Social media has become the proverbial megaphone for our generation. It is a powerful tool (albeit with its own numerous flaws) that has helped amplify important messages, campaigns, and the work various people are doing, that perhaps mainstream media would not be interested in covering. Platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat have introduced us to…
We’ve seen it happen at New York a couple of times, and Paris, but now it has extended to Japan. The trend of diversifying beauty and showcasing it on the fashion runway seems to be going global, and that is a good thing! At the most recent NYFW, we saw designer Carrie Hammer use disabled…
This is one of our all-time favorite quotes. It sums up why we exist (to change the visible messages in the media) and exemplifies the power of representation. New York Fashion Week 2015 was less about Kanye (sorry Kanye, or are we?) and his Adidas show featuring a Kardashian or two, and more about lesser…
How do you define beauty? Is it a definition you formed on your own, or is it the culmination of what a particular industry has force-fed you to believe is “beautiful”? Unfortunately for most of us, the answer would be the latter, because the advertising, fashion and beauty industries are so powerful, fueled by media…
As human beings who are saturated by media in this technology and social media-drive age, we are constantly looking for better representations “on screen” and can usually find what we are looking for. We want to see ourselves reflected back in the images we are bombarded by, especially when it comes to fashion and advertising….
According to the National Deaf Center, 3.6% of the U.S. population, or 11 million people, are Deaf or have significant hearing difficulty. Worldwide, there are 466 million people with disabling hearing loss (World Health Organization), 70 million of whom use one or more of 200+ Sign Languages (World Federation of the Deaf). A first-of-its-kind study…
In a 2022 poll looking at the popularity of true crime podcasts, television, and streaming series, a whopping half of American audiences declare they love the genre, with 13% saying it is their favorite genre. Interestingly, the majority of true crime consumers are women, as 58% of women report they enjoy the genre. There are…
Humor is a very powerful storytelling tool. It is so much more than just a tool to make us laugh. In many ways, comedy is the ultimate bait and switch, sneaking past our defenses to introduce perspectives on topics we may normally shy away from if it is too serious or heavy, especially in film…
By Lyle Solomon As per a BMO Real Financial Progress Index report, only 53% of women do not hesitate to plan for retirement. They confidently retire at the right time compared to 66% of men of the same age. In addition to that, 74% of women believe financial planning and retirement at the right time…
According to the CDC, invisible illnesses affect an estimated 10% of the 61 million Americans who deal with a physical or mental ailment that limits their movements or senses. And while a quarter of American adults have a condition that can be considered a disability, only a fraction use visible supports such as a cane…
By Nancy McCabe Like many parent-writers, my interest in writing for children heightened as I read picture books, then early readers, then middle grade and YA novels with and later alongside my daughter Sophie. She particularly loved it when I wrote stories about her: a picture book about Sophie who imagined her mother partying in…
According to the CDC, 25% of U.S. residents, more than 61 million people, have a disability, making it today’s largest minority population. Yet according to a Nielsen study released in 2022, about 95% of characters with disabilities in Hollywood’s top TV shows are played by non-disabled actors, and during the 2019 Oscars—a year when disability inclusion was…
Although we know Hollywood is slowly making change when it comes to diversity and representation on screen and behind the camera, it has been well-documented that disability representation is an area that is sorely lacking. The CDC reports that 1 in 4 people in the United States are disabled, and over 1 billion people are…
Kicking off Valentine’s Day in sexy style this year was the new series ‘Coming Out for Love’ (COFL), the first US lesbian dating competition show from prolific queer filmmaker Nicole Conn (‘A Perfect Ending’, ‘Elena Undone’, ‘More Beautiful For Having Been Broken’). With episodes 1 and 2 premiering on February 14 and now available to…
