Michelle Lee’s Last Letter From the Editor at Attract

I am horrible at goodbyes. I’ve definitely had a justifiable share in my lifetime. Transferring to new colleges. Switching jobs. Simply this fall, we packed up our home of 16 years and moved to my husband’s childhood hometown. Now, after practically six years at Attract, I am closing this chapter and heading to a sunny new coast for a giant new position at Netflix. And I am struggling to seek out the proper phrases. 

It is an thrilling second, however bittersweet as a result of I will miss everybody at Attract a lot. This has been a dream job, the place I believed I would keep without end. I nonetheless pinch myself over the unimaginable experiences I’ve had throughout my time right here. I’ve interviewed icons (Helen Mirren, Lupita Nyong’o) and trailblazers (Awkwafina, Mj Rodriguez). I sat entrance row at a trend present in an English fortress and soaked up skin-care historical past in Shizuoka, Japan. I had my nails painted by masters and rang the opening (and shutting!) bell on the New York Inventory Alternate. However the recollections I will maintain most pricey revolve round what the good workforce right here achieved. 

After I first began this job, I did a Q&A session for a few hundred members of our income workforce. In a last, enjoyable velocity spherical, the interviewer peppered me with questions like, “What three phrases greatest describe you,” “Favourite lip colour?” and ended on: “What’s your purpose for Attract?” With out hesitation, I answered, “I need to change the world.” 

On the time, I stated it with a wink. However practically six years later, I am immensely happy with how a lot floor we moved. We genuinely shifted the best way individuals take a look at and discuss magnificence. We helped change the worldwide narrative round ageing. We challenged the best way the business talks about sustainability. We explored, deeply, the tradition of hair and pores and skin colour and race and the numerous methods the standard magnificence machine has excluded individuals. We challenged the antiquated notion of who will get to be lovely. We celebrated many firsts (the primary man, first trans girl, first mannequin with Down syndrome on our cowl) and rejected tokenism (after having solely two Asian cowl stars within the first 28 years of Attract, we have featured eight in simply the previous few years). We did all this whereas sustaining and increasing Attract’s authoritative science reporting and product opinions in all places from these pages to our Science of Magnificence podcast. 

I need to thank the entire workforce, previous and current, who made these years so particular. And I am so grateful to all of you on the market who’ve supported what we do. This can be goodbye, however I will be a reader and watcher and client of all issues Attract, at all times. To cite Keats, “A factor of magnificence is a pleasure without end.”

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