美国国家公共电台 NPR Former 'Teen Vogue' Editor Shares Her Memoir — And Her Manifesto

 

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Our next guest will always remember the historic moment when the media turned the spotlight¹ on her.

ELAINE WELTEROTH: Becoming beauty director at Teen Vogue² at 25, as a young black girl, was the first time that I saw my name in headlines next to my race.

MARTIN: That's Elaine Welteroth. At age 32, she is the definition of an influencer. She was the first black beauty director at a Conde Nast magazine. Eventually, Welteroth got the top job as editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue. She's now written a memoir³. It's called "More Than Enough." She writes that being biracial helped her understand how to connect people.

WELTEROTH: Being raised in a predominately white neighborhood, being one of the only or one of few brown bodies in most spaces in my life and also, you know, being raised in a mixed-race family, you're sort of at the intersection⁴ of two different cultures, two different worlds. And you know how to speak the language of both, but you don't really fully⁵ feel like you belong to either. I think that ultimately helped me serve as a bridge in divides between worlds in my career and out in the world as a citizen.

MARTIN: Welteroth talked with Noel last week and offered some guidance for young people trying to make it in tough industries like publishing. One tip - find a mentor⁶. Her career was shaped by a former top editor at Ebony magazine, Harriette Cole.

WELTEROTH: She had figured out a way to carve out space for herself in the media world that was so true to who she is and that allowed her to kind of use her voice across different mediums. And she - and it was like she was - she sat at the intersection of black culture, style and spirituality. And it just felt so authentic⁷. And I thought, this is a woman who's like a mini media mogul. She's like a mini Oprah. I have to meet her. I have to talk to her.

So I called her office relentlessly⁸. I snail-mailed her. I emailed her until I could get an informational interview with her. Five months later, she called me this one fateful day. She was running Ebony. And she said she had a shoot in Malibu. She remembered that I lived in California. Her assistant was about to transition off. So she was looking for a new assistant and thought I - it would be great if we met on set. She'd pay me 250 for the day. I was like, I would pay you 250 for the day...

NOEL KING, HOST:

(Laughter).

WELTEROTH: ...To work for you. Are you kidding? So I packed my bags, went down there. And it turns out it was a cover shoot with Serena Williams, which she never said. So it was a - an even bigger opportunity than I even thought. And - but I just felt so in my element. I felt so alive that day. I just thought, this is what I want to do. This is it.

KING: To the point where you were explicitly⁹ told, do not talk to the celebrity¹⁰.

WELTEROTH: (Laughter).

KING: Do not talk to Serena Williams. And you did.

(LAUGHTER)

WELTEROTH: Well, to be clear, for the record, she talked to me.

KING: Fair enough (laughter).

WELTEROTH: Because I actually - I kind of broke the rule. But, I mean, what was a girl to do? When Serena Williams says hi, you say hi back.

KING: You - fair point - you went on to work as a staffer for Ebony from the internship¹¹.

WELTEROTH: Yes.

KING: And then, from there, you transitioned to Glamour¹² magazine.

WELTEROTH: Yes.

KING: That's a magazine with a bigger audience. But it is also a place that is not aimed at black audiences.

WELTEROTH: Correct.

KING: And so it was a different workplace experience. What do you remember?

WELTEROTH: Well, I'll say this. One memory that I have of working at Glamour, which overall was a very positive experience, by the way - I felt like I was very supported there. But I do recall this one particular experience of being at a wall meeting, which is where, you know, the whole staff gathers. And we all look at the pages that are pinned up on the wall for - the pages of the magazine are all pinned up on the wall. And there was one other black editor. She was Haitian - dark skin, straight hair. She was very reserved and quiet, the opposite of me (laughter).

KING: You're known for your curly hair.

WELTEROTH: I...

KING: Like, straight up.

WELTEROTH: Yeah. I have big curly hair. You know, I have, you know, kind of caramel complexion¹³. I wear bright colors. And I'm - you know, I have a bubbly personality. And the two black editors on staff could not be more different, right? So - but on more than one occasion, we were mistaken for each other. And those moments make you remember that race walks into any room before you do. No one in that situation had bad intention. But the result was that we felt like we were on the outside and that we weren't really seen for who we were.

