All right, Caroline, come through one God, President and CEO of Essence Ventures, including Essence Magazine, give them a little van of white to release our cover today. The headliner on this year's festival cover is the City of New Orleans. Yeah. I love that, Lord New Orleans. So excited about our boo New Orleans. Who This festival would not be possible without somebody pulled these for me. I think this is so cool. These are the
top eight Essence covers of all time. Okay, have you seen this list? Let's go through it. Okay, well, well we have this one, the chocolate wait men of Hollywood Box Office Chocolates. Yes, what's the only answer I have? Okay too, just yes, love that, just yes? Okay were you there for that? No? That would have been this one. Queen Wood be Goldberg. Okay, so this one I had the opportunity to spend some time. It will be this year. This was
nineteen ninety seven. By the way, that woman is omnipresent, and the depth of her talent and the spectrum of her existence is unfathomable as an egot, as a person, and I remember I met her this year at an event where we were both getting honored, and my acceptance speech was about how grateful I am to have been seen, because once people see you, you know what you're supposed to do in the world. But some people don't get
seen un till later. And I remember I said that up there, and I sat down next to her and she held my hand and she said, I see you. And did you cry ugly? Like, don't know, that's not versus tears type ugly, But she didn't have to do that. She held my hand and she said I see you. That woman and her sensibilities in her just awareness created a life moment for me. And so yes,
that's a gorgeous cover. But she's she's such a wonderful person who spends her time trying to make sure that everybody else knows how wonderful they are. That's a beautiful story. This is nineteen ninety seven Young Badu. First of all, the ad of Neo Soul. I remember I was in I was in my senior year high school and everybody was like, have you heard Eric
Abadu? I'm like, who is this? And so I remember we were sitting about stopping Minneapolis and there was a Sam Goodie right behind it, and I went in there with my high school friends and we split buying one CD of Baduism, and that moment solidified to love with neo soul. For me, that was delivered by one of the godmothers of neo soul, and the way that she showed up will never be forgot for me nor in black music
culture. You know her and a couple of others really at the advent of neo soul, and I'm grateful for who she is and I love her now even more because she will tell you what's on your mind for your good and I love her for that. I'm gonna take you to September two thousand. Yes, elect we elect weck. So So here's what's pointing about that cover,
right, She's from me Stafrica, saw am I She's great. I'm from Kenya and my transition to the US was filled with experiences where because I had an accent and other things, I spent time trying to make myself small so that I could survive. I remember seeing that cover and I didn't even know her name at the time. What I did know she was est African. What I did know she was dark like me. And what I did know is essence told me that was beauty, and it started this very different
pivot in my life around defining beauty for myself. That and Sister Alect changed my confidence. And I'm so grateful that she's been successful. But I'm also grateful that Essence told us about her, because for me, I walked a little different after that cover, and I'm sure many other women did too. Now I'm gonna take you back. I'm still back into time, little time machine. Here in nineteen eighty December nineteen eighty, Queen Diana Ross. This
is Tracy's mama. Never heard a name so hard to define. If I said to you, what is Diana Ross? What does she do? What are you going to tell me that she sings? That's not enough. No, that she acts, that's not enough. Does she changed the whiz for us? That's not enough. I have never seen a person so powerful that you cannot find enough for that. She's birth Tracy. Look look at it like it's blowing it away. And that woman is just as vibrant and potent
today as she was. Oh my god, I was at the concert when she's when Diana Ross saying happy birthday, test and her vocals are still tight like want to be a Diana Ross type to Jenarian right, and I want to get to that space because the woman is an icon, an emblem of black girlness that I admire. She's I listened to The Boss at least, yes, at least once a week. She changed In twenty twenty four. I listened to it again. I listened to the Boss to the single,
maybe not the whole album, but the single single once a week. Yes, ma'am, this is nineteen seventy. Explain this cover. What do you know about this cover? I'm trying to recall the details of it, but I mean to you that what's the year? A game? It's nineteen seventy. January nineteen says telling your child about race. This is an issue about race. So here's here's what's really important to understand. That was Essence's first decade because this is a model. Yes, that was what month was at
