 

Maybe this is all so hard for me to wrap my head around because of MY ancestry. As a hispanic, I’m african, white, and indigenous by blood. I can’t logically villainize anyone without villainizing myself, and I have no interest in doing either.

Some of my grandfathers were conquerors. Some of my contemporaries are criminals. But that’s not true of ALL of us and we are not defined by anyone’s actions but our own. 

It is just plain wrong (period, point blank) to dislike anyone because of a few strands of DNA they never asked for and can’t control.

In my perfect world, we can all just get over these ridiculous ethnic boundaries and learn to love each other.

Unfortunately, my perfect world doesn’t exist, and sometimes people don’t even want to be civil toward each other.

Last year, I tried to make a webcomic with a Eurasian (Filipino and white American) illustrator. This comic was about a Korean painter and an African American drama teacher.

While the illustrator didn’t seem to have any problem with African Americans, we had been working together for a few weeks when she expressed a rather negative attitude toward Koreans.

To me, it felt random, and a little confusing. She claimed she’d had Korean friends before, but also said she “wasn’t a fan of Koreans.”

In my mind, those concepts can’t coexist. If you love someone, you have to love all of them.

You can’t love me and hate the blood in my veins, so neither can you love someone while expressing unwarranted dislike for their ethnicity at large.

To be fair, I’m Dominican and African American, so I don’t know much about racial tensions between Koreans and Filipinos, if that’s a ‘thing.’ This artist told me that Koreans are often unkind to Filipinos, but I also know there is a statue in Yeoncheon, South Korea, which was built in honor of Filipino soldiers who fought in the Korean war.

Some people will be cruel. Some people will be kind. Some will show disrespect. Some will show love and gratitude. You can’t pass judgement on someone because of their ethnicity. The only fair way to interact with anyone is to remember that they are an individual.

We are the sum of our own actions, not anyone else’s.

Again, maybe it’s because of MY ancestry. 

I’m black. There is no culture (that I know of) with a history of treating my people kindly. 

Some people of European descent enslaved and brutalized my people, especially in the Americas. To this very day (some) Filipinos are still cruel to their own brothers and sisters for having dark skin or curly hair. I have both traits, but I choose not to pass judgement on any individual because certain other individuals choose to be unkind.

No matter what our diasporas become known for, we each have a chance to be different.

I eventually stopped working with this artist, and when she sent her ‘break up’ message, she mentioned that she didn’t like that the story we were making was about Koreans.

It’s mind-boggling to me that she didn’t realize this was racism, front and center.

There is no excuse for it. It cannot be justified. It is always wrong, and I will always oppose it, because we all deserve a chance to express ourselves without fear of being profiled for the color of our skin, the texture of our hair, or the shape of our eyes.

I’ve mentioned it before and I’ll say it again: I think art can be a form of self healing. Through writing we can learn to love ourselves and others. We can put bandaids on centuries of racial tension, colonization, and abuse - manifesting beauty and positivity, even if we’ve never experienced them (yet.)

At the time of our business partner-breakup, I’d never had a pleasant experience with a Filipino person. I'd also only ever known two Filipinos, and I refuse to judge the whole culture on the behavior of two people. I still listen to (and love) Amie Chan (who by the way, is an absolute sweetheart) as well as musicians like Lyn Lapid, and Mico. I still write Filipino characters into my stories (infact, I created three more last week.) From quirky-cute supporting characters to warm-hearted male leads, I manifested love through my decision to positively represent a diaspora that (had) never been kind to me, until I found the people who could prove my past experiences wrong.

So maybe someday things will be different.

We’ll live in a world where racism ceases to exist – all go ‘color blind’ and just see people as people, without extra adjectives or labels.

For now, I choose to believe there are beautiful people hiding beneath every cultural name and umbrella term. I’m going to draw them. I’m going to write about them. I’m going to keep looking for them.

If you want beauty, you will always be able to find it. If you want hurt and hatred, you’ll find that too.

The night sky is as dark and foreboding as anything, but it’s also full of stars.

