SEVENTH BORN however came together in my head after I saw a portrait of a girl. Stories usually come to me out of the blue. Monica, what was your inspiration for writing SEVENTH BORN?

And the flyest client team around: Abigail Jacobs, Candace Payne, Deborah Yeh, Susan Park, Sasimon Boonyavatana, and Anne Montgomery Cambria - thank you for being amazing partners then and now.We’re delighted to have Monica Sanz with us to share more about her novel, SEVENTH BORN. Thank you to the entire team at DEVRIES GLOBAL for locking arms with our very own Melanie Mahaffey. And Tom Morton, Tiffany Rolfe (she/her), and Sean Lyons thank you for being incredible supporters. Ellie Bamford and Nick Allen thank you for saying 'let's GO' when it came to harnessing media to continue the story and Ari Halper + Blakely Bar Lev thank you for helping us make an effective case. Purvi Sheth x Shar-dé Ricketts thank you for keeping us together 24/7. Langston Williams, Akua Harris, Bree Patrick, Lucien Etori and Ari Hayward thank you for weaving ALL the brilliance into this. And as of last week, I can officially say Black Beauty is Beauty is a multi-show award winner, pulling in a total of 9 awards, two shortlists, and a host of merits and honorable mentions, culminating with a Silver Cannes Lion!Ĭrafted, directed, and nurtured by some of the most talented people at the height of a pandemic (we all still have not met in person!), it’s safe it say it’s time for party in the name of joy in a time of much resistance! Katie Yoder, Katie Edmondson, Saige Sharp, Asyia Fisher, my awesome four. With this work, we set out to establish that Black beauty is indeed a culture, an undeniable, influential and powerful global beauty culture. But in a climate where young Black people still are penalized for their natural hair in school, where the most popular social medial filters essentially anglo-size them and the ingenuity and beauty of Black beauty innovation and trends continue to be co-opted without credit and Black beauty founders consistently underfunded, to be awarded for this work is tangible proof that the concept of Black beauty transcends beyond just a description. Our R/GA Black Beauty is Beauty work for SEPHORA continues to make me so proud, of this project and the team around it. What a honor and privilege it is to do so!Īnalysis of Sephora's Black Beauty is Beauty | AQA Media Studies Here’s to all of us seeking to make more than just “work,” everyday. It's rare - and amazing - when we actually do it.” Like Tom said “We always talk about impacting the culture. An incredibly thorough case study that weaves the cultural and academic threads together for a young audience. Our Black Beauty is Beauty work is now part of the current UK A-Levels curriculum (in the US that would be the SATs) for Media Studies. A dual statement and provocation that not only presented the values of the brand and the people behind it, but also recognized and re-presented a beauty culture that arguably, had been so overcoded by social and racial dogma that its influence was invisible.įast foward to 2023 when, long after all the Lions, Clios and such had been awarded, Tom Morton discovered what, to me, is probably the most satisfying recognition of creative work. In conversations with Lucien, Langston, Katie x Katie, Saige, Asyia and others…it became clear that what we were setting ourselves up to do was present a cultural thesis of sorts.

In late 2020 when we started to concept against what would eventually become our Black Beauty is Beauty work for SEPHORA, we quickly realized that this work had the opportunity to be more than just a brand statement.

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