Uploaded July 2016 | Updated September 2026, 3 weeks ago
♡ HELLO I LOVE YOU ♡
Words:
Dear Brandy Melville,
I'm writing this to you from Xi'An, China, where—surrounded by the cluttered street vendors, the swirling colors, the thousands of years of history that curl like a sleeping giant around the roofs and columns of China—I have just had an epiphany and can no longer keep my thoughts and feelings in. I'm not sure if this will ever reach you. I'm not sure that if it does, you'll even care. But I thought it was worth a try.
In middle school, I began to associate “white” with “beautiful.” It wasn’t a conscious act of discrimination. It was seeing white actors and actresses topping the lists of celebrity crushes in tabloids, and seeing the posters of white boy bands—the Jonas Brothers, Justin Bieber, One Direction—plastered on the walls of my friends’ bedrooms. It was flipping through fashion magazines, or glancing at the ads of my favorite clothing stores, and seeing that close to 100% of the models were white. As a young, painfully insecure thirteen year-old, it wasn’t hard for me to make the conclusion: white girls set the standard of beauty, and that meant that I wasn’t beautiful, or really worthy, at all.
I’m writing to you because I believe that no girl should ever feel as I did in middle school: resenting both her looks and her racial background because they weren’t depicted as beautiful or valuable by the media. No girl should ever question her beauty, worth, or culture’s worth because of the color of her skin, and no girl should have to revisit her country of origin in order to realize just how apathetic she had become about her own culture.
As a country who prides itself on its diversity, whose history has been built up, brick by brick, by immigrants, we should be encouraging young girls to embrace their cultural backgrounds and to cherish their ethnic features. We should be telling young girls that every one of them is beautiful, no matter their ethnicity—instead of basing a beauty standard on only a portion of the American population.
I’m writing to you, not just because you are famed for your exclusively white models, but mainly because you have the immense power to alter how young girls view themselves.
You are the “One Direction” of fashion for millions of teenage girls. They have followed you much as they follow a boy band as you set trend after trend after trend, from the graphic muscle tees to the effortless T-shirt dresses. You don’t just represent clothing; you represent an ideal of natural beauty. You set the standard of beauty for the vast majority of young teenage girls.
Brandy Melville, you can inspire confidence in millions of young women, encourage pride in their race, culture, and individuality, and all the while, still uphold your ideals on the carefree California spirit.
And it’s simple to do.
Include interracial models, please.
FIND ME:
instagram.com/hiheidz
☯ Commonly Asked Questions ☯
1. What camera do you use?
Canon Rebel t3i
2. What editing program?
Final Cut Pro X
ABOUT ME:
My name is Heidi but if you're really special you can call me Heids. ;) I'm currently on a gap year and will be attending Harvard University in 2017!!
♡ HELLO I LOVE YOU ♡
Words:
Dear Brandy Melville,
I'm writing this to you from Xi'An, China, where—surrounded by the cluttered street vendors, the swirling colors, the thousands of years of history that curl like a sleeping giant around the roofs and columns of China—I have just had an epiphany and can no longer keep my thoughts and feelings in. I'm not sure if this will ever reach you. I'm not sure that if it does, you'll even care. But I thought it was worth a try.
In middle school, I began to associate “white” with “beautiful.” It wasn’t a conscious act of discrimination. It was seeing white actors and actresses topping the lists of celebrity crushes in tabloids, and seeing the posters of white boy bands—the Jonas Brothers, Justin Bieber, One Direction—plastered on the walls of my friends’ bedrooms. It was flipping through fashion magazines, or glancing at the ads of my favorite clothing stores, and seeing that close to 100% of the models were white. As a young, painfully insecure thirteen year-old, it wasn’t hard for me to make the conclusion: white girls set the standard of beauty, and that meant that I wasn’t beautiful, or really worthy, at all.
I’m writing to you because I believe that no girl should ever feel as I did in middle school: resenting both her looks and her racial background because they weren’t depicted as beautiful or valuable by the media. No girl should ever question her beauty, worth, or culture’s worth because of the color of her skin, and no girl should have to revisit her country of origin in order to realize just how apathetic she had become about her own culture.
As a country who prides itself on its diversity, whose history has been built up, brick by brick, by immigrants, we should be encouraging young girls to embrace their cultural backgrounds and to cherish their ethnic features. We should be telling young girls that every one of them is beautiful, no matter their ethnicity—instead of basing a beauty standard on only a portion of the American population.
I’m writing to you, not just because you are famed for your exclusively white models, but mainly because you have the immense power to alter how young girls view themselves.
You are the “One Direction” of fashion for millions of teenage girls. They have followed you much as they follow a boy band as you set trend after trend after trend, from the graphic muscle tees to the effortless T-shirt dresses. You don’t just represent clothing; you represent an ideal of natural beauty. You set the standard of beauty for the vast majority of young teenage girls.
Brandy Melville, you can inspire confidence in millions of young women, encourage pride in their race, culture, and individuality, and all the while, still uphold your ideals on the carefree California spirit.
And it’s simple to do.
Include interracial models, please.
FIND ME:
instagram.com/hiheidz
☯ Commonly Asked Questions ☯
1. What camera do you use?
Canon Rebel t3i
2. What editing program?
Final Cut Pro X
ABOUT ME:
My name is Heidi but if you're really special you can call me Heids. ;) I'm currently on a gap year and will be attending Harvard University in 2017!!
