Writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie fronts beauty campaign with an empowering message
LONDON -- Author and feminist speaker Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is the face of a new advertising campaign that celebrates how empowering it feels to wear makeup.
British beauty brand Boots No7 is behind the campaign, "READY to Speak Up," which aims to recognise that female beauty is about more than just looking pretty.
"Women use cosmetics to be ready for something: to show up, speak up, and make an impact in their world in their own way," reads a statement emailed to Mashable.
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The Nigerian novelist has been vocal about loving makeup, stating that feminism and a love of makeup are not mutually exclusive.
"I like makeup. I can intellectualise it and say that it’s also partly the idea that I refuse to accept that somehow feminism and femininity are mutually exclusive," the author said in a recent public address.
Ngozi Adichie believes that beauty can be part of one's feminine identity and that using makeup as a tool to choose how she presents herself.
"I love makeup and its wonderful possibilities for temporary transformation. And I also love my face after I wash it all off. There is something exquisitely enjoyable about seeing yourself with a self-made new look," the novelist said in a statement emailed to Mashable.
"And for me that look is deeply personal. It isn’t about what is in fashion or what the rules are supposed to be. It’s about what I like. What makes me want to smile when I look in the mirror. What makes me feel slightly better on a dull day. What makes me comfortable."
The decision to front a beauty advertising campaign is an interesting move given the novelist's most recent comments in British Vogue's November issue.
"I think much of beauty advertising relies on a false premise that women need to be treated in an infantile way, given a ‘fantasy’ to aspire to. Real women are already inspired by other real women, so perhaps beauty advertising needs to get on board," Ngozi Adichie told Vogue.
Topics Beauty
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
