14 InSTYLE FEBRUARY 2019
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @instyle and follow me @laurabrown
FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM @instylemagazine and follow me @laurabrownWelcome to InStyle’s second Badass Women issue. After
we launched our first edition (starring Serena Williams) to
great success last August, I kind of got greedy. There are
too many incredible women out there for one annual special
alone, so here we are (well, technically, here we are above,
cover star Melissa McCarthy and I “doing prom” while
gracefully modeling “Badass” T-shirts designed by Rodarte’s
Kate and Laura Mulleavy).
Melissa is a woman who cares deeply: about her family, about
her work, about seeing things in people that others ignore.
Much of her power as an entertainer comes from her empathy,
and I would argue that empathy is one of the greatest human
qualities. Look at the divisions in this country now. In my opinion
they come down to either possessing or lacking empathy.Empathy is present in many of the women we celebrate in this
issue. Lisa Borders, the first president and CEO of Time’s Up,
presides over a $22 million legal fund that supports 3,
requests for assistance. With her Institute on Gender in Media,
actress and academic Geena Davis actively monitors the
representation of women in film and on TV. Presidential historian
Doris Kearns Goodwin mines our political past for lessons to heed
in the future. Actress and director Natasha Lyonne survived a
notorious youth to become one of Hollywood’s most creative
and idiosyncratic voices. And choreographer Sherrie Silver is
responsible for the moves in Childish Gambino’s “This Is America”
video, a visceral comment on race in the United States. More than
that, Silver celebrates the joy of movement, of feeling alive.
But back to my interview with Melissa. We talked at length
about the simple gift of pleasing a crowd, something that has been
so underestimated of late. In the end we both agree that a lighter
hand can be as powerful as a shaking fist.
Enjoy the issue.Hello!
Just two
ladies posing
with a plant