Hannah Magazine Celebrates and Gives Voice to Black Women

*Qimmah Saafir is here to honor the beauty of black women – and save us from the daily indoctrination that European is the standard of life – with her new bi-annual publication called HANNAH. As The Huff Post notes, the magazine intends to celebrate black womanhood in everything from beauty and fashion to politics and technology.

“[HANNAH]’s not about trying to be the end all for all black women,” said founder Qimmah Saafir. “It’s about helping to bring in more voices, and more perspectives, and more representations of us, and celebrating our diversity in how different and beautiful we all are in that diversity. That’s what Hannah is.”

Black publications still exist today, but have dwindled down due to financial hardships, or buyouts from non-black own media giants who inevitably shift the beauty focus to white/light-is-right, and richly melanated women are cast aside once again, and usually told to “get over it” when they ask why their image is not also represented in the fashion magazines that occupy the newsstands.

Saafir recently spoke about the representation (and lack there of) of women of color in fashion, and why HANNAH is essential.

“I’ve known it was needed since I was a teen,” she told Cool Hunting. “I witnessed the decrease in media that was geared toward me. There were only a few growing up and that number decreased even more as I got older. After working within that world as an adult, I grew tired of hearing reasons why black women weren’t covered. The reasoning was always shallow and untenable.”

Saafir launched a Kickstarter to help raise funds for the magazine, which she said will give a voice back to black women. In addition to digital and print formats, HANNAH will also host events and philanthropic endeavors.

“I actually say that the purpose is to add to the voices that already exist. HANNAH isn’t meant to speak for all black women. It is meant to give us another option and, hopefully, inspire the creation of many more. I look forward to bringing some fresh artists, voices to HANNAH’s pages,” said Qimmah.