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She re-created famous fashion ads to make a great point about diversity

"The next generation can only get inspired and reach for the stars themselves if they believe they can do it too."

All photos by Raffael Dickreuter, used with permission.

A classic pose.


From a young age, Deddeh Howard was enthralled by fashion and its role in culture. Unfortunately, she was never really able to see herself in it.

"Something that always bothered me when you see these amazing images [was] that very rarely you ever see a black woman on them," Howard, who grew up in West Africa but now resides in Los Angeles, wrote at her blog, Secret of DD.

"Black girls are almost invisible," she wrote.


So Howard created "Black Mirror," a photo series in which she re-creates famous photos with herself in place of models like Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid, Gisele Bundchen, and others.

Howard's partner, Raffael Dickreuter, shot the series. As its title suggests, it holds a "black mirror" up to the fashion world. The project's goal is both to make people notice the lack of diversity in the fashion world and to provide inspiration to other non-white models.

Deddeh Howard, Gucci, fashion world, diversity

The shades of Gucci.

All photos by Raffael Dickreuter, used with permission.

superstar, glasses, education, celebrity, representation

Glasses make you wiser.

All photos by Raffael Dickreuter, used with permission.

Kendall Jenner, Calvin Klein, underwear models, black models

The original sexy.

All photos by Raffael Dickreuter, used with permission.

Of the models featured on the fall 2016 runways, 75% were white. There's a major need for a diversity boost.

Sometimes, that lack of diversity can be downright embarrassing. Earlier this year, one fashion show featured models walking to Beyoncé's "Formation," a song Essence described as a "wholly and undeniable a tribute to Blackness — particularly Black girl power." The problem: The show didn't feature a single non-white model.

ethnicity, equality, Guess fashion

Guess who rides motorcycles.

All photos by Raffael Dickreuter, used with permission.

David Yourman, high fashion, racial inequality

Classy and feminine.

All photos by Raffael Dickreuter, used with permission.

Louis Vuitton, handbags, upper class,

A bike ride with expensive accessories.

All photos by Raffael Dickreuter, used with permission.

lingerie, Victoria\u2019s Secret, feminine

The lingerie pose.

All photos by Raffael Dickreuter, used with permission.

Dolce & Gabbana, little black dress, stars

Thinking "Breakfast at Tiffanys” maybe?

All photos by Raffael Dickreuter, used with permission.

Diversity, representation, and visibility play key roles in shaping ambition and self-acceptance in the real world.

It's important to be able to see yourself in the world, and it's important to know that someone who looks like you can succeed.

"The next generation can only get inspired and reach for the stars themselves if they believe they can do it too," Howard wrote on her blog. "For that reason diversity in ad campaigns is in my opinion much more important than you might think."


This article originally appeared on 12.08.16

Meet Sophia Hadjipanteli.

She's an Instagram phenom with over 180,000 followers and a model who's been covered by everyone from Vice to Vogue(she first appeared on the magazine's Italian webpage six years ago, at 15).

Were she to compete on one of the endless cycles of "America's Next Top Model," Hadjipanteli would likely win — or definitely make top three. That's not just because she has charisma and a smize that would make Tyra Banks beam with pride but because the 21-year-old is uncompromising in her beauty.

ONE UNIBROW TWO UNIVERSITY DEGREES 🤑

A post shared by Sophia Hadjipanteli ☠️ (@sophiahadjipanteli) on

She may dye her hair, she might switch from a day to night look, but this model has said she's never getting rid of her unibrow.

Here's the thing: Hadjipanteli understands the fashion and beauty industry. She understands that beauty standards — especially in the West — are incredibly narrow. And her refusal to remover her unibrow (something a modeling agent might tell her to do) is a way for her to not just stand out but change the way the mainstream conceptualizes what "beautiful" is.

"It's like a movement," Hadjipanteli told Vice in a interview. "If it's going to be gradual, I hope to speed up the pace."

But the beginning of that movement doesn't come without some pain.

