Well, it’s that time of year – as another January swiftly approaches, we’re all taking stock of the past 12 months. And let’s face it, a lot has happened in 2023. Allow us to take you back through some cultural highlights: we officially crowned a new King; Beyoncé blessed us with her iconic Renaissance tour; Barbie reigned our cinemas. Not to mention countless explosive celebrity autobiographies – and we learned the term ‘nepo baby’.
Here at GLAMOUR, it’s been a pretty massive year, too. Over the past 12 months, our team has been busy bringing you some of the most exciting, empowering issues in our history, from our third annual ‘Self-Love’ issue in January, to our ‘Trans, Pregnant, and Proud’ Pride issue in June.
Here's everything that went down…
We’ve also been busy with a number of new projects this year. In February, we took London Fashion Week by storm and brought you the very latest looks from the runways. In November, we brought you feminist inspiration at our Empowerment Summit. And, not to brag, but as of December, we’ve hit over 8 million likes on TikTok.
In a word, we could not be prouder. So, as 2023 wraps up, we’ve decided to take an indulgent trip down memory lane to celebrate all of the amazing work that’s been going at GLAMOUR this year. Without further ado, we bring you our GLAMOUR Wrapped 2023…
1. The Self-Love issue
We started the year off with one of our most empowering issues yet. The third annual self-love issue celebrated three female innovators who have all taken inspiring leaps in their respective creative industries: Ellie Darby-Prangnell, a 22-year-old Disability advocate and the founder of the Look Deeper magazine for creatives, Shelby Lynch, an innovative fashion and beauty influencer with Spinal Muscular Atrophy Type 2, and Caprice-Kwai Ambersley, a disabled model who founded her own jewellery brand. What a moment.
2. Paris Hilton cover
Few GLAMOUR covers have been more iconic than this one. In February, Paris Hilton graced our cover, and in an interview with entertainment director Emily Maddick, she opened up about her troubled past, her surprising turn to political activism and her “airhead” persona. In other words, Paris got very real with us – and it was seriously inspiring.
3. By Women
Here at GLAMOUR, we are all about women supporting other women. So, in honour of International Women's Day, we brought you the ultimate guide to shopping at women-led brands with our By Women list, featuring 100 of the best fashion, beauty, wellness and homeware brands founded by some seriously empowering women. Consider this your feminist shopping bible — we certainly do.
4. Rita Ora cover
We have had so many remarkable cover stars this year — one of our favourites was singer and all-round powerhouse Rita Ora. Rita got very honest with us in May, revealing that her entire career has been a struggle against misogynistic pushback. As she told us, "How do I think women are treated differently? Have you got all day? I’ve had it my whole career: having people judge what I wear, saying, ‘Is she too naked?’ Or, ‘Can she say things like that?’ I find it extremely misogynistic.” We could not have put it better ourselves.
5. ‘Trans, pregnant, and proud’: We spoke to Logan Brown for our Pride issue
We love being able to showcase stories from people from all walks of life — people who might not always get the platform they deserve. In June, we featured Logan Brown as our cover star. As a pregnant trans man (now a father), Logan has been at the receiving end of a lot of hateful transphobia. We could not have been happier to shine the spotlight on him and his lovely family.
GLAMOUR’s Pride coverstar talks queer love, dealing with transphobia and his journey to parenthood.
6. Women’s World Cup series
This year, we saw women's football continue to get the platform it deserves. The Lionesses were on fire and we loved every minute of it. With the help of VERSUS, we made it our mission to cover all of the action here at GLAMOUR, because let's face it, it's high time we all embraced women's football with the same excitement we give to the mens' teams. Our coverage included an in-depth look at the future of the game, an investigation into how the fashion world has (slowly) embraced women's football and a fascinating look at the role of beauty in football.
7. Chloe Kelly cover
Listen, we really, really love the Lionesses. In the run-up to our World Cup coverage, we featured football star Chloe Kelly on our cover alongside an interview filled with must-read insights into the women's game — or, as Chloe oh so wisely put it, “Women’s football? No, it’s just football.”
8. Consent survey
Consent remains a massive issue in the UK — in fact, a lot of young people still don't fully understand what it means. In turn, misconceptions around consent play a huge role in the devastating sexual assault statistics in our country: according to the ONS, an estimated 3.3% of women (798,000) and 1.2% of men (275,000) aged 16 years and over experienced sexual assault in 2022.
