7 black women shine on this year's fall fashion magazine covers

On-screen problem-solver Kerry Washington is the 7th black woman to grace the cover of a fall fashion issue this year—serving face and talking Pilates on the cover of Self. Previously, Washington was featured on Lucky (Dec/Jan 2013) and InStyle (March 2014) and the two magazines received backlash due to lighting-and-or-Photoshop changes to her skin tone and facial structure; this time Kerry’s actual skin tone, natural beauty and kick ass post-baby body shine through.

The other six black ladies taking over fall fashion covers? Beyonce for Vogue, Ciara for Shape, Willow Smith for i-D, Amandla Stenberg for Dazed, Misty Copeland for Essence (which technically doesn’t count because Essence celebrates black beauty 365 days a year, but Misty Copeland looks like a dream) and Serena Williams for New York Magazine.

September issues, like fashion show runways, are a place where the exposure of women of color is increasing, but still sparse. As Janet Mock pointed out on Twitter, this is kind of legendary.

Let’s take a moment to look at all of this melanin and black girl magic:

(And! It’s not a fashion magazine, but Queen Latifah is on the new cover of Variety.)

Previously: Only 14% of fashion mags had a woman of color on the cover in 2014

Tahirah Hairston is a style writer from Detroit who likes Susan Miller, Rihanna’s friend’s Instagram accounts, ramen and ugly-but cute shoes.