Changemaker Stories

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Thaiana Zandona

One thing that social movements, activism, and democracy have taught us is the importance behind civil participation, and even further—how each one of us can generate change and innovation.

Here are 3 young women around the globe who are actively promoting gender equality, opportunities, and inniativities.

Isabelle Christina is passionate about technology and how it can change people’s lives, especially Black women in Brazil. She noticed how little to no representation Black women have, so in her junior year of high school, she created the Black Girls Project. It supports young Black girls in Brazil as they themselves say “We aim to prepare them completely, so they can change their current realities and be women of integrity, indispensable for society!”

Throughout her life, Apoorvi Bharatram noticed her sister’s struggles with depression and the quality of access to the health system. In 2019, she founded the Happiness Project, which encourages students to share their mental health struggles and ask for help, and trains teachers about the subject. She is now developing an app to increase the project’s reach across India.

One of the world’s biggest taboos is still menstruation. Millions of girls and women around the globe have neither the necessary basic hygiene products, nor open discussions about menstruation and sex education. This is increasingly worse in rural or poor areas of developing countries. Sanjana Dixit understood the problem and decided to act. In 2018, she founded HutuChakra, working to achieve menstrual equity and dignity. RutuChakra has distributed over 154,000+ menstrual products and conducted workshops and Period Talk sessions in both urban and rural areas.

Anaís Fernandez

A Small Featurette on the Beauty Micrometer

The Roaring Twenties was a time of wealth, innovation, and changes in cultural dynamics. One of the biggest contributors to this period was the advent of film and movies. The film industry redefined not only Judy entertainment but Garland, and Clara also Bow beauty standards ⼀ became the golden especially standards for women. Movie stars like Jane Harlow, of beauty and desirability. Because of this, the cosmetics industry boomed. Out of this revolution came Max Factor, a Polish immigrant and one of the most famous cosmeticians of his time. Aside from coining the term “makeup” , Factor is credited with the invention of the beauty micrometer, a device used to measure how beautiful a woman was.

To many, the beauty micrometer looked more like a torture device. According to Modern Mechanics, a newspaper advertising the beauty micrometer (also known as the beauty capacitor) in 1935, the device “fits over the head and face with flexible metal strips which conform closely to the various features. The strips are held in place by set screws, allowing for 325 possible adjustments. ” The article goes on to explain how the micrometer will identify “flaws” in the face so that “corrective makeup” may be applied.

Max Factor marketed his invention mainly towards actresses. The prevailing theory at the time was that any flaws in a woman’s face would be distracting when magnified on the big screen. Needless to say, this applied only to women, not men. Men did not need their features to be corrected, as unattractiveness on their part would not be distracting.

Possibly due to its terrifying appearance or its incredibly sexist message, the micrometer never gained much traction. Only one exists today, located at the Hollywood Entertainment Museum.

It’s safe to say that beauty standards and the makeup industry are changing, at least compared to its role in the 1930s and 1940s. Social media has turned makeup into an art form practiced by both feminine and masculine-presenting people. Makeup no longer holds the previous role of disguising women’s flaws and imperfections.

On the other hand, the film and music industry are still struggling to promote body positivity and demote golden beauty standards for both men and women. In such a spotlighted business, the binary idea of “flaws and corrections” is rampant. One might even go so far as to say that we don’t need a device that measures imperfections: we have no problem doing it ourselves.