This was January nineteen seventy. So here's what's interesting to know. If and again, if you want more detail, you can go to the documentary. Essence didn't start out putting celebrities on the cover. So when you ask me who is that, it's a model? Right, for most of Essences first ten to fifteen years, the people that were on the cover of the magazine were people, and Essence was also in the midst of not just sharing with
black women how they are inspirations. Essence was telling the stories that people weren't telling Black women right, and so you will see in that first two decades you will see things like that about race and motherhood. You'll see a cover that had a black woman who had age. You will see a mother and her daughter. Like people forget that Essence started out as the funnel for what we should know to be our best in the world. The celebrity piece came,
but that's not where it started. That was until about twenty years in. This is what we did. And part of why that is so iconic because we're doing it again with people you don't know their name, but you look at how everything just came full circle. Come on, okay, last two, Yes, ma'am, he's gonna be good. These are I'm assuming while you're there. I mean, we'll see what the d is. We'll see, Okay, this is the day, December twenty twenty, Zendeya is
gotten. That was probably the first one that I was Therefore beginning to end right just from a timing perspective, but it also was a really important season in the way that we wanted to creatively understand where Essence was at the time. The folks that were leading that effort intentionally wanted that sort of positioning and that sort of aesthetic look to demonstrate something that Essence had sometimes been slow to do in the past, which is, get with what's happening right now,
don't be the lagger. And so that Zendaya cover was a very important loud moment on the fact that this fifty year legacy and going nowhere and we here for fifty more. There's our mascot. So she represents the future. She represented innovation, She represented the black girl that all the black girls before her fought for. She represented living in the obligatory privilege of respecting the people that
came. I often tell people you were handed off of baton by the people that came before you, you have done a discredit to the entire higher universe. If it's still in the same place when you leave, I don't care if you're scared, you're not going to hand off a world that didn't go forward with the baton you had because somebody did it for you. And I think this Zendaya moment and the way she just represents herself is an example of
all the people before her that have been in those scenes. And Zendia is so audacious and humble, but what she represents is what you do when you get the baton to make sure you hand it off further ahead. I am in love with Zendia. We gave her a Black Woman in Hollywood award like after that, there were a couple other interactions. She's hilarious too. My favorite moment was Zendia's when we did Black Women in Hollywood. This was the
hybrid virtual because of the vid covid. I remember we were watching her talk to Storm Read and it was just an organic woman and they were sitting on our mocked up you know, red carpet and covid and I remember Storm saying to Zendia, you were the first person that saw me, and she said, because of you, I didn't quit that day. Storm was in tears, but Zendea was in tears, and what she said to her was,
I never knew I had that impact on you. You had two women realizing their power in the moment and Zendaya just continues to demonstrate greatness with humility. That's beautiful right in a way that I just I want to be her like her when I when she grows up and when I grow up too. Okay, and then our final. These are top eight today essence covers. I
think this is our final. This gotta be the group shot. No, okay, this is twenty twenty one in the day, January twenty twenty one jan feb These are, by the way, these are eight, but in no orders. This is not necessarily so don't tell me. I think so that is we did niss Nash and her and her wife. We also had had a Rihanna and Lorna Simpson. Peace are either one of those those? No, I'm still wrong. There's the Rihanna Lorna Simpson. I knew it
so here, so let me tell you what's so dope about that. So, as with all all businesses, we had to do some relationship prepare with Rihanna based on something something happened before we had been playing with there. I mean, I was at the tail end of trying to help us get her back, but as a part of what had been a two year journey,
right to rebuild relationship at the point that the Essence team had committed. What was beautiful was to watch Rihanna say she wanted Lorna like we executed it, but once she decided to do it, it was important to her to select
what she wanted it to look like. And the reason I'm hYP first of all that got an award because we've also never done that conceptual of a cover, right, But when we secured Rihanna and her desire was to bring an iconic, probably undernon black female artist who does this beautiful conceptional art along with her. And then if you look at the inside of that edition and see
