Lupita Nyong’o has called out Grazia for photoshopping her hair on the November cover.
Nyong’o’s profile and exclusive interview inside the magazine looks inviting and yes, empowering, until you learn that she is “disappointed” by how she has been represented on the glossy’s cover.
The actress has published the before and after images on her Instagram, showing the images before her hair had been digitally altered.
“Being featured on the cover of a magazine fulfils me as it is an opportunity to show other dark, kinky-haired people, and particularly our children, that they are beautiful just the way they are,” she wrote.
“I am disappointed that Grazia UK invited me to be on their cover and then edited out and smoothed my hair to fit their notion of what beautiful hair looks like.”
She continued: “Had I been consulted, I would have explained that I cannot support or condone the omission of what is my native heritage with the intention that they appreciate that there is still a very long way to go to combat the unconscious prejudice against black women’s complexion, hair style and texture.”
The irony behind Grazia’s choice to remove part of Nyong’o’s appearance, is that the heart and soul of the interview was on beauty standards.
Grazia made a point in the feature of the fact Nyong’o is the first black ambassador for Lancome and one of the very few black actresses to win an Oscar. Before discussing beauty in all skin tones.
“There’s room in this world for beauty to be diverse,” said Nyong’o, before explaining what is needed to make the movie industry more diverse.
“It’s about actually putting your money where your mouth is and changing the demographics of the people making movies,” she said.
The editorial team has issued an apology.
“Grazia is committed to representing diversity throughout its pages and apologises unreservedly to Lupita Nyong’o,′ the statement read.
“Grazia magazine would like to make it clear that at no point did they make any editorial request to the photographer for Lupita Nyong’o’s hair to be altered on this week’s cover, nor did we alter it ourselves.
“But we apologise unreservedly for not upholding the highest of editorial standards in ensuring that we were aware of all alterations that had been made.”
HuffPost UK has contacted photographer An Le and will update this article upon his response.
Similarly, last month, ES Magazine chose to edit out Solange Knowle’s hair from their cover when once again, the singer’s interview and choice of words was on the importance of having autonomy over her body.
The magazine did later issue an apology to the singer for their actions.
“The decision to amend the photograph was taken for layout purposes but plainly we made the wrong call and we have offered our unreserved apologies to Solange,” they wrote.