Black Women in the Blogging Industry

For those of you expatmannequin veterans, you will know that I have had this blog in some form since about 2014. I first started out with my tumblr that I would reblog photos on, and then I went on to start purpuraa.wordpress.com where I became something of an unintentional lifestyle blogger, sharing my everyday life and rants with you. I eventually, finally, ended up creating this blog, theexpatmannequin, a name suggested by a friend and which I thought was really clever, to kind of show my interest in fashion that I had always felt a bit self conscious about. Being a more academic person, a fashion blog always seemed like a frivolous activity and so I questioned it a lot what people would think of me writing it and so on. Clearly, I eventually learned to stop caring and just put the best work I could into this because I actually just love blogging and love being able to create what I hope is an aesthetically pleasing outlet that you guys can come to during your lunch break or with your time on your commute to work and so on.

BLACK WOMEN IN BLOGGING

For those of you who have followed my progress with any closeness, you will also know that one of my biggest frustrations with the blogging industry, and the fashion industry which birthed it, is the continuous absence of wholesome representations of black women in its more mainstream channels. I have always talked about how long I would have to dig through the internet to find black women fashion bloggers to read, and how long I would have to stalk Instagram to find black women fashion bloggers to follow. The sheer ridiculous-ness of the whole thing hit me most fully when once on Pinterest, I typed in a search for ‘black girl fashion’ and was met with a barrage of images of white girls in black outfits. You can only imagine how infuriated I was at that.

Since I started this in 2014, there are some ways in which black women have definitely become more visible. It is easier, for instance, to find lists of black women bloggers on different magazine’s websites; and with the growing reach of vloggers like Jackie Aina and Patricia Bright, it is also becoming more common to see brands work with black women in the fashion and beauty industries.

For me, however, the problem persists and does so with a second dimension that I wouldn’t even know how to tackle in this post. As you likely know, my frustration with the absence of black women isn’t just about global blackness, it is also about Africanness, and how difficult it seems to gain international presence and credibility as an African fashion blogger. For me, blogging isn’t so much about entertainment as it is about curating content that leaves me and hopefully you feeling full. But it would seem that the typical trajectory for African fashion bloggers would be to expand into entertainment territory, becoming more of online ent magazine than the deeply personal space that I want this one to be, and which I feel like bloggers from other parts of the world are permitted.

Like I said, the place of Africa in the fashion industry is a conversation we won’t have the time to tackle today, so I really just want to focus on a more global understanding of blackness and how that features in the blogging industry.

CHALLENGES OF BLACK WOMEN IN BLOGGING

As I mentioned before, it would seem like black women in the fashion blogging industry are finally getting the airtime they deserve, but the current state of affairs is still so unsatisfactory. Following the outrage against Revolve for a photo they posted of a press trip they had which involved zero black women, as honestly, all their press trips seem to, the company flew over a few black influencers for Coachella last weekend. The crazy thing there, was that it meant that Revolve, and all these other brands that don’t acknowledge the work of black women in the industry actually know that these women exist and know the sphere of influence they have. The decision not to include them then must be based on something else- the same something else that stops fashion designers from hiring more than one black model, the same something else that stops beauty companies from making products for dark skin. It is also frustrating to me when online magazines make separate lists for their ‘fashion bloggers to follow’ and their ‘black women fashion bloggers to follow.’ While I think the latter is still important, it usually tends to be that there is one black woman on the editorial team trying to put the community out there because she knows the former types of lists will not acknowledge black women.

The industry fails black women again in pay gaps. I cannot count how many times now I have read different black women fashion bloggers talk about how companies approach them for campaigns or collaborations, and offer them significantly less money than their white counterparts with similar numbers, and for the same amount of work done. It fails black women when it comes to brand collaborations, when it comes to press trips, like with most other spheres of life, the industry seems to require black women to do double the work for the respect and recognition they deserve. It is something of an open secret that there is a formula to succeeding in the blogging industry- skinny pretty white girls with blonde hair and washboard abs continue to be promoted as the mainstream image of aspiration and beauty, while black women continue to put in the work and hope that they can validate the women who look like them too.

BLACK WOMEN FASHION BLOGGERS 

I believe the blogging industry is here to stay, and it would be incredibly unfortunate if as a community we let the same racism that underlies so much of the larger fashion industry make a home for itself in this space too. Black women fashion bloggers do so much incredible work and their images and voices need to be seen and heard too. Below is a list of all my favorite black women fashion bloggers for you guys to check out. Go follow them and show some support. You can also support this blog if you want to by subscribing here.

• Asiyami Gold 
• Karen from Wheredidugethat
• Samantha Maria 
• Natasha Ndlovu
• Blake Von D
• Velma Rossa of 2manysiblings
• Cynthia Nyongesa
• Natalie of The Tiny Closet
• Ada of NoOrdinaryShe
• Sharon of ThisisEss
• Soraya of Style is my Thing

As always, sending you love and light,

Amoafoa.