Black-ish stars Yara Shahidi and Tracee Ellis Ross met up with the current editor, Elaine Welteroth, of Teen Vogue, prior to this past Wednesday’s episode, and it was #blackgirlmagic” right down to their hair. The three ladies met up to do a Facebook Live discussion where members of the young Hollywood club, college students and young professionals joined them to have a candid conversation about representation in business.
Shahidi, who not only appears on the cover of Teen Vogue’s Smart Girl issue, served as a first-time guest editor and helped curate the entire issue; however, in true Shahidi fashion, she gracefully took the message beyond the pages of the popular magazine right into everyone’s living room as Teen Vogue was on Black-ish!
“When we got the big idea to pitch one of our favorite television shows on a scripted integration partnership in conjunction with our December cover, it felt like a bit of a pipe dream,” commented Welteroth. “But luckily, the show’s creator Kenya Barris has three glorious teen daughters who happen to LOVE Teen Vogue. They filled him in on some of what we have in common with the show: We both use our platform to celebrate diversity. We both start important cross-generational conversations. And we both love Yara Shahidi!”
If you saw this week’s episode of the hit ABC show, you know that Zoe, Shahidi’s character, thanks to her father’s advertising connections, got the “hook-up” with a summer fellowship at Teen Vogue, putting the characters front and center with the age-old concept of nepotism—the practice of those in positions of influence who favor friends and relatives in terms of employment. On the show, we saw how the writers included the unique perspective of the influential African-American family, asking the question if it is possible for individuals to help the community without compromising professional ethics.
Check out the Teen Vogue Facebook Live discussion on the episode and weigh-in on what you think.
