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May's Vogue cover: Amanda Gorman (Original Post)
demmiblue
Apr 2021
OP
Biophilic
(3,645 posts)1. That is too cool. Thanks for posting. I loves me some Amanda Gorman.
demmiblue
(36,841 posts)2. The cover story: The Rise and Rise of Amanda Gorman
eep in Amanda Gormans closet sits a doll that may or may not have stolen the facts of her reluctant owners life. A month after the 23-year-old poet eclipsed the transfer of power at President Bidens inauguration with an energizing performance of her song of a nation, The Hill We Climb, she was thinking about an earlier, discomfiting bookingat the American Girl boutique at the Grove in Los Angeles. We were at a green space a stones throw from Gormans spot in L.A., a one-bedroom in an apartment building the color of sherbet. Reclining on blankets she spread over a manicured knoll, she tilted her head, birdlike, and groaned softly, They might get angry at me for saying this.
The Mattel brand had invited Gorman to do a reading celebrating the arrival of Gabriela, the latest Girl of the Year, to expectant young customers. This was New Years Day, 2017, and Gorman was an 18-year-old freshman at Harvard, home on winter break, decompressing from the surprise of New England frost. At the time, Gorman had already been named Youth Poet Laureate of L.A. (the first one ever) and was a known and admired figure on the national spoken-word circuit. The night before the event, the American Girl team briefed her on the biography of the doll. It was like a horror moviePeele-esque, we agreed after she told me the story. Gabriela loves the arts and uses poetry to help find her voice so she can make a difference in her community, the website for the defunct toy reads. Gorman loves the arts and uses poetry to help find her voice so she can make a difference in her community. Gabriela is brown-skinned with curly hair. Amanda is brown-skinned with natural hair. She was a Black girl with a speech impediment! said Gorman (referring to her own speech impairment), playfully clawing at the beautiful hive of twists atop her head, adding that her twin sisters pet name is also, can you believe it, Gabby.
Gorman did the reading anyway. American Girl told me that the doll was not inspired by Gormans life, and sent me a photo of Gorman, mid-performance, costumed in Gabrielas exact outfit. I felt like if I backed out of the event, I would have been failing the girls who would have this Black doll, Gorman said. The rest of the year, when advertisements for Gabriela crept into her view, or friends would text her excitedly that they had seen her doll, she would avert her gaze, thinking on the mad vinyl thing she had locked away out of sight at home.
Gorman, good-naturedly, doesnt want to make a big deal out of the experience, but years later, the notion that a public figures life could be mined without her consent still rankles, principally because this sort of heated adulation is now inextricable from her ascendant writing career. I built up this narrative in my head that, you know, I had to be some type of, she paused, raising her hands from her lap to air-quote, ?role model.?
https://www.vogue.com/article/amanda-gorman-cover-may-2021
The Mattel brand had invited Gorman to do a reading celebrating the arrival of Gabriela, the latest Girl of the Year, to expectant young customers. This was New Years Day, 2017, and Gorman was an 18-year-old freshman at Harvard, home on winter break, decompressing from the surprise of New England frost. At the time, Gorman had already been named Youth Poet Laureate of L.A. (the first one ever) and was a known and admired figure on the national spoken-word circuit. The night before the event, the American Girl team briefed her on the biography of the doll. It was like a horror moviePeele-esque, we agreed after she told me the story. Gabriela loves the arts and uses poetry to help find her voice so she can make a difference in her community, the website for the defunct toy reads. Gorman loves the arts and uses poetry to help find her voice so she can make a difference in her community. Gabriela is brown-skinned with curly hair. Amanda is brown-skinned with natural hair. She was a Black girl with a speech impediment! said Gorman (referring to her own speech impairment), playfully clawing at the beautiful hive of twists atop her head, adding that her twin sisters pet name is also, can you believe it, Gabby.
Gorman did the reading anyway. American Girl told me that the doll was not inspired by Gormans life, and sent me a photo of Gorman, mid-performance, costumed in Gabrielas exact outfit. I felt like if I backed out of the event, I would have been failing the girls who would have this Black doll, Gorman said. The rest of the year, when advertisements for Gabriela crept into her view, or friends would text her excitedly that they had seen her doll, she would avert her gaze, thinking on the mad vinyl thing she had locked away out of sight at home.
Gorman, good-naturedly, doesnt want to make a big deal out of the experience, but years later, the notion that a public figures life could be mined without her consent still rankles, principally because this sort of heated adulation is now inextricable from her ascendant writing career. I built up this narrative in my head that, you know, I had to be some type of, she paused, raising her hands from her lap to air-quote, ?role model.?
https://www.vogue.com/article/amanda-gorman-cover-may-2021
lillypaddle
(9,580 posts)6. What an impressive and beautiful young woman
Just oozes self confidence. She's going places. Proudly.
2naSalit
(86,542 posts)3. K&R
She's bright, she's beautiful and she's the future.
iluvtennis
(19,850 posts)4. Ditto. nt
Joinfortmill
(14,416 posts)5. Really beautiful. I particularly love the green one.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)7. Marvelous. Glam juxtaposed against substance and strength of character.
Very unlike the cover hit job they did on Kamala Harris, whatever that was about.
FakeNoose
(32,634 posts)8. Stunning! Does she typically wear her hair in these African braids?
I don't know how she normally wears her hair, but these braids are gorgeous. Love her outfits too. I'm thinking maybe she was "styled" by someone at the magazine. That's normally how they would do the cover photos.
RestoreAmerica2020
(3,435 posts)9. Ay que bella! Thanks for sharing.
Paz
Response to demmiblue (Original post)
RestoreAmerica2020 This message was self-deleted by its author.
crickets
(25,962 posts)11. Amanda Gorman is an amazing woman bound for wonderful things,
and she will share it all through her incredible poetry. Lovely.