+
Sign up for
The Upworthiest
Our top stories of the day delivered straight to your inbox.
upworthy

magazines

Culture

A mom complained about Highlights magazine showing kids in masks. Their response was perfect.

@bethanyshondark/Twitter

Bethany Mandel wants Highlights to stop reminding her kids they're in a pandemic.

We're heading into year three of the COVID-19 pandemic, and we're all ready to be done. That doesn't mean we are done, of course. The virus and its various mutations don't give a flying fig how we feel, and with a new variant knocking on our door, we're still knee deep in mitigation measures to try to keep our healthcare system from sinking. That means vaccines, limiting group gatherings and, of course, masking in public places.

It's hard to believe that there are still anti-maskers at this point in a viral pandemic, but here we are. And not only do some of these folks not want to wear masks, they don't even want to see people wearing masks.

A mom on Twitter even went so far as to call out the popular children's magazine Highlights for including illustrations that show children wearing masks. Bethany Mandel shared a photo of a page of the magazine that showed a child playing the piano on a stage and kids in the audience behind the piano wearing masks. She also shared the email she sent to the editor of the magazine.

"Stop with the mask illustrations," the subject line reads before the blunt opening, "Christine." (Christine French Cully is the magazine's editor-in-chief. I recall being taught to address professionals in a business letter with a bit more courtesy, but perhaps Mrs. Mandel's education omitted such things.)

Then she voiced her complaint:

"I understand the objective here: to normalize masking young children. That is not a message I'm sending to my kids. Masks are a temporary situation and on their way out the door. Getting these magazines with mask illustrations is a reminder of the broken world we live in. We get your magazine to be an escape, not a reminder of the reality we're forced to be living right now. I am planning to screen future issues, and if more of this content is present, we will be trashing them and canceling our subscription.

Best

Bethany Mandel"

If you think the complaint seems rather asinine considering we've been wearing masks for two years, you're not alone. Many, many snarky comments followed, but Highlights responded with what is probably the most perfect reaction.

In a tweet, Highlights wrote:

"We want our readers to see themselves and their experiences in our magazines, so we've included masks and acknowledgements of the pandemic to help support kids. As one child wrote to us, 'Kids need to know that they are not alone.' Like you, we hope that this will be over soon."

Simple, straightforward and honest. Including a quote from a child reader was a beautiful move, as was creating a sense of solidarity in the last line.

Mandel may think her kids want a magazine that will let them escape reality, but that's not what Highlights has ever been about. It's about helping kids become "creative, caring, curious, and confident." Part of being caring during a pandemic is wearing a mask to protect others. Part of being confident is dealing with challenges head-on, which is what we're doing when we listen to infectious disease experts and follow their advice.

Seeing reality reflected in an illustration is not going to harm kids. Masks are not evidence of a broken world—they are evidence of our collective efforts to mitigate a deadly pandemic. If anything, they are symbols of hope, of humans doing what they can to protect one another.

So much of this comes down to what we are choosing to teach our kids. My own kids have remarked more than once how happy they are to see people wearing masks at stores, how it makes them feel like they're surrounded by people who care and who are smart enough to follow the guidance of public health experts. Nobody likes wearing masks, but we understand why they're necessary.

We all want this to be over. But that won't happen if people keep ignoring the measures that can help us get there and denying the reality of where we are now.

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
culture
Family

This model wants to redefine what 'normal' looks like on fitness magazines.

Nadia Aboulhosn is helping redefine what 'healthy' looks like.

This is Nadia Aboulhosn.

And if I were you, I'd remember that name.


The model, blogger, and "rule-breaker" is the latest cover girl on Women's Running magazine.

And, as the outlet noted, the Los Angeles-based social media star is truly "a force of nature."


You don't see Aboulhosn's body size or shape too often on or in fitness magazines, which is unfortunate, to say the least.

Even though she may have more curves than the stereotypical fitness models' chiseled abs of steel, Aboulhosn is in pretty great shape, and she has been for awhile.

Take, for instance, the fact that she was the only girl on her high school's football team and that she could "bench press a crazy amount."

“The coach liked to joke with the guys when I would beat them in practice," Aboulhosn, who now stays in shape by running and circuit training, told the magazine.

If Aboulhosn is in great shape (so much so that she's circuit training and out-lifting the guys), why aren't more women with bodies like hers also gracing the covers of fitness magazines?

Aboulhosn's cover isn't just unique. It's helping redefine what "healthy" looks like.

Because, as many experts will tell you, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover when it comes to clothing size and physical health. Fat people can be in great shape and incredibly healthy, just like skinny people can be in poor shape or unhealthy. To assume that one body type is more or less healthy than others just by looking at them is absurd. Not to mention, health means different things to different people: What's healthy for one person may not be healthy for another.

Health and fitness mags should take note of this — as they're often the ones perpetuating these body stereotypes.

Photo via iStock.

Author and health researcher Linda Bacon, Ph.D., spoke with Upworthy in January about the widespread fallacy that connects body size and health.

"To paraphrase a now famous comment from my friend and rock star Marilyn Wann, 'the only thing you can diagnose about a fat person is your own level of prejudice,'" Bacon told Upworthy. "Even the heavily entrenched idea that heavier people eat more than thinner people isn’t supported by data."

That's why the April cover of Women's Running magazine matters.

Aboulhosn hopes her cover can be part of a larger conversation on body positivity and what it means to be "normal."

“I’m just trying to normalize what should have already been seen as normal," Aboulhosn told BuzzFeed, noting she doesn't use the term "plus-size" to describe herself because it contributes to the idea that one particular body size is the standard and anything other than that isn't ideal.


“Even if it’s making people feel uncomfortable right now," she said of her cover, "I hope [readers] take away that [body type diversity] is what normal is going to be eventually.”

Becoming a cover model? Cool. Changing the conversation about health and body positivity? Way cooler.

Bravo, Nadia.

Trending Stories