The numbers haven’t changed in 10 years.
via @eveewing
I originally wrote this post on interracial weddings and the lack of diversity in wedding media and advertising in March 2010. I am reposting it today unedited, because over the last 10 years, the numbers have not changed.
At the time of that post, Instagram didn’t yet exist. In the years since it launched, publications have been able to feature even more weddings and have amassed hundreds of thousands of followers each (and a few over a million). Yet the number of diverse weddings still never improved from when they had fewer platforms and were posting fewer weddings.
These conversations about the lack of representation in the wedding industry have been happening. People “listen” and give lip service, maybe have a token photoshoot, and then nothing improves over the long term.
This cannot continue. The industry must do better.
On Diversity in Wedding Publications, originally posted March 12, 2010:
1 in 5 millennial marriages, the majority wedding consumer today, are interracial. Yet wedding publications do not reflect the reality of current weddings, even with the real weddings they choose to publish.
Since 1 in 5 millennial marriages have at least one non-white partner, then in a perfectly balanced world 1 in 5 real wedding blog posts and magazine features would show someone other than a white couple.
I understand that finding a perfect balance is difficult and unlikely to happen. However, as an industry, wedding publications can – and MUST – do better.
The average number of posts with a non-white couple being featured on wedding blogs right now is 1 in 150. Only 1 in 150 real weddings being published online has a couple that is not white.
Some outlets are above average and feature more diversity, but even most of the best ones have numbers that hover around 1 in 50. 20% of today's weddings are interracial, yet only 2% of real weddings published on non POC-owned wedding sites are of a non-white couple.
This is not diversity. This is pathetic.
The push back from editors that I and others who have spoken up about this commonly hear is that diverse weddings aren't being submitted. This may be true, but it is not a valid excuse.
These weddings may not be getting submitted, but at that point, it is in the editors' hands.
Media publishers and editors are called publishers and editors for a reason. They get to curate and choose what gets published – that is their job description.
Just publishing what comes in, if it's not reflective of what a publication wants their brand to be about, is the easy way out. It may still be a lot of work, but it is the easy way out.
When wedding blogs started they didn't get submissions, –they had to go out and find the content. If diverse weddings of the quality and caliber an editor wants aren't getting submitted, then it is time to once again go out and find that content.
Beautiful weddings are held every weekend by non-Caucasian couples. Just because they are not coming across an editor's inbox doesn't mean they aren't happening. There are 40,000 weddings each weekend in the United States alone, so there is a ton of amazing work that never gets exposure.
This isn't an easy issue, but it is a necessary one. The publications that figure out how to showcase beautiful weddings with couples of differing skin tones and cultural backgrounds on a consistent basis and in a more realistic ratio will be the ones who raise the bar for the rest of the wedding industry.
A publication pretending to be diverse when they are not is a smokescreen that everyone can see right through.
Written by
LIENE STEVENS
Liene Stevens, the founder and CEO of Think Splendid, is an author, speaker, and award-winning business strategist. Armed with $2000, a healthy work ethic, and an undeserved dose of privilege, Liene bootstrapped Think Splendid from a scribble in a notebook to a successful wedding business consulting firm with a client list spanning 94 countries.
