EDITOR’S LETTER
These are the things a magazine usually tells you to do at the beginning of a new year: diet, exercise more, make resolutions, get a new job, spend less money, start a journal, be a better friend/ wife/mother. You will not find any of these in this issue of Red. Why? Because even thinking about those diktats makes me tense. And because I am fed up with us feeling like we are somehow still not good enough. We used to have a mission statement here at
Red, which was, ‘Be a better you’. But this year, I want it to be, ‘Just be you’. We already lead full-on lives, spinning so many plates and having too much on our to-do lists. So, wouldn’t it be nice if, in 2019, we slowed down, cut ourselves some slack and perhaps even made peace with ourselves, too?
In that spirit, this issue is dedicated to breaking the ‘rules’. It all starts with our glorious, fearless cover star Jameela Jamil – the first woman on the cover of the magazine to insist on not being airbrushed, and the founder of @i_weigh, an Instagram movement that encourages people to recognise their value in more than just their appearance. Then, on page 36, Arielle Tchiprout interviews businesswomen who found career success in their 40s and beyond (proof that you don’t have to panic about finding a new job tomorrow). In beauty, Nicola Moulton shines a light on the #skinpositivity trend (page 102), which redefines our attitudes to wrinkles, acne and sun damage.
And then there’s our Self section, expertly edited and written by Julie Powell and Brigid Moss. Here, you can find out how to exercise less, but make it matter more (page 166), be happier around food (page 160) and be kinder to yourself with Kristin Neff’s compassion therapy on page 156. Another way to be kinder to yourself? Book a getaway with Red Escapes, from page 108.
It was a few months ago, in our October issue, that we published a piece by the brilliant New York magazine agony aunt Heather Havrilesky. I read the entire thing with tears in my eyes, and it sowed the seed for this month’s theme. In it, she wrote, ‘It’s hard to be happy until you realise, in your heart, that you are enough right now, exactly the way you are. It’s not hard to be happy once you do.’
Wishing you every happiness for 2019.