the additional photos they did, Simpson is a legendary artist. But Rihanna used her agency and her esthetics showcase to tell the community about a woman that does really dope things with art and Rihanna can do whatever she wants. And again, if we talk about the behaviors of the new Black woman, it's that kind of stuff. I ain't going if you ain't going, and if I
get in, you're coming with me. And I think it was such a subtle demonstration and authentic to Leanna of when black women bring other black women in the room with them what happens, and I will always honor her for that. I mean, you body this top eight, I have some new If not you, then who? You know what that's right? End on that
hashtag? If not you, then who? Yes? But it's us And so what I often tell people, and I would say this to the audience, and I would say to anybody who has an affinity for this brand over its last fifty years, you are the sixth episode, which means the next episode is going to be based on what we're all doing right now. What are you doing? Because you got five decades to compete with, what are
you doing? And if you are not doing something that is helping black women take their throne as the CEOs of home, culture and community, what I would offer is there is no neutrals on. There's a quote that I use all the time that I will use to describe my point, which is this The work to continue to help people understand how powerful the black woman is is an all in, full contact, participatory endeavor. Everybody plays a role, not the same role, with the role the best position and impact, but
the choice not to play a role plays a role. Opt out if you want to the consequences on you. CEOs of home, culture and community are taking their seat. It is your job to make sure they're successful. You are good, Carolyn, I am inspired. I'm an essence beneficiary. They taught me, we have something for you today. We do a segment. It's called in my Bag, my Bag, and it says my bag's going to be in her bags. A couple of things in here we wanted to
go through. Yeah, let's do it. And then you tell me what it brings up for you. Okay, okay, one at a time. Y'all come from my career, like, so, here's what what does this bring up for you? You know what it brings up for me. I had a daughter at the age of seventeen, and people started to renegotiate my potential without my permission, and I spent a good chunk of my adult life at least two decades in defiance, unhealthy defiance, and in isolation, just
to prove that we weren't going to be a statistic. The consequence of that is I lost Caroline. And when I started to refine Caroline, I was thirty six years old, first time in my life had lived alone, ended a relationship. Daughter was a college and I didn't know who. I didn't have a hobby, I have anything. I started working at Target as an intern in the distribution in Tyler, Texas, which ended up being the HBCU I went to to get my degree because people weren't going to keep promoting me,
and I took it. I was never going to corporate America. I did it to be a corporate drone and pay for this child to go to college. Since I was not to do it. I had a fifteen year career at Target, intern to chief Diversity, Culture and Inclusion Officer. I was reborn there. I also worked at Target. What'd you do? I was at the Target store me too? Doing this right? That was a good seasonal job during Christmas? No I was. I was, I want to say, like fresh out of high school. Like perfect job. Yeah,
yeah, that's what I was doing at Target. Okay, blue lipstick yup that Because when I started wearing like tool on a Tuesday and a day sequin to work and furry rests to the board meeting, I started this process of when I realized I wasn't gonna love my job, the more stuff I did, I just kept taking it up a notch and I think blue listick was like phase three and I was like nobody saying nothing, and you got away and you were alistic was liberating. Not everybody could wear a blue lips
a blue lip, and you know what, that is totally true. But I didn't even care. I was just trying to prove a point that I think I can work here be an executive. And I was I was thinking about putting on a blue lip for our interview today and I was stopped in my tracks by Ivy and Brittany. What is this this HBCU proud? So I told you I went to school. I was working on profit sector. They were telling me I was at a peak and I wouldn't get promoted if
I didn't have a degree. I told my I'm gonna be no smarter if I went to get a degree. Both my parents are PhDs. They wouldn't listen to me. So I was. I did all kinds of programs. It didn't work, and I needed to go to school so I could continue to earn more money. And I was in nonprofit and so I was working with the NAACP in Minneapolis and found out about a HBCU and Tyler Texas that had a single parent program, and it wasn't free, but they advanced to
