Covet Fashion should include more models of color in their style challenges photos.

I love Covet Fashion and have played for many years. Covet Fashion celebrates beauty, fashion, and expressivity by having stunning models pose for style challenges and allowing its players to run wild with creativity. Yet, there is a disproportionate amount of models of color in their style challenge photos.

I acknowledge that in recent years Covet Fashion has made efforts for more inclusivity to shed light on other cultures and celebrations. In fact, after quitting for sometime, I actually returned to playing on the app because of this inclusiveness such as hijabs and style challenges celebrating all cultures.

Yet, just because the options for different skin tones exist doesn't mean that they're treated equally. Traditionally in voting, not many players use darker skin tones since they don’t do as well unless in specific challenges targeted towards specific events (i.e. black history month). My hope is to ensure that voting should not be affected by skin colour, which ultimately contributes to removing that bias from mindsets as well. The only way to change that is by including more models of color into style challenge photos of every type of event which have been traditionally been portrayed as one specific race (i.e. fantasy, goddess, etc.) rather than only in simple $100 everyday look challenges. Players tend to style looks that reflect the model in the photo. Therefore, increasing the diversity of female models can make great strides in the effort for change.

I support autonomy in the game and that there shouldn’t be a locked skin or makeup. Fashion is for everyone and that should reflected in a spectrum in the ‘Top Look’ section.

I also acknowledge the ‘Modern’ game mode which celebrates all body types yet most people play in Classic mode. I feel that this should be in general integrated into our lives. Separating Modern mode from Classic protects the bubble and keeps it separate so it just doesn’t reach enough people. I find that even in modern lighter skin tones are more frequent, and the model is dark only if the model on the picture is dark, which is why having models of varied colours and ethnicities on the photos could make a big difference.

The modeling industry doesn’t do justice for women of color as there is a disproportionate favoring for one race. Though, Covet Fashion has made strides to increase inclusivity and celebrate others on the app, it shouldn’t just be when there is a cultural event for a group (like Eid, Chinese New Year, Black History Month). I believe that greater change can be made!

I was absolutely ecstatic and was quite tearful when I saw women being celebrated that looked like me on the app! I had never seen that before at the time and it made me feel less like an outsider. Covet Fashion has that power, believe it or not, despite being a game to make people feel this way. Covet Fashion has the power to contribute in changing the ‘us and them’ mentality by supporting all models of color.

We shouldn’t just celebrate people different from ourselves when it is culturally and socially significant. We can’t stop there! In light of recent events I think that it is more important than ever to stand together and celebrate everyone, everyday (or every style challenge).