Diversity in magazines shows huge increase since 2014, 2015

By

Kate Dingwall

Published
Dec 19, 2016

Both Fashionista and Fashion Spot released yearly diversity reports this week, analyzing the covers from major publications around the world. All but a few publications saw a huge step towards diversity in their covers.

Last year’s report from Fashionista saw disappointing results – there was almost no change in diversity between 2014 and 2015. In 2015, only 27 out of the 136 magazines – or 19.8% - featured people of color on the cover. In 2016,  52 out of 147 – 35.3% - featured cover stars of color.

To note, the report states that the term people of color, for the sake of the report, refers to non-white people, also of mixed and Hispanic race.

Also noted in the reports – although many of the covers featured the usual high-profile celebrities, many mags opted for more off-center choices, choosing instead up-and-coming actresses. Teen Vogue cast activists Rowan Blanchard and Yara Shahidi for covers, while Elle chose actresses Aja Naomi King and Haley Bennett.

From an international perspective, 29% of cover models were non-white, with 197 POC cover girls and 482 white cover girls.

Teen Vogue was the most diverse glossy in the United States, with seven of the eleven women chosen for covers being of color. On the flipside, Harper’s Bazaar showed an embarrassing lack of diversity – ten of its eleven cover stars were not only white, but blonde as well. LOVE was even worse - 2016 marked the third year in a row that the glossy has shown exclusively white women. Nylon showed the most improvement – moving from one POC cover in 2015 to five in 2016.

Over the next year - this study will be changing significantly. Complex has announced that it will be doing away with print issues, while Teen Vogue will switch to digital-only, but will produce four 'keepsake' print issues a year.