[outsidethebeautybox]

Your artistic insight is incredible, and I'm impressed by your creativity. I'd like to buy some of your photographs. Please message me to negotiate.

Which photographs do you want to purchase or use?

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Highlight: Ugh, why is this so relatable?

Anyone else getting "Hair Love" vibes? Shout out to snooliensart. This picture is the best XD.

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A post shared by ☆ teegs ☆ (@snooliensart)

I LOVE cartoons and cartoony art.

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Is Same Face Syndrome a Good Hack or Just Disrespectful?

The webcomic world has been hit by a pandemic we artists call “same face syndrome.”

In a nutshell, ‘same face syndrome’ is when most (or all) of the characters in a comic have the same head shape and facial features. When this happens, the only distinguishing features are the character’s haircuts/colors, eye colors, and skin tones. Sometimes their heights/body types make them stand out as well, but oftentimes, there is one set body type for all adult females and another (1) for all adult males.

The main motivation behind same face syndrome is a need for efficiency. People get used to drawing faces one specific way, and artists are able to streamline their processes when they stay in their comfort zones.

The question is, is this hack beneficial or disrespectful?

Here’s the thing: People from different ethnic groups have unique facial features that won’t be represented if all the characters are drawn with the same face. Ethnic diversity aside, even people within the same ethnicity often have extremely different facial features from each other.

If we give every character the same face, we run the risk of turning individuals into cliches and fail to represent any diaspora properly.

There may be stories where this doesn’t matter that much, but just in general, I think it’s topic worth careful consideration.

Is sacrificing individuality for the sake of efficiency the right decision to make in this scenario?

There are a thousand nuances involved in the process of making EVERY story ever illustrated, so I’ll refrain from making a blanketed statement. However, there are a few instances I can point out, where I feel that same face syndrome is entirely acceptable.

Mostly, it’s for comic strips and other cutesy/silly/lighthearted content. As the characters aren’t an accurate representation of anyone from any ethnic group, the largely homogenized faces aren’t a problem.

For instance, most of the children in the Peanuts comics have the same face shape and body type. Even Franklin (who is African American) has the exact same facial structure as the other children. The only major difference between Franklin and all the other boys is his hair texture and complexion.

However, this art style was already so whimsical and cutesy, that drawing him the same way the other children are drawn doesn’t take away from the story OR his character.

Thus, whether ‘same face syndrome’ is acceptable or not will always depend on the story you’re trying to tell.

With serious stories, I believe it’s crucial that we put in the effort to properly represent each character’s individuality and cultural identity. Seeing a face that reminds you of yourself, especially in the romance genre, can be life changing. 

It convinces us (usually subconsciously) that we are worthy of being loved. The less we look like the people in the content we watch and read, the less we’re able to believe that. It’s even more hurtful when we look nothing like characters who are allegedly supposed to be our ethnicity. More often than not, these characters have been fitted to a beauty standard we will never be able to achieve, and why should we have to?

I know many people are only comfortable drawing their own ethnicity. We’re best at rendering the sort of faces we see everyday, and that makes sense. But because of that, comic books and cartoons continue to be extremely homogeneous. Most stories revolve around one ethnic group and two to three tokens from another diaspora who are added formulaically. We bathe in institutionalized diversity.

With the way things are right now, every culture in the world has to make their own stories just to be able to see themselves (properly) represented in stories.

I love art and I am all for everyone creating as much of it as possible, but we artists can also learn to move outside our comfort zone every now and then. We can put in the work to develop the skills needed to represent each other properly. 

If we learn to think of people other than ourselves (and our diasporas) and actively give our neighbors a hand up, no one will ever have to be left out again. No child will have to ask why there are no princes or princesses that look like them.

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Highlight: The description only makes this piece all the more beautiful.

This picture was shared by southasiancommunity . The eyes are so pretty, and I love the way this complexion was rendered!

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A post shared by 𝒮𝑜𝓊𝓉𝒽 𝔸şⒾα𝓷 𝓒𝓞ммＵℕιＴ𝐘 (@southasiancommunity)

We are obliterating colorism one piece of art at a time.