take your kids the school. Your child could eat the cafeteria with you without any extra cost, you didn't have to have a roommate. All of the things that made it hard to go to school is a single parent were resolved. And it just represents what makes HBCUs different without that decision that I didn't have anything to do with but found out about. Caroline can't work at Target because I didn't have a degree, and then she doesn't become all the other
things she's supposed to be in the world. And so while this says HBC you proud, I would say HBC, you saved my life and I'm loyal for the rest of my life. If you ain't gone to HBC, you should get another degree just so you can go. Do you have this panel ready or is this a new pen? I don't, but I'm put it on like a little hat, or perform and put on a shirt. No, no, no, that would be okay. What is okay? I
don't know. We won't find out. Yeah, okay, this is this seventeen represents an agent which I stopped living because I became a mom, and it was the beginning of two decades of spending every day trying not to be noticed because being noticed brought pain, and not until I was thirty six did
that start to be resolved because it was an arrested development. And I was sitting at a conference that they forced me to go to that I want to go to, and the facilitator was talking about something, and for some odd reason, my tears got real disrespectful and started to come out, and I was like, not right now, and they didn't listen. So I stepped outside and the facilitator followed me, and I was like, I'm not gonna
talk to you about my feelings to me alone, but he didn't. And what came out of that was an exercise that has helped me progress out of a seventeen year old mindset, which is I realized at thirty six years old that everybody else saw a thirty six year old black female fortune fifty corporate C suite leader, and I saw a seventeen year old that failed. And so he gave me a really simple assignment to fix that. He said, you're
thirty six chronologically, but seventeen psychologically. Every time something good happened, and you don't have to check with anybody, get to decide you need to celebrate a psychological birthday and that exercise. I'm not quite aligned yet, but I'm almost explained to me how this goes. Saved my life, But tell me how it goes. It's supercilo. So case anybody wants to try this at home, you can try it. But I'm not certified, so it's him
to talk anyway. But here's what was happening, right. I was thirty six years old at the top of a fortune fifty one hundred billion dollar, four hundred thousand employee organization. That's something very few people get too, regardless of your life circumstance. But I was living every day at seventeen year old disappointed. So while people saw this black woman that was an historic role at the top of a corporation, I looked up and it wasn't LinkedIn at the
time, but those other versions of that. I looked up the girl I went to high school with that told me I was not as smart as her. Every day to see if I had a better job. And I'm thirty six years old at the top of Target looking up some girl to see if she has a better job than me, because psychologically, god, I'm still seventeen. But we live in these arrested developments and we don't address them. Now, I didn't know that at the time I'm giving you what happened,
so part of my living small didn't even recognize what had happened. That's why I say my defiance was unhealthy, because it was literally propelling me. But because I was so angry and defiant, I didn't even see where I was.
I was still seventeen. And so when we were in this development program, the reason I got emotional is because you know, they do those anonymous surveys with people at your job and then they let you see and I'd be like, that's Margaret, and you better say that my face next those Oh, so we're telling that today you ain't got it right, like I was
in one of those anonymous feedback employers. See the anoloments fee. This is a program like a leadership development program that you get nominated to right so high potential people in corporate America, Like they send you out to these other places that make millions of dollars trying to make you better. Short story, and
part of what comes with being nominated. Those is all the people you work with are since surveys asking questions about you, so that then when you get there, you're given the results of those surveys, what your strengths, what you're not, and then they give people the opportunity to write free comments. So I remember on that day and we were looking at one of those evaluations and it was the written comments, and every time I saw a comment,
I was like, that's Linda's as Why did I see it tomorrow? That right? Because I'm it's anonymized, but I'm like, oh, y'all got couraged, you put it together. You I'm in that mode of like, let me get I'm gonna go to her office, right, So that was the mode that I was in, and somehow psychologically it also became really emotional even though I was angry, and so that's why I said, like my trays, my tears started to betray me. And so I'm supposed to be
