Self is one of the most popular women’s health and lifestyle magazines on the market. It’s known for providing nutrition and fitness tips that actually seem reasonable, as well as other fun content pertinent to women. It has a total print circulation of over 1.5 million readers, and despite a photoshop scandal a few years ago, they very rarely get bad press. Until now, that is.
In Self’s April issue, the “BS Meter” ranked running tutus as a lame fitness trend that needs to go. You can see Self’s exact words in the picture below, accompanied by a cute picture of brain cancer survivor and co-founder of Glam Runner, Monika Allen. Allen was undergoing chemo when she ran the LA Marathon with her friend- you can even see the words “Die Tumor Die” on her friend’s running bib, in support of Allen’s condition.
The feature started getting buzzed about when Allen herself tweeted: “Excited to see our tutus in SELF Magazine… but shocked to see that running tutus are classified as lame.” Allen only gave Self the rights to the picture because she assumed it would be used in a positive way, thus giving Glam Runner some good PR. Obviously, Self’s use of the photo was quite a surprise, and not a good one.
Though Lucy Danziger, editor-in-chief of Self, has publicly apologized for the feature, many individuals continue to bash the magazine on all forms of social media. Self will clearly take a big hit from this scandal, and only time can tell how quickly they will recover.