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White-washing, Meet Skinny-washing

When I said my character was plus-sized, I hope to goodness you just missed that statement, and not that you actually think this slightly curvy, very trim “AU” of my character that you created really counts as ‘plus-sized.’

Honestly, when I search “how to draw plus-sized characters” on YouTube the search results are kind of concerning.

They're extremely limited and/or you get drawings of women who are average weights. They’re not Barbie-thin drawings, but they’re certainly not XL or larger (then again, is there actually a consistent sizing metric for that?)

What exactly are we calling plus-sized nowadays?

As a curvy girl, I still get size-shamed for ‘stretching out’ the pairs of jeans I wear, but they aren’t structured to accommodate my body type. 

The world we live in is ludicrous, but fortunately, I’m fairly used to that by now.

The truth is, though I search for plus-sized drawing tutorials occasionally, plus-sized women aren’t one of my main art struggles. I’ve been drawing them for years now and I’ve even been told I’m the “queen of drawing plus-sized characters.”

While I know that’s a stretch, learning to draw beautiful plus-sized girls has been a form of self-healing for me. 

While I’m far (far) from a Barbie girl even now, when I was in my early teens I was definitely plus-sized. I hated my body, and when I drew self-portraits, I either skinny-washed myself or made myself look ridiculous and monstrous. 

The saddest part is that artists are still doing things like this and posting this hurtful art online.

If this counts as “representation,” it’s some ‘dark empath’ variation that continues to scar plus-sized men and women around the world.

Drawing fat people takes just as much skill as drawing skinny people. It takes effort to be able to draw them “believably” and yet, many many people still choose to use their skills to mock plus-sized people, instead of encouraging and empowering them.

The decisions we make are so much more important than many of us are willing to acknowledge. 

We can help others or we can harm them.

I choose to make my art a form of empowerment. 

When I learned to draw beautiful fat people, I learned to separate my beauty from my weight. Being fat didn’t make me ugly. ‘Fat’ is just a state of being, not an insult.

While I did lose weight for health reasons (being overweight was doing a number on my hormones) I learned that beauty doesn’t have a size-restriction. 

This is the message I want to share through my art, and I hope more people will continue to help me share it. I know some people take this mission every bit as seriously as I do, but often it feels like we’re drowned out by a sea of voices promoting the exact opposite. Often it feels like we’re the minority. Often it feels like people don’t even care whose feelings they batter and bruise.

A few months ago, someone drew the female lead of my WIP novel “Rigamarole” as a gift. I specified in my description of the character that she was plus-sized, but the artist made her skinny. Very skinny. 

I don’t know if he simply misread that part of the description (I’m guilty of “skimming” paragraphs, too.) But I can’t help but feel like it was an intentional decision.

Maybe he didn’t feel like putting in the effort. Maybe he didn’t even know how to draw plus-sized women. Out of all his plot-central female characters, only one has even an ounce of body fat, and that might be a bad sign in and of itself.

I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with being trim or muscular - I love working out. The thing is, even fit or “jacked” women usually still have a notable amount of body fat when they’re healthy. 

The female body is DESIGNED to carry more fat than the male body. Just like it’s unsafe to have an extremely high body fat percentage, it is also often dangerous for women to have extremely low body fat. It convinces our bodies we’re in danger of starvation. We start building up stress hormones and everything becomes a mess.

Life is about balance, not extremes.

There is an overbearing emphasis in this world on thinness. We stick the words “pretty and skinny” together like they’re synonymous. We use photo editing and plastic dolls to create dysmorphic standards for how thin a woman's body “should be.”

It’s horrifying that after all this time, this still needs to be said:

Female bodies store fat for a reason. 

It’s important. Body fat is beautiful. Before you try to ‘idealize’ a body, take the time to understand it. Before you draw, or photo shop, a woman, remember that we are beautifully different, and we matter far too much to have our health or individuality sacrificed in the name of  “beauty.”

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Highlight: Pretty birds and dark-skinned queens? Together?!

It's almost like ukelaylie read my mind and found my two obsessions!

