What Cornrows on Magazine Covers Mean to Me as a Black Woman

I remember the first time I learned how to cornrow. I was seated cross-legged on the kitchen floor, as my grandmother instructed me using one of my toy dolls: separate the hair into three sections, she said, crossing over and under, over and under, until a braid starts to form. I could sense from the seriousness in her voice that she was teaching me something important and special. "I learned how to braid on grass stalks in my backyard in Georgia," she said, her face beaming with pride. The history attached to cornrows made me prouder still: it's believed that, during slavery, African slaves used cornrows as an ingenious method of communication and survival, sending the message that they wanted to escape through intricate patterns and rows.

It wasn't until I started high school, decades later, that I realized that many people looked at this beloved hairstyle and tradition passed down through generations with shame. Across the country, black students are punished for having braids, from Kentucky to Massachusetts. And the style is still stigmatized in many circles, and considered "unkempt" and "unprofessional." Consider the fact that, not too long ago, cornrows were even banned from the U.S. army. And yet the style is often co-opted by non-black people and celebrated when they wear it.

Slowly, the pervasive attitude toward cornrows is beginning to change. We're protesting organizations that ban cornrows, and in some cases, getting those policies reversed. We're challenging myths that cornrows aren't suitable for formal events by making the look a staple on the red carpet, with celebrities like Beyoncé, Tracee Ellis Ross, Yara Shahidi, and Lupita Nyong'o choosing it as a go-to protective style. And for the December 2018 issue, we're putting cornrows on the cover of Teen Vogue for the first time in the publication's history.

It thrills me to see cornrows celebrated — on black women — on the covers of fashion magazines. When I think of young black women who are taught their hairstyles are only acceptable when stripped of historical ties and no longer linked to blackness, these images become even more meaningful.

It took entirely too long for the fashion world to catch up with cornrows as a style. Unfortunately, my grandmother never lived to see the day when the tradition she so loved would be paired with a couture gown on the cover of Teen Vogue. The price of being black in America is to constantly be told that your culture isn't good enough; it isn't worthy of being celebrated in magazines or even allowed in classrooms. But these covers send a new message. First, that black people have long been the arbiters of innovative beauty and style, and we should always be credited for it. And second, that cornrows aren't inherently casual, in the same way that every black fashion designer doesn't automatically specialize in urban streetwear. In fact, take a fresh, unbiased look at cornrows — whether they're going straight back in zig-zag lines, or ascending into an elegant bun — and you'll find there are few things more regal.

Ahead, 7 magazine covers that broke ground and featured cornrows.