Glamour USA - September 2016

Talk / The Conversation
“There isn’t one
way to look beautiful,”
says Cara.
Alessia Cara
Hates Hate
Alessia Cara first came
on our radar with her
track “Here,” the story of
a sober wallflower at
a raging party. Now 20,
she isn’t just a pop star—
she’s a pop activist: Cara
has pledged to always go
makeup- free when she
performs “Scars to Your
Beautiful,” her anthem
for anyone who’s felt
uncomfortable in their
skin. The video features
powerful cameos from,
among others, cancer
survivors and transgender
people challenging
beauty standards. Cara,
on tour now, offers
advice for charting your
own course:
?
226 glamour.com
Dive into what makes
you uncomfortable.
“I started posting You-
Tube videos when I was
13, solely for the purpose
of getting over my
fear of singing in front
of people. My cover of
The Neighbourhood’s
‘Sweater Weather’ took
off—it’s what got me
discovered.”
Use your voice.
“Growing up, I saw one
of my gay friends get
bullied constantly. I
thought, Why is his sexuality
so important to
people? No one talks
about straight people’s
sexuality. Even today
there’s a hidden hatred,
and I don’t like it, so
I want to shed light on
LGBTQ issues.”
Rethink beautiful.
“We all look at ourselves
in the mirror and think,
I hate this, I wish that
were different—from
something minor like,
‘I have a pimple today,’
to something major
like, ‘I don’t want to live
anymore because I
don’t think I’m good
enough.’ In ‘Scars,’
I wanted to tell people,
‘There isn’t one way
to look beautiful—you
are beautiful, and
it’s the world that needs
to change.’ ”
—Brooke Hauser
The Women
History Forgot—
Until Now
When you think of NASA, you
probably envision white guys in
spacesuits. But decades ago, when
separate drinking fountains were
still the norm, at least 80 black
women worked at NASA, scratching
out the equations that gave rise
to the space race. In her new book,
Hidden Figures, Margot Lee Shetterly
tells these heroines’ stories.
GLAMOUR: Many of these women
were teachers, laundresses, moms,
before answering NASA ads
and receiving on-the-job training.
What drew them to NASA?
MARGOT LEE SHETTERLY: This
opportunity was going to transform
their families’ lives. They
had to prove that this job could be
successfully executed by someone
who looks like them, like me.
GLAMOUR: Katherine Johnson
played a huge role in John Glenn’s
historic orbit around earth. How
did she get the task of checking the
math that kept him alive?
MLS: IBM computers were these
wacky new things, so Katherine
raised her hand to check the computer
output herself. I asked if she
was nervous, and she said, “Very.
But I knew my numbers were right.”
GLAMOUR: How do stories like
that get lost?
MLS: They weren’t lost; we didn’t
think they were important. But if
you see that not all scientists look
like Einstein, you have an image of
what’s possible. —Megan Angelo
Before man walked on the moon,
below, John Glenn orbited the
earth on the strength of Katherine
Johnson’s calculations.
The Big Question: SHOULD POLITICIANS BE FINED FOR LYING? YES: 84% NO: 16% VERDICT: PAY UP!
Source: Glamour on Facebook
CARA: BEN RAYNER. MOON LANDING: UNIVERSAL HISTORY ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES