How gal-dem’s Guardian Weekend raised the voices of women and non-binary people of colour

The Big Idea

It felt like an empowering coup. 

For the first time in my existence, black women are being celebrated and recognised as a collective in mainstream media and it all began with the gal-dem Guardian takeover. 

A whole national supplement taken over by black women, for black women.

What They Did

Gal-dem is an online magazine platform written for young women and non-binary people of colour—an audience who rarely buy print media. 

The content on the site relates to its primary audience, often educating black women and non-binary people of colour about how to manoeuvre and figure out the world. Content also features, of course, things black women actually know and care about (honestly, I’d be rich if I had a penny for every time I said “but you don’t know who Vybz Kartel is either” when my work colleagues pull faces about my lack of knowledge of Arctic Monkeys).

In August, gal-dem played the ultimate chess move by partnering with The Guardian to bring its content to a wider audience. 

The magazine was brimming with black-girl magic. 

Dripping in gorgeous melanin from the front cover which showcased the incredible Michaela Coel bald and bold, to the leading lady Diane Abbott talking about wrapping her hair before bedtime (true black women rituals). 

From every page turn to every heading I could relate, I could learn, I could belong.

For those who actually show interest in diversity to its core, and not just for diversity’s sake, it was a great insight to how black women feel in the workplace and in the world. 

The Malcolm X quote I tend to stand by, as I believe it is a universal truth, is “the most disrespected woman…is the black woman. The most unprotected person…is the black woman. The most neglected person…is the black woman”—and mainstream media has illustrated this for decades. 

Black women have often been misrepresented and misunderstood. Our passion has been seen as aggression. 

We have been told for way too long that our natural hair isn’t professional, isn’t acceptable, our facial features aren’t ‘beautiful’. The gal-dem Guardian Weekend takeover shunned all of that and said, “I am a ‘black’ woman, hear me roar”. 

Checkmate!