Hadjipanteli speaks openly about the fact that she was bullied when she was a teenager. It was her mother who gave her the confidence to be herself, telling her that her brows looked gorgeous just the way they were. Hadjipanteli listened and soon after stopped shaving her brows. She now shows the hair between her eyes proudly — inspired, she's said in interviews, by her family and Greek heritage.

If her unibrow had a name, she told The Cut, it would be Veronica. And she'd be a "no-shit bitch."

Hadjipanteli has said she never expected her unibrow to have such an impact, but it's certainly changing the way we think about beauty.

And Hadjipanteli's changing for no one.

Though the model's received hate and death threats for her look, she has said she's not going to change her look for anyone but herself. If she doesn't like Veronica one day, she'll wax her off. Until then, though, Hadjipanteli is standing up to everyone who says there's only one way of looking good.

Spoiler alert: There isn't.

And with more celebs like Christina Aguilera (who went viral for her no make-up photoshoot) and Demi Lovato being more real and open about how beauty standards take a toll on women, Hadjipanteli is in very good company.

"I have a unibrow because it is a preference," the model recently posted on Instagram. "I'm who I am because I want to be this way. When you judge others for wearing makeup, dying their hair, altering parts of their body or inner self, JUST BECAUSE YOU DON'T, makes you just as toxic as a lot of societal norms and pressures we are constantly faced with. AT THE END OF THE DAY just do you cuz imma be doing me whether you like it or not."

Meagan Nash thought her son, Asher, belonged in magazines.

Asher Nash. Photo by Crystal Barbee.

"I wanted to submit him because he always seemed to like having his picture taken," Nash said. "Anytime I get my phone out, his eyes get big, and he gets this big grin on his face, almost like he knows what's happening."


Nash sent Asher's pictures to a local talent agent that was casting a campaign for the baby brand Carter's.

She was confused when the agent refused to submit them.

Asher has Down syndrome, and Carter's, the agent explained, wasn't calling in children with special needs.

Photo by Crystal Barbee.

Nash insisted. Yes, the company hadn't specified that they were looking for kids with disabilities, but Asher's pictures were good, and Carter's hadn't said they weren't looking for kids like him.  

"My first reaction was he should get the same chance to be accepted or rejected as any other baby," she said.

The agent apologized and agreed to send the photos.

For months, Nash heard nothing. Frustrated, she contacted Changing the Face of Beauty, an organization that works to increase representation of people with disabilities in media and advertising.

Her contact there encouraged her to post Asher's photos online as part of the group's annual campaign.  

Asher and his sister, Addison. Photo by Crystal Barbee.

"The talent industry, first of all, rarely represents people with disabilities, and when they do, they don’t always present because they don’t look at them as 'brown hair, blue eyes child'; they look at them as a disabled child," Katie Driscoll, Changing the Face of Beauty's founder and president, said.

Nash's post with Asher's photos was shared over 126,000 times. A story about the mother and son's campaign appeared on The Mighty.

According to Nash, representatives from OshKosh B'Gosh — a company affiliated with Carter's — messaged her less than an hour after the article was posted.

"They wanted to talk and hear my concerns, so I went over everything from the beginning and told them how it all started," Nash said. "At the end of our conversation, we had set a date for us to come in to meet with them."

Photo by Crystal Barbee.

She and Asher met with representatives from OshKosh recently, and they invited Asher to participate in an upcoming holiday advertising shoot, according to a statement provided by the company.

In the meantime, thanks to the publicity generated by the post, he's already done a shoot for Oball toys — his favorites.

Driscoll explained that while featuring kids like Asher in print ads might seem like a small thing, it can have concrete effects beyond simple representation.

"It also shows retailers and employers that, hey, obviously we’re valuing this community in advertising, we’re speaking to them as consumers, why wouldn’t we consider them for a job?" she said.

For Nash, getting the OshKosh shoot is a victory — a step closer to a world in which her son's talents are evaluated like any other kids' — independent of his disability.

For Asher, the photo shoot is another chance to show off his million-dollar smile.

Photo by Crystal Barbee.

And cash his first paycheck.

Meet Ivan Fahy, an androgynous, gender-expressive model from Ireland.

Ivan uses male pronouns, but he doesn't confine himself to simply being "male."