angry at Linda and like tear drop. I'm like, ah, we geez, what we're doing right now? This ain't the crying moment. We pissed at Linda. And so because I couldn't stop myself from crying. I got up and left the room. The facilitators there are trained to talk to you about your feelings, whether you want to or not. So the facilitator noticed that in a moment we were supposed to be doing an activity, I left
the room, and it's their job to check on. So when he came out, I was just like this, like I'm like, go back here, because we got to go because I live, you know what I'm saying. And so when he came out, we put a tough girl head on. I was like, I'm in the middle of roasting somebody right now, right, And so when I came out, he just saw me like trying to stop myself from crying. And so I literally remember I was like this, and I looked down and I was like, I'm not talking about my
feelings. I got to throw up or I was just like, go away. I know what you're about to do and I'm not interested. Right like, you're about to start to ask me why I'm crying. I don't know, ask me why right like I was rejecting it. And of course, because facilitators are disrespectful like that, he didn't leave. So he sat me down and I don't remember all the things we talked about, but I do remember the most poignant thing he pointed out to me, and I remember the
way he said it. He said, Caroline, do you know how people see you? He goes, Do you understand the zero point two five six percent of the population that will never get to where you are, regardless of who they are. White privilege doesn't matter. Do you understand you are at an assent that most people never see in their life. And I remember looking at him, and I remember saying, yeah, but I could have been further along because I could not just accept something, and so I kept fighting
him on this narrative. So, because you know, they get trained to do this psychological stuff, he said, well he sounds he sounds so annoying. His name is George Houston, and I love him, but I hate him too, you know that, he said. I cannot convince you to see something you don't see, he said, but I want to give you something you can do that may help you eventually see what we see because you don't see the fact that you are of a very few group of people.
And so he said, in my assessment, because we've been telling our stories all week, he said, I have heard you talk about a seventeen year old mom more than I've heard you talk about being a thirty six year old C suite leader to Fortune twenty five company. He goes, I know where your energy is, he said, but what I hope is that you understand
that like that seventeen year old has you captive. And he said, I understand why, But that thirty six year old is waiting for you to catch up because your attention is split and you're doing well, imagine what happens when they sync up. And so he said, your chronological agent is out of your concern. I know, I hate him right. Your chronological age is gonna keep doing what it's doing. I just don't want it to leave you behind. And so he said, we got to do something about your seventeen
year old mine. And he said, I'm not going to give you some big assignment. He says, I'm gonna give you something really simple, because he said, with you, you just don't like to celebrate nothing. You just always angry about some stuff. He said, So your assignment is very simple. Anytime you like something that has happened in your life and you get to decide what that thing is. I want you to have a psychological birthday and get one year older. He said, go buy a cupcake at the
store if you need to. I saw you should. But what happened was what ended up being soon there after was my daughter graduating from NYU with an engineering degree. It was like six months later. You celebrated, and I remember sitting there with my family. You were eighteen now, yep. But I started to hum happy but my niece was sitting on my lap, and I started to like just hum happy birthday, like it just happened, right. So I was like, h right, because I'm having this moment in
my mind. We're sitting in the middle humming happy birthday to you myself. We're sitting at the NYU graduation with Justin Trudeau, the President of Canada speaking. But I, because I was given this permission, this was the first moment, as I remember, so I start humming happy Birthday. My niece was in my lap. Ioh. She's eighty one two, but she was only five at the time, and she starts singing the lyrics. She heard me humming, and she starts to put the words to happy Birthday. So
she I didn't stop. She's thinking, you know we have our own little party together. And she looked up at me. She goes, I did know not to date with your birthday, and ever since then, iaby whatever happens. I if when something great happens, I get to turn a year older, good for you. So how old are you now? I would if I were to be Fullet well, so far the law forty six? Right, So chronologically I'm ten years older than I was when I started.
