Essence Global Beauty Director, Julee Wilson moves to Cosmopolitan
Cosmopolitan taps beauty director from Essence
Cosmopolitan has appointed Julee Wilson beauty director, effective April 1. Wilson joins the magazine from Essence, where she was global beauty director. She reports to Cosmopolitan Editor-in-Chief Jessica Pels in her new role.
Last fall, Marjon Carlos invited Julee, Solange Franklin, Paloma Elsesser, and me to be on a panel about diversity together at The Wing. It was an amazingly honest conversation about the realities of/barriers to true diversity in 2018. It’s a weird time to have that conversation—it seems everyone is hell-bent on being “inclusive,” but then expects a cookie for it. It’s treacherous territory, extremely complicated and fraught.
And Julee somehow managed to call out the entire library of old-school bullshit that comes along with beauty and fashion, without actually saying a mean word. Her voice is super powerful, but she’s bursting with love. To quote her directly, she’s a “glass-half-full kinda girl,” but she’s also “woke” personified.
Which makes sense, considering she’s the global beauty director at Essence and Essence.com. It’s a massive job, but I remember one morning at an event, asking if she’d be at another event that evening. She told me the brand in question didn’t work with Essence. I was shocked, but to her, it’s nothing new. In the era of the “grand awokening,” there’s so much going on that should in no way be tolerated in 2018. And unlike most fashion and beauty editors, Julee isn’t afraid to talk about it.
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