I was introduced to Amy Dubois-Barnett back in high school after running across her book Get Yours on the shelves of the public library where I worked- I read and re-read her thoughts on love, reaching your goals, and maintaing friendships while simultaneously looking to her as a prototype of the career woman I hoped to be in the publishing world. Needless to say when I heard she was going to be the new editor of Ebony magazine I was happy- for her, but also for what I hoped to see her bring to Ebony magazine.
In her editor’s note in what is dubbed as the Fashion issue of Ebony for the month of September, Dubois-Barnett talks about her experience with women who keep high-end fashion designers in their wardrobe and snub those who don’t. True to the personality I saw in her book (don’t you love feeling like you know someone without knowing them?) Dubois-Barnett stayed true to herself and replayed a story in her column that anybody who’s ever been the “out” person in a group could relate to.
This past week I picked up Ebony, read the magazine from front cover to back pages, and followed up by texting everyone I knew to pick up the issue. The pieces on Hisotirically Black Colleges and Universities (one of which I currently attend) were full of information with one piece on casual sex on campus, another giving the statistics on HBCU’s (an argument that’s been had and is being had consistently), and the fight for Fisk University. I won’t give a play by play of each article- although the fashion, beauty, and business sections all had great information in them- but I will say that Ebony magazine has reinvinted itself; Cosmopolitan and Essence will make room on my coffee table.