Okay, so you've had ten celebratory moments. Well, see, that's the assumption, is that I've always found something. I would tell you psychologically because I'm not going to try to make it seem like the exercise is easier than it is. Right, Just because I've had ten years when I had this moment doesn't mean I've had ten birthdays. I'm not quite SYNCD yet, right, the gap is not as big as it used to be. But I'm not going to pretend that it's sinked, right, And that's just part of
living in our truth and so beautiful exercise. I mean, I would probably tell you I'm probably about to turn forty psychologically, and I think this job at essence and having a mission tied to black fuel some of that. I think identification of my purpose and how I help people in the world has presented more opportunities to celebrate birthdays. I do not punish myself for not having them aligned yet. I just believe that eventually they will, even if it's the
day that I'll leave the earth beautiful. But I practiced the self compassion to just let it happen naturally. And sometimes there's cake, sometimes there's cognac, and both matter. But it has been one of the most poignant moments in my life. So that's what seventeen. That's a beautiful I don't know is there more in there. I don't any care y'all did more, but you can talk about Uh. I'm gonna tell you this one real quick. This was not gonna be hard. This is the poem from Sister my angew Most
people have heard this quote. I had the opportunity to interview Oprah Winfree last year at the festival in a series I do call Chief to Chief, and I was in the middle of a meltdown day. I have a theory around five fails a day, and until you get to six, it's not a bad day, right, which helps me live with failure, and this was a seventy two failed day, and it was like eleven am. I was
in tears. Twenty five things had gone wrong. We got a whole festival, and the Vice presis over there, Oprah over there, Copor was over here, and I'm over here, like I can't get my makeup artists back here. It was just a tough day. And I went to go say hello to Oprah and her and her proper too, because you know, about ten minutes to be going out to do the Chief to Chief where we just interview people black women and help other black women see the chief in themselves.
And so I went over and you know, she does quiet time before she goes out, so do I. So it's like a little bit earlier than normal. So I walked into her space and she goes. So she greeted me, and she goes, you sound like Maya, ma who right? Like I'm because this is Oprah, I'm thinking maybe Maya is like her assistant or something. She goes, I miss my sister Mentor, And the resonance
of your voice reminds me of Maya. Overwhelmed tears, yep. But then we come out for Chief to Chief and she says it again to make her point. And so when I tell you all about my risk of development, it usually does not receive the compliment the first time. It's a little stubborn, but the fact that she intuitively understand she needed to repeat it told me what I need to set is my north star for the way that I want to live in the world. I will never be Maya, but I'm gonna
be Caroline. And Oprah wasn't gonna let me let that go. So that's what that means, was that a birthday wasn't. It wasn't. It could be later on, but it has to be. This is where your birth populist happens. Your birthday stat you like, it takes a lot for you to have a birthday like. Your measure of success a happy moment is really high. That's a very observation because it's true. Right. Remember I told you the guy said, you just don't like nothing, right, So that's
why he gave me a really simple exercise. But for it to work to me, I had to have deliberation to decide. You know, I'm like a baby you Brittany over there, who works me no the same way,
because I'm you couldn't. And I know why you're like this, because you see something over there and you're desperately trying to lift something up, and so all the we don't have time for the or the you're so frustrated on what's stopping you from getting that that you don't Five great things happened on the way there, but you are they're like you have blinders on to you're going over there. I'll tell you what made it as but then you're staying seventeen years
old. It's not good. But then so I'm going to tell you what has made it a little bit easier for me, Meaning I don't accept it all the time, I might do it every fourth time when I found out my purpose in the world and realize that it's a purpose I delivered that nobody else can deliver, and so if I don't, the world goes without.
And then functioned in the admitigated gall of believing the future that other people may not yet be able to see, and then understood how the voice of descent simply tells me where my armor is weak, so I can have the right protection in place when they shoot. Is what has made it a little bit easier for me. To find places to celebrate because now the magnetic pull is
my purpose. That's what thought represents, is that the final thing you should pay for in our bad I well, just you today, but in life everybody gets a bad well played. Look forward to seeing folks at the festival. You are fully inspiring. Thank you, Thank you for that. Thank you, and thanks for giving the safe space for us to be who we are, because I think it matters to those that came before us. It wasn't always safe to give this information because you needed to protect it, because
it was different times. They earned us the ability to do this, and my hope is that the next generation doesn't even ever know there was a time when you couldn't. And thank you for being great journey with me. I appreciate you on time. I accept that compl I accept them amaturement, of course,