#Blackgirlmagic emerged 5 years ago from Black Twitter, the breeding place of most viral content like videos, social trends, movements, challenges and memes. #blackgirlmagic is now so much more than just a hashtag it’s a movement and pivotal for the culture.
#Blackgirlmagic is a hashtag created to celebrate the beauty, power, intelligence of black women everywhere. It’s about recognising black women’s buying power and their unique position in society and relevance as mass consumers and importance as influencers of culture. The black woman is the most disrespected person, #Blackgirlmagic combats that.
Historically, representation of black women in the media has been problematic they have typically been sexualised, demonised or shown as the help. As a little girl I couldn’t connect to these architypes. Positive, relatable black characters were few and far between. But in the past few years I have notice a demand for diverse representation of black women in tv, film, books and pop culture.and example is Black Ballad was created to ‘elevate the voices of black British women’, which is very personal for me because when I was younger as a Nigerian British girl in Yorkshire I saw no representation of girls like me. It’s so refreshing and powerful to see carefree black women being shown in the mainstream and showcasing black girl magic to the world.
Black girl magic has become the phrase to describe black women winning in life be it sport, music, fashion, science it’s all encompassing for black women worldwide and is fantastic for little black girls everywhere, in terms of representation and finding positive role models. The hashtag has become such a positive emblem of what it is to be a successful black women and future generation of black girls can now go online and see girls who look like them, talk like the come from the same place as them being celebrated and winning in life which I think is very powerful and inspiring.
#blackgirlmagic particularly excited me as an illustration graduate, the influx of black girl positivity effected my own craft and many other artists. I witnessed a stream of black girls creating and being represented in art, which I found amazing as I’d not been exposed to images like that before.
#BlackGirlmagic Is a slogan and visual tag of black girls in this digital age, it’s a rallying cry and speaks of sisterhood and community. Something which is sometimes lacking women in the black community. Women are often pitted against each other and competing instead of building each other up. #blackgirlmagic continues to do big things for the culture and I’m excited to see what’s next.
