the great
awokening
InStyle
Esquire
Marie Claire
ELLE
Harper's Bazaar
Glamour
Allure
GQ
Total number of non-white cover subjects in the years since 2012.
Vogue
Vanity Fair
Magazine covers can be lots of things—
provocative, predictable, sexy, vapid, even heroic. What they rarely are is progressive. Historically, glossy magazine cover subjects have ranged from straight white actor to straight white actor with the occasional deviation for a model or musician or comedian. When Kerry Washington appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair in 2013, she was the first black woman on that cover since Beyonce in 2005. Don’t worry, we did the math: That’s 100 covers without a single black woman. This year alone, five black women and men have appeared on Vanity Fair covers. And they’re not all Olivia Pope. It took a while, but American magazines are finally starting to look like America.
For years, glossy magazine covers were dominated by straight, white TV and movie stars. Now, finally, they’re starting to look like the rest of us. We reviewed ten magazines over the past seven years. Here’s how they’ve changed and which titles still pale in comparison.
In the past two years alone, the magazines we analyzed included nearly as many people of color than the five years prior to that combined. (Here’s what we mean by color.) Some magazines didn’t need a “woke-up”—GQ and InStyle have had a steady mix of cover subjects for some time—while others seem to have just become aware of a world beyond Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey and whatever fair-skinned Oscar season ingenue they can wrestle into a Dior gown. One celebrity wrangler attributes the shift to a dearth of white star power. “Unless Brad or Angelina talk about why they’re divorcing,” she says, “there are no white actors over 40 that would move a cover. There’s just a larger talent pool with people of color—Chadwick, Tiffany Haddish, Donald Glover.” Of course, social media is a factor. “Leo is a bore on Instagram. LeBron is not.”
Let’s see how the newsstand had changed since 2012.
Words by Mark Healy • research by Alyssa Mercante
Design by Tri Vo
Diversity Droughts
What titles had the longest stretches with all-white covers? We counted the total number of consecutive covers without a single person of color.
The glossies' favorite stars by number of cover appearances.
The top 5 cover girls
Total percentage of non-white covers amongst our ten magazine set from 2012 to the present.
Diversity over time
rihanna
14
Kerry
Washington
12
Selena
GOmez
10
lupita nyong'o
10
Jennifer
Lopez
8
Percentage of a title’s covers that include a non-white subject.
An inclusivity increase
Total number of non-white cover subjects in the years since 2012.
Total number of non-white cover subjects in the years since 2012.
Total number of non-white cover subjects in the years since 2012.
Total number of non-white cover subjects in the years since 2012.
Total number of non-white cover subjects in the years since 2012.
Total number of non-white cover subjects in the years since 2012.
Total number of non-white cover subjects in the years since 2012.
Total number of non-white cover subjects since 2012.
Total number of non-white cover subjects in the years since 2012.
Total number of people of color on magazine covers by year. In calculating this figure, we included partial credit for group covers: If one of four actresses, for example, was not white, it was counted as .25. The same math was applied to split covers: If two of the four cover options included people of color that counted as .50 covers.
THE RAW DATA
Here’s how we determined the cover subjects by race: If a celebrity identified themselves as non-white so did we. So, for example, Demi Lovato's father is of Mexican descent, so we counted her as non-white. Dwayne Johnson is Pacific Islander and African American so he’s also considered non-white. Ultimately, it’s a magazine cover, so perception trumps a complex reading of race.
Here’s how the U.S. Census defines it.
What does
non-white mean?
“The racial categories included in the census questionnaire generally reflect a social definition of race recognized in this country and not an attempt to define race biologically, anthropologically, or genetically. People may choose to report more than one race to indicate their racial mixture, such as “American Indian” and “White.” People who identify their origin as Hispanic, Latino, or Spanish may be of any race.
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