Editor's Note: This review was originally published in Seattle Book Review.
Danielle Prescod shares a heartfelt and heart-wrenching memoir of growing up as the Token Black Girl in the predominantly White environs of an all-girls high school and the fashion and beauty industry. Prescod worked for Teen Vogue, Elle, and InStyle, learning the ins and outs of the fashion publishing trade while also contending with the double-edged sword of racism and misogyny. Conforming with the White, Eurocentric aesthetic, Prescod writes candidly about trying to blend with White cliques and developing eating disorders. Growing up and attending school in predominantly White environments, Prescod shares her reflections as the only Black female, lamenting the damning experience of isolation and invisibility.
Token Black Girl is a courageous memoir that centers on truth-telling about how Black women navigate White spaces. Prescod writes from the perspective of the generation that grew up with Hillary Duff, Vanessa Carlton, Amanda Bynes, and Raven Symone as television and film icons. She offers a close-up view of what beauty creatives have to go through in the age of social media. Even while there is more awareness about the damaging effects of racist beauty standards, we still have ways to go as a society to minimize the harms of ethnocentric ideals on young women of color, especially Black women.
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| Author Danielle Prescod |
Danielle Prescod shares a heartfelt and heart-wrenching memoir of growing up as the Token Black Girl in the predominantly White environs of an all-girls high school and the fashion and beauty industry. Prescod worked for Teen Vogue, Elle, and InStyle, learning the ins and outs of the fashion publishing trade while also contending with the double-edged sword of racism and misogyny. Conforming with the White, Eurocentric aesthetic, Prescod writes candidly about trying to blend with White cliques and developing eating disorders. Growing up and attending school in predominantly White environments, Prescod shares her reflections as the only Black female, lamenting the damning experience of isolation and invisibility.
Token Black Girl is a courageous memoir that centers on truth-telling about how Black women navigate White spaces. Prescod writes from the perspective of the generation that grew up with Hillary Duff, Vanessa Carlton, Amanda Bynes, and Raven Symone as television and film icons. She offers a close-up view of what beauty creatives have to go through in the age of social media. Even while there is more awareness about the damaging effects of racist beauty standards, we still have ways to go as a society to minimize the harms of ethnocentric ideals on young women of color, especially Black women.
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