KING: She hadn't been at Glamour all that long when Teen Vogue came to her about an editing job. This is a very big deal in the fashion world. She was scared, and so she turned them down. But eventually, Teen Vogue won her over. And then she won Teen Vogue over. The magazine promoted her to editor-in-chief. Teen Vogue became known for taking on really tough topics like civil rights, abortion¹⁴ and lots and lots of politics.

WELTEROTH: Yeah. People weren't expecting that from us. I think that's an extension of the way we tend to underestimate young people.

KING: Yeah.

WELTEROTH: You know? And suddenly, we were this young media brand that was talking about politics and Black Lives Matter. And who were we to be in these lanes, you know? And we were living in a time where, I think, there's a story that went viral coming out of Teen Vogue, which was called "Trump¹⁵ Is Gaslighting America." And it was written by one of our freelance digital writers, Lauren Duca, who's amazing, brilliant - feminist¹⁶ writer. She wrote about everything from Ariana Grande, you know, and her ponytails and her thigh-high boots to, you know, these really thoughtful political think pieces like this one. And we don't expect for this to, like, blow up the Internet. We didn't expect for people to be paying attention to the work that we were doing.

But that singular story - what became the tipping point for the rest of the world to kind of find out about the work that we were doing at Teen Vogue - and so at that point, like, you know, our traffic had gone from 2 to 12 million. Our subscriptions¹⁷ were doubling. We sold more magazines that month, the month that story came out, than we had all year. And suddenly, we were like, you know, the little engine that could who became this locomotive that couldn't be stopped.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "I AM NOT MY HAIR")

INDIA.ARIE: (Singing) I am not my hair. I am not this skin.

MARTIN: That was the former editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue, Elaine Welteroth, talking with Noel King. Her book, "More Than Enough: Claiming Space For Who You Are No Matter What They Say," is out today.

1 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

2 Vogue   

n.时髦，时尚；adj.流行的

参考例句：

• Flowery carpets became the vogue.花卉地毯变成了时髦货。
• Short hair came back into vogue about ten years ago.大约十年前短发又开始流行起来了。

3 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

4 intersection   

n.交集，十字路口，交叉点；[计算机] 交集

参考例句：

• There is a stop sign at an intersection.在交叉路口处有停车标志。
• Bridges are used to avoid the intersection of a railway and a highway.桥用来避免铁路和公路直接交叉。

5 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

6 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

7 authentic   

a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的

参考例句：

• This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
• Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。

8 relentlessly   

adv.不屈不挠地；残酷地；不间断

参考例句：

• The African sun beat relentlessly down on his aching head. 非洲的太阳无情地照射在他那发痛的头上。
• He pursued her relentlessly, refusing to take 'no' for an answer. 他锲而不舍地追求她，拒不接受“不”的回答。

9 explicitly   

ad.明确地，显然地

参考例句：

• The plan does not explicitly endorse the private ownership of land. 该计划没有明确地支持土地私有制。
• SARA amended section 113 to provide explicitly for a right to contribution. 《最高基金修正与再授权法案》修正了第123条，清楚地规定了分配权。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

10 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

11 internship   

n.实习医师，实习医师期

参考例句：

• an internship at a television station 在电视台的实习期
• a summer internship with a small stipend 薪水微薄的暑期实习

12 glamour   

n.魔力，魅力；vt.迷住

参考例句：

• Foreign travel has lost its glamour for her.到国外旅行对她已失去吸引力了。
• The moonlight cast a glamour over the scene.月光给景色增添了魅力。

13 complexion   

n.肤色；情况，局面；气质，性格

参考例句：

• Red does not suit with her complexion.红色与她的肤色不协调。
• Her resignation puts a different complexion on things.她一辞职局面就全变了。

14 abortion   

n.流产，堕胎

参考例句：

• She had an abortion at the women's health clinic.她在妇女保健医院做了流产手术。
• A number of considerations have led her to have a wilful abortion.多种考虑使她执意堕胎。

15 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

16 feminist   

adj.主张男女平等的，女权主义的

参考例句：

• She followed the feminist movement.她支持女权运动。
• From then on,feminist studies on literature boomed.从那时起，男女平等受教育的现象开始迅速兴起。

17 subscriptions   

n.（报刊等的）订阅费( subscription的名词复数 )；捐款；（俱乐部的）会员费；捐助

参考例句：

• Subscriptions to these magazines can be paid in at the post office. 这些杂志的订阅费可以在邮局缴纳。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Payment of subscriptions should be made to the club secretary. 会费应交给俱乐部秘书。 来自《简明英汉词典》