I LOVE nature art. Nature art that celebrates dark skinned queens is the best of both worlds.

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A post shared by Laylie (@ukelaylie)

[outsidethebeautybox]

We stan short queens with big attitudes

This is my female lead Texas Callaway (Height 4'9):

Who is your favorite short queen in the world of comics?

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What is Diversity-Positivity and Why Does It Matter?

While I’m all about body positivity, most of the time it’s reserved for conversations about plus-sized/fat/chubby individuals or characters. Occasionally, I’ve seen it used to talk about other traits that fall outside the beauty standards (like crooked noses) and I am very passionate about this side of representation as well, but “diversity positivity” is bigger than that.

For one thing, it doesn’t really revolve around beauty standards (though beauty standards are anti-diversity positive.) It’s more about adding new colors to our artistic palettes.

Diversity positivity is my personal term for all stories, music videos, fashion lines, drawings (and more) that promote and appreciate the beauty of various diasporas. Whether that diaspora is “female body types,” “people of color” or any other category we use to ‘organize’ humanity.

Diversity positivity is having two black characters in one story with different features, complexions, and hairstyles, who absolutely do NOT look like they could be twins.

Diversity positivity is making the cast of your comic book multi-cultural/multi-ethnic with mixed-race couples and biracial characters.

Diversity positivity is giving all your characters different hair textures, body types, and nose shapes from each other, (even if they're all from the same culture/country.)

Diversity positivity is any way we illustrate, celebrate, and adore the wonderful things that make us all different from each other.

This has been a passion of mine since I was a middle schooler, but for a very long time, I didn’t have a name for it. Since I was 10 years old, I’ve been writing stories about mixed-race couples. I’ve written (and drawn) Arab characters, African American characters, Japanese characters, and more.

A passion for beauty (in any and every form) has been ingrained in my bones for almost two decades, so of course it had to blossom into a passion for genetics, unique cultural traits, and the nuances of human appearance.

Diversity is a wonderful thing. For writers and artists especially, it’s a nearly endless source of inspiration, if we just learn to branch out and widen our perspectives.

A new language can spawn new ideas for wordplay (did you know the Spanish word for “wife” and the word for “handcuff” are identical?) 

And don’t even get me started on the amount of fantasy creatures that exist in different mythologies. (We might finally be able to write about something other than dragons and elves. That would be a nice change of pace.)

And the further we dig into the details of each culture, the more we can learn how to represent their individual nuances. It helps keep our character designs fresh and interesting. Not every Latino or Asian character has to have the same identical character design. Cliches and stereotypes have been recycled more than enough. Let’s go beyond the ‘typical’ and appreciate the rare, the little-known, and the unique.

Did you know that some Koreans (naturally) have 4C hair? Did you know that some Dominican children are blond?

The world is full of beauty, whimsy, and inspiration if we’re willing to look for it.

Diversity positivity doesn’t have to be a struggle or a limitation, (or at least, it shouldn’t have to be.)

Representation actually gives us a LARGER palette to work with. It’s broadening our canvas and our perspectives. Because, honestly, the more we learn and read about the people we share this globe with, the more we’ll realize that we have TONS in common.

But that leads us back to the initial question. 

Why does diversity positivity matter? 

It matters because change starts with changing our mindsets, and there is no better place to start than with the art, books, cartoons, fashion shows, and movies that we enjoy (and create.)

It matters because, 70 years after the civil rights movement of the American 1950s, dark skin is still widely scorned.

It matters because people use the word ‘fat’ as an insult and make massive amounts of artwork mocking fat people instead of giving them a chance to be beautiful like anyone else.

It matters because we still live in a world where it’s novel to find a disabled character in a book or TV show, who isn’t there for a one-off episode about ASL or wheelchairs.

This world needs to think a little further outside the box, or better yet, set that cursed box on fire so we can all roast marshmallows over it together and make smores.

Everyone, fat or thin, able-bodied or disabled, African, Asian, European, or anything else, should get a chance to see themselves in the world of art and the world of fiction.

That’s my mission. Would you like to join me?