EDITOR’S LETTER

IT WOULD BE EASY to categorise Margot Robbie as just another big-screen beauty. You know the type: blonde hair, blue eyes, great smile. Only there is no such type. With grit and style, Robbie is leading the charge of female actors smashing fixed ideas of what it is to be a woman in Hollywood. More than just the ability to pick and choose from the roles that come her way, the Australian star is helping change the narrative via her production company, Luckychap Entertainment. “When I was given scripts, I often found the male characters more interesting than the women. I wanted to change that,” she says.

Robbie isn’t alone in challenging the status quo this month. At one end of the spectrum, teenage actress and activist Yara Shahidi is annihilating everything you think you know about generation Z, taking on causes from gun reform to immigration with intelligence and purpose (p58). At the other end, a rollcall of women are hitting career highs later in life (see “The Third Act” on p76), refusing to be brushed aside and proving that for many of us, the best is up ahead. In the ELLE Manual (p45), market editor Sam Wong decodes the genderless fashion that’s dominating runways and stores this season, echoed by stylist Sara Smith’s shoot, “Where The Boys Go” (p94), which mixes men’s and womenswear freely in a rewriting of the rules around conformity. As a long-term androgynous dresser, I want almost every piece!

Defying constraints is something that former Olympic swimmer Casey Legler understands well. As the first woman signed to the men’s roster at Ford Models, she tells ELLE (p65) of the opportunity she saw to bring queer language to a mainstream audience, placing the emphasis not only on gender but on celebrating what makes each of us unique. “Difference means so many things: race, culture, ability, size, religion, class – all usually omitted in conversations about fashion,” says Legler.

We all use stereotypes. But, while it’s tempting to put people into boxes, it’s important to remind ourselves and those around us that we are all individuals. Oversimplification and bias, whether conscious or unconscious, can be our undoing. And let’s face it – there are far more agreeable ways to come undone.

“We ALL use STEREOTYPES. BUT it’s IMPORTANT to REMIND ourselves that WE are ALL INDIVIDUALS”