Leaders in the aesthetics industry have partnered to ignite a conversation about racial representation and perceptions within their community.  Leading aesthetics brand portfolio Allergan Aesthetics, and clinical skin care brand Skinbetter Science (which was acquired by L’Oreal on Thursday, September 22), have created a report from their Driving Racial Equity in Aesthetic Medicine [DREAM] Initiative, along with a long-term partnership with Shutterstock Studios. The report, titled Forces of Beauty, provides a new understanding of what inclusive and representative beauty looks like today by shedding light on how narrowly defined Eurocentric ideals continue to impact women of color. By surveying over 4,000 women aged 21 to 65, from multiple geographic locations and backgrounds, the report explores what defines beauty, how beauty impacts women’s lives, and the interplay between beauty and race. Some key insights include:

• Only 17% of all women, regardless of their race and ethnicity, feel like their racial beauty is accepted by society.
• 1 in 4 Black, Hispanic, and Multi-Racial women believe that society’s standards of beauty are racist
• 52% of women agree that “anyone can be beautiful,” with only 11% of women agreeing that society makes them feel beautiful

 

As part of its multi-media launch, Forces of Beauty will be brought to life through an emotional video series, produced by Shutterstock Studios, Shutterstock’s end-to-end custom creative shop. The series, directed by Tiffany Frances, will feature four women sharing their stories and experiences linking directly to dedicated chapters within the report: defining beauty, empowering uniqueness, the history of beauty standards, and appropriation.

Coinciding with the launch of the report, the DREAM Initiative will also unveil a first-of-its-kind partnership in the aesthetics category with Shutterstock Studios and introduce a royalty free, gallery of diverse images available to the public. The thousands of images will showcase beauty across race, culture, gender, age, ability level, and body type and will bring to life a key takeaway from the Forces of Beauty report that “one of us is not the face of all of us.” A driving force behind the gallery is the goal to encourage industry peers to leverage these assets within their own efforts, creating a first step towards collective change to a more equitable industry.

The full report and findings are available for download at DreamforEquity.com