lean in + let it go
TARA MOORE | GETTY IMAGES
Originally posted in 2014.
While Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has been busy "banning bossy" these last few weeks, her non-profit organization LeanIn.org has been involved in another high-profile project in regard to changing the image of women -- quite literally.
In February, Getty Images released a “library of images" jointly curated by Pam Grossman, Getty's director of visual trends, and the non-profit founded by Sandberg. The LeanIn Collection* is composed of more than 2,500 images of women, and girls, in contemporary depictions of work and life; offered in contrast to the standard fare of stock house photo imagery. The images include a diverse group of women including powerful female athletes, young girls, women in tech, working women and updated images and representations of "Mom."
“This is such a big passion project for all of us, and cheesy as it sounds, by showing people powerful images of women, we thought maybe we could actually change the world.”
The project's initiation began with Grossman when she commissioned a study to track the changes in the representation of girls and women in the media, she shared the study with Sandberg and the Lean In team last fall at Facebook Headquarters in Palo Alto, Calif. Grossman points out that with women as the primary users of social media, "it was time for a different kind of representation in media and advertising."
The powerful combination of Sandberg's best-selling book Lean In, LeanIn.org's heavy-hitting celebrity endorsements, and Getty Images' 2.4 million clients have aligned during a pivotal period as Millennial and GenX women reshape the image of the working mother and Boomer women begin to redefine aging. Is it any wonder that the song Let It Go, from the Disney movie Frozen, has become the new anthem for girl power with over 150 million hits on YouTube? With the medium as the message, it seems clear it's time to lean in and let it go.
Here are a two other interesting approaches to redefining beauty with photographic images:
Dove Real Beauty Campaign Turns 10: How a Brand Tried to Change the Conversation about Female Beauty
Fantasy Hollywood: Restaging Classic Films with Black Models