Dear Cosmo/Every Single Beauty Magazine Ever,
Every month you can expect the same thing on your cover. Arbitrary white stick-insect model/celebrity, repeated ad nauseam.
I want to see more covers featuring Australian women of different (and recognisably different) ethnic backgrounds. Not just once in a while, either. Regularly.
How about a gorgeous Chinese cover-girl next month? Or a beautiful Sudanese woman? Where are the pretty Le
banese girls? And the Indian women? Have we EVER seen an Iranian / Fijian / Japanese / Columbian / Indonesian / Mauritian / Filipino woman gracing your cover page? How about the stunning Aboriginal model Samantha Harris (above), or spunky Video Hits presenter Faustina 'Fuzzy' Agolley (left)? The possibilities are endless! You have acknowledged that Australian women come of all different shapes and sizes, but it seems you are yet to acknowledge that their skin tones can be just as variable.In this thriving multi-racial country I see billboard after billboard of white, white, white girls, and that's not what I see when I look around me. Though your magazines are (slowly) beginning to recognise women as something other than paper-thin unattainable ideals of beauty, you are yet to adequately represent women who are NOT WHITE. These young girls and women also want to read your magazine. And they are invisible for the majority of the pages within.
Do it for the young Asian/Middle Eastern/African/Latina/Aboriginal teenage girl who loves your magazines but can never find a role model that looks like her.
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