Beanie Feldstein is Teen Vogue’s latest cover star and I could not be happier about it. The 26-year-old’s leading role in the film Booksmart launched her into the main stream and she has been thriving since it’s release earlier this year. She is smart, talented, stylish, inspirational and a total boss. Seeing her as a cover star made me ~*highkey*~ emotional, along with many others.
I watched an interview with Feldstein that Teen Vogue shared via IGTV on their Instagram where she said “I think when I was like 17, when I would go into auditions, I never saw anyone that looked like me in the waiting room.” And this is true for many people in everyday life, myself included. Representation matters. Seeing someone on the cover of a magazine who looks like you matters. Despite how much more body positive the world is becoming, it is rare to see someone on the cover of a magazine who isn’t a sample size.
Via @teenvogue on Instagram
She went on to say that she tries “to speak really beautifully about [her] body and everyone else’s body.” Most people preach body positivity but hearing it from someone who has a similar body type to you makes so much more of an impact. It has taken me a long time to learn to love and appreciate my body and there are some days when I still struggle with accepting it. Seeing stars like Feldstein talk to openly about body image makes so much more of an impact than they realize.
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“I love expressing myself through fashion,” she says, “and it’s so exciting that the industry is becoming so much more inclusive for everyone to be able to do that. And I hope we continue down that path. I really do love clothes and I think clothes love me.” Fashion is a huge part of my life but I still occasionally find myself upset in fitting rooms when I can’t get a top over my chest or when a pair of jeans doesn’t button. I avoid stores where the “plus size” section is separated from the rest of the women’s clothes. There is a massive lack of representation in many major fashion companies but seeing stars Feldstein, Aidy Bryant or Kristin Chirico rocking gorgeous designer pieces, it gives me so much hope for the industry.
Via @teenvogue on Instagram
Overall, I see this cover as a HUGE win for representation, body image and for women everywhere in general. I hope that other major publications will take a note from Teen Vogue and continue to put more diverse women (and people in general) on their covers and in their issues. I can’t wait to see who makes the cover next!