Image this: a high-powered, effortlessly stylish Black lady struts via the glass doorways of a style empire, her heels clicking like a metronome of success. She’s the editor-in-chief, the visionary, the boss everybody each fears and reveres. Possibly she’s giving an intern a life-changing monologue in regards to the distinction between cerulean and cobalt, or possibly she’s flipping via a shiny magazine, plotting her subsequent legendary cowl shoot. The drama? Immaculate. The romance? A sluggish burn with a well-dressed love curiosity who will get her. The issue? Hollywood has by no means made this film.
We’ve seen the blueprint. The Satan Wears Prada cemented Miranda Priestly because the chilly, commanding queen of style media. 13 Occurring 30 gave us Jenna Rink, a bubbly, big-dreaming editor with a aptitude for storytelling (and a killer wardrobe). Tips on how to Lose a Man in 10 Days made Andie Anderson the uncommon style magazine author with a press cross into each investigative journalism and the rom-com corridor of fame. However the place’s the movie the place a Black lady is on the helm of a serious style publication, balancing energy, love, and a wardrobe that would cease site visitors?
And earlier than you deliver up Janet Jackson in For Coloured Ladies, let’s be clear—no one is ignoring that. Her character, Jo, was a high-powered, Chanel-clad journal exec, certain. However was that film a rom-com? Completely not. It was ache, trauma and emotional wreckage wrapped in luxurious separates. For Coloured Ladies is a crucial movie, but it surely’s additionally not one you simply throw on for a comfy evening in. It’s not a film we casually talk about over brunch, neither is it one we suggest to associates until we’re issuing a critical content material warning first. No shade!
What makes this Hollywood oversight even wilder is that the script has already written itself. Black ladies have been working main style and life-style magazines for many years. Take a look at Susan L. Taylor’s legendary tenure at ESSENCE, the place she formed the tradition and set the usual for Black ladies in media. Take into account Amy DuBois Barnett’s time as EIC of EBONY, the place she modernized the model whereas preserving its wealthy legacy intact. Quick ahead to Lindsay Peoples, first at Teen Vogue and now at The Lower, proving that Black ladies can—and may—be those shaping the dialog round model, magnificence and energy. We’ve had the real-life Mirandas, the real-life Jennas, however by some means, we’ve by no means seen them delivered to life on display with the rom-com remedy they deserve.
Hollywood loves a method, and we’ve allow them to cook dinner with the identical components for too lengthy. It’s at all times the quirky white lady who falls right into a dream job, a dream wardrobe, and a dreamy love curiosity—whether or not she’s profitable over her skeptical boss or pulling off a magazine-saving cowl shoot on the final minute. In the meantime, when Black ladies get display time in media-centric tales, they’re typically the very best buddy (27 Attire), the rival (Ugly Betty), or the authority determine with zero romance (Hitch). Even once they do get leads in fashion-adjacent films, like Boomerang’s Angela or B.A.P.S.’ Nisi and Mickey, the business’s higher echelon hardly ever serves as their area.
It’s not nearly illustration—it’s about fantasy. Rom-coms thrive on aspiration, on displaying us lives we dream of dwelling. We should see a Black lady working her model of Runway journal, serving seems to be, making energy strikes and—sure—falling in love with somebody who understands that ambition and romance aren’t mutually unique. Think about a narrative the place the editor-in-chief of a Vogue-level publication is balancing an unimaginable cowl shoot, an workplace energy wrestle, and an surprising love story that unfolds over late-night deadlines and front-row Style Week drama.
The time is overdue. Give us our 13 Occurring 30. Give us our Satan Wears Prada. Give us the rom-com the place a Black lady instructions the business with model, energy and a killer walk-in closet. Hollywood, are you taking notes?
