Style and Smarts

This month I am writing about two women I admire very much. They seem to have nothing in common, but to me they do: their confidence. The women I speaking of are Beverly Johnson, the model, and Anna Julia Cooper, the scholar.

When Dr. Cooper was born in the 19th century, it wasn’t even common for black people to be able to read and go to school, but nevertheless, she studied and got a PhD, one of the first African-Americans ever to do so. She also wrote an important book called A Voice from the South which is about black feminism in the 19th century. Anna Julia Cooper was the first woman to write about black feminism, which helped us to understand the struggles black women faced both of our race and sex.

Beverly Johnson was the first black model to be on the cover Vogue magazine and the first black model to be on the French edition of Elle magazine. Modeling is still a white dominated industry, so it had to be hard to believe in yourself enough to get out there and do what she did. She helped make some changes in how we view beauty.

I love being smart and I love being stylish. These women let me know I can both. What I take from them is confidence and fierceness. I can be whoever I want to be and even be written down in history one day.