There are so many brown girls popping up on the covers of magazines as we enter the last bit of the year, and we have to say, it’s a lovely sight to see. Michelle Obama graced the cover of Vogue‘s December issue, and she just did PEOPLE with President Obama. But other Black women posing front and center for your favorite publications right now include Vanessa Williams and her beautiful daughter, Lion Babe singer Jillian Hervey.
Not only do the ladies grace a cover together (looking quite flawless), but they’ve also been given their own separate covers to stunt on.
Inside the pages, 53-year-old Williams talked about finding love again, as well as surviving some major setbacks behind the scenes and in the public eye.
“You have to go through the fire,” she told ESSENCE. “Avoiding the pain is why most people never resolve it. You have to dig deep, sit in it and ugly-cry. Pretending it’s not there and keeping busy are a way of avoiding it.”
As for Hervey, she opened up about struggling to embrace the large head of hair that’s become synonymous with her and even landed her a contract with Pantene. “My hair was supposed to represent this freedom,” she said, “and then it almost became a trap.”
But she learned to love it after taking part in a panel during AfroPunk that focused on hair. The sight of women who were “different versions of me” had an impact. “Everyone was creative and beautiful, and it felt so sacred.”
Other stunners on the cover of magazines include Loving star Ruth Negga.
The Irish and Ethiopian beauty looks amazing with her short cut, red lip and Alexander Wang crop top. She graces the very first cover of 2017 for Vogue and inside, talks about her identity and people’s questions about it. “I’m always very careful to say I’m Irish-Ethiopian because I feel Ethiopian and I look Ethiopian and I am Ethiopian,” Negga said, speaking on growing up Ireland. “But there are 81 languages in Ethiopia, and I don’t know any of them.”
Still, that’s okay with the actress, even if it isn’t enough for other people at times.
“People have always made assumptions about me,” Negga added. “I become very territorial about my identity because it’s been hijacked by so many people, with their own projections.”
You can read their entire interviews in the new issues. The newest edition of Essence hits newsstands on Friday, December 9, and the new Vogue issue is already available via Amazon.
Images via Warwick Saint for ESSENCE, Mario Testino for Vogue
