Race and Womanhood: Blogger Challenges Mainstream Beauty
This Instagram sensation is proving that beauty and brains aren't mutually exclusive.
written by Brooke Pawling
edited by Dana Mack
At 12 years old, Blake Von D didn’t know life could get better. Growing up in Macon, Georgia, Von D felt like the odd one out because she grew up in foster care. She says this was a freak experience that no one else was going through, leaving her feeling like an outsider.
Now, at 29, Von D is a digital influencer, fashion blogger and attorney who works in the intellectual-property field. Working to challenge preconceptions of mainstream beauty, Von D posts images of her eclectic street-style that are a story of empowerment, intelligence and resilience; at its core, it is a celebration of women who are often cast aside.
Her fashion blog and Instagram posts often consist of her vibrant outfits and the striking image of her platinum blonde hair against the backdrop of exotic locations. Von D graduated from Spelman College in Atlanta and received her master’s degree from New York University, before she enrolled in law school at Tulane University in 2012 to earn her Juris Doctor. She’s not currently a full-time practicing attorney, but says she enjoys working with intellectual property and copyright on social media.
Von D says she had to learn to let go of the baggage of what society told her she should be as a black woman. Eventually, she found what was meaningful to her and shifted her focus toward that instead. Since then, she has achieved such successes as becoming a brand ambassador for Marshalls and Loeffler Randall, a shoes and handbag designer.
“If you told me at [age] 10 or 12 that 45,000 people on Instagram followed me and I’d get to go to South Africa and do the things I’ve gotten to do, I would have thought that you were crazy,” Von D says. Her global adventures include a recent trip to Finland, where she flew business class for the first time, tried cross-country skiing and went dog sledding. Her travel diaries on her website include her day-to-day experiences and allow fans to feel like they’re sitting side-by-side with Blake, looking up at the Northern Lights in Finland.
Von D keeps constantly busy with her blog and brand partnerships, but she still makes time to help others. Recently, Von D sent out a tweet on her personal account asking if any lawyers needed pro-bono work after President Trump signed the travel ban in February.
“Over the past couple of months I’ve realized that I’m doing a disservice if I have the kind of platform that I have and I’m not using it to make an impact and forge change,” Von D says.
Ashley Stewart is the co-founder and design communications director of the Patent Pump, a communications agency that works with businesses to design a creative platform and brand. She and Von D met while she was freelancing for the Patent Pump in 2013, and the two remain good friends today. She says that the beauty and fashion industry is not as pretty as it may appear.
“Sometimes it’s grueling, hard work and sometimes it’s gnashing of the teeth and sometimes it’s being completely honest when honesty isn’t political,” Stewart says.
Von D says women of color tend to be marginalized within both race movements and feminist movements. In the past, African-American women have had to forge their own fights, separate from the movement. Rather than being the ones pushing feminism forward, women of color have simply pushed forward despite feminism’s exclusion of them, she says.
There is a distinct lack of mainstream feminists supporting the strides to bring awareness to police brutality, Von D says, citing the January 21 Women’s March on Washington. Women coming together is beautiful, but the same women neglect to support the Black Lives Matter marches, she says.
Joy Messinger, program officer for Third Wave Fund, says when people only focus on one part of any individual or community’s identity, they may be invalidating the other parts of them. She explains that Third Wave Fund is a feminist fund that invests in and resources gender justice, activism and organizing mobilization and healing justice, led by young people of color and low income communities.
“We don’t just see racism as being separate from sexism, and being separate from homophobia, as being separate from transphobia,” Messinger says. “All of those things operate together in ways to oppress people.”
Von D recalls a dispute on Twitter she was involved with regarding intersectionality. The argument began with a simple tweet about how not only was intersectional feminism not real, but black women should follow in the steps of white women and put their womanhood first.
“As black women, we are never in a position to choose one issue over the other,” Von D says. “We can’t put race first or womanhood first because they shape each other.”
The sincerity and wit she writes with in her blog posts translate in real life as well, and her gentle demeanor is captivating.
“If you ever have the privilege of having a conversation with [Von D], she can show you the seeds of excellence that are planted in her that have even yet to bloom,” Stewart says. “I think that what she does and just being who she is and living her life is enough, even if she never snaps another photo again.”
"Sometimes it's being completely honest when honesty isn't political."
Photos by: Hamza Quadri @hq_fotos