"My gender and its expression is more than what the male gender binary permits," he said.


And because of that, Ivan is breaking barriers right and left when it comes to modeling. "My photos show that boys do wear makeup, boys do wear high heels,"Ivan said in an interview with the creative agency Thinkhouse. "I'm a boy, I am wearing them, and we do exist."

"Having this platform means a lot to me because I know it will send out positive messages about self-acceptance and the acceptance of others." All images from Thinkhouse/YouTube.

That language is integral to Ivan's identity. And so is the fact that, well, he knows how to werk.

As a generally expressive and artistic person, Ivan was always drawn to modeling — to creating impactful moments with just his body as a canvas. But once he actually began modeling professionally after secondary school, he says something felt … off.

Ivan realized that it wasn't modeling itself that was bothering him — it was the boring, uninspiring act of modeling as a male. "I deserve to be embraced as a model that is feminine," he told Upworthy. "My gender allows me to be more imaginative and bold because I don't care about labels or boxes and this excites many people."

"I would love to work with the world's biggest designers and be the face of a few brands, not just because that would be amazing for obvious reasons, but because it would show that people are becoming more brave and inclusive."

Even as he made a name for himself with his fierceness on camera, Ivan didn't wear heels in public until his college graduation.

It sounds like a small victory for someone who had already begun to embrace his gender-expressive self. But he says wearing heels to his graduation from NUI Galway was a major step in helping him come into his own.

"Being a model gave me the confidence and tenacity to do it," he said. "I didn't like the idea that I am this fabulous and confident expressive model online that people look up to and admire, but in real life I hide away and conform."

Of course, the art of modeling can't take all the credit. Some of that belongs to his mother, too. He says that on the day before graduation, she told him that people might think or say mean things, but she raised him to be strong and brave. So in the end, he put on those heels and marched proudly across the stage.

"I am lucky to have family and friends that accept me. The stares and opinions of others can upset me sometimes, but everyone close to me is amazing."

Ivan certainly isn't the first or even biggest name in genderqueer modeling. But that doesn't mean he's not worth celebrating.

U.S. readers might be familiar with names like Ruby Rose, Rain Dove, and Ryley Pogensky. And in Ivan's native Ireland, RTÉ news anchor Jonathan-Rachel Cynch came out as gender fluid in 2015.

But Ivan's visibility as an LGBTQ role model is really important, especially in a country so strongly associated with its own Catholic history. Although Ireland is coming around to genderfluidity, Ivan says there's a lot of work still to be done. "There are still high levels of homophobic and transphobic bullying in schools, self-harm, suicide, etc., in Ireland and these need to be addressed immediately," he said.

That's why, in addition to his stunning and inspirational modeling work, Ivan also offers workshops and talks about gender, sexuality, and LGBTQ inclusiveness, including a recent one at TEDx Galway.

"If a guy says 'Ivan's cool, I love his high heels,' [other people ask him] 'Are you gay?' But why do you care? Instead of it just being, 'I'm appreciating the picture. It's art.'"

While his modeling skills have largely been embraced, Ivan has still encountered some resistance to his gender expression.

"Many brands and designers are afraid to be pioneering," he said. "Some of these barriers are too great to simply overcome because we are talking about people's beliefs and their willingness to take risks."

Not all of Ivan's professional struggles have to do with his gender, though. He also encounters the same false promises and untrustworthy people that anyone in the fashion world has to deal with. It's still not ideal, but if he's going to have to put up with any frustrations, it's better to be faced with industry-wide problems than continue to be held back because of who he is.

"If someone works with me, all of a sudden they are doing it for 'attention' or 'publicity' and it's not true. They might just be working for me because they like me as a model."

Ivan's work is an inspiring example of just how far our society has come in celebrating beauty in every gender.

Gender has never been as strict or simple as we try to make it out to be. There's still a ways to go, of course — as evidenced by the barriers that Ivan himself has had to face.

But as his stunning vogue has shown us, sometimes a little bit of self-confidence is all it takes to break through and inspire others to follow in your footsteps. Whether they walk in heels should be entirely up to them.