We are immensely proud of our Consent Survey — in June we collaborated with Rape Crisis and Refuge to find out more about the UK's consent problem. As Jayne Butler, CEO of Rape Crisis England & Wales, said, "Although rape and other forms of sexual violence and abuse are widespread and normalised in our society (a situation that we call ‘rape culture’), we don’t believe that they are inevitable. And we are optimistic that real and meaningful change is possible. A key part of making that change happen is to increase awareness of the issues surrounding sexual violence and abuse, including the causes and impacts, as well as how sexual consent really works.”
9. Power List
We pride ourselves on being a leading voice in the beauty space and a big part of that is our annual Beauty Power List. This September, we brought you all of the winners chosen by beauty editors and the general public in all areas of beauty. The Power List is your go-to source for the latest insights into which products and brands are set to reign supreme in the beauty space in the year to come — so what are you waiting for? If you haven't checked out this year's Power List, run don't walk.
10. Kimberly McIntosh was our BHM guest editor
In October, writer Kimberly McIntosh joined us as our Black History Month guest editor. Throughout BHM, we brought you countless stories about Black excellence in the UK — from Black-owned brands to remarkable book by Black authors — as well as must-read essays that shone a light on the Black experience. Ateh Jewel wrote about why BHM isn't just for October, our own Shei Mamona wrote about her experience with discrimination as a result of having an afro, and McIntosh shared an extract from her book black girl, no magic: essays and reflections on living whilst black.
11. GLAMOUR's Women of the Year Awards
GLAMOUR's annual Woman of the Year Awards celebrating the women who wow and inspire us, is honestly a highlight of the social calendar — everyone who is anyone is there, and this year, it was no different. We welcomed Lily Allen, Halle Bailey, Georgia Harrison, Hannah Waddingham, Ariana DeBose, America Ferrera and The Lionesses to celebrate with us — and it was certainly a night to remember. Awards went to America Ferrera, Millie Bobby Brown, Leigh-Anne Pinnock and more.
As fun and glamorous as the evening was, it's ultimately all about empowering women. As GLAMOUR's European Editorial Director Deborah Joseph put it on the night, “Why do we have a GLAMOUR Women of the Year ceremony? Well, simply put, the fight’s not over, there’s more work to do.”
12. The Empowerment Summit
One of our proudest moments of 2023 was launching the annual GLAMOUR Empowerment Summit. The first-ever summit took place on November 25th at Somerset House in London and featured speakers like Munroe Bergdorf, Laura Whitmore, Fearne Cotton, Florence Given, and Fats Timbo, who covered all kinds of issues releveant to women in the UK today, from body positivity to finances.
13. We took fashion week by storm
As always, we made it our mission to bring you all of the highlights from London Fashion Week in February. Later in the year, we were especially proud to share Felicity Hayward’s report on plus-size models walking on the runways around the world. In an industry that still presents women with outdated beauty standards and rarely gives plus-size models a chance to shine, Hayward's work is a crucial step in our fight to shine a light on discrimination within the industry.
Did designers really represent size diversity?
14. Award-winning journalism
GLAMOUR is home to award-winning journalists. This year, a number of members of our team were celebrated for their work. Dennis Lye took home two awards at the BSME Awards for Art Director of the Year and Cover of the Year. The GLAMOUR shopping team also won the BSME Award for Best Affiliate Team. Plus, both Chrissie Moncrieffe, our Creative Producer, and Lucy Morgan, our Deputy Website Editor, took home awards at the PPA Next Gen Awards. (Insert multiple clapping-hands emojis.)
15. Our most clicked-on features of the year
During 2023, you couldn't get enough of GLAMOUR's hair trends – whether it was the 'curve cut', the choppy fringe that even J-Lo got on board with or the face-flattering ‘shixie’. We didn't just predict that lipgloss nails were going to be everywhere – they actually were, as you made it your favourite nail look. TikTok's ‘vanilla girl’ aesthetic, with its luxe, minimalist mood, became the trend that shaped beauty this year alongside AI's contour cut and every conceivable iteration of the bob.
16. The Glamour Gift Shop opened for business
Shopping isn't always easy — especially when it comes to shopping for presents. That's why we decided to compile all of our favourite gift ideas for 2023 into the brand new Glamour Gift Shop. It's your go-to source of inspiration for gifts for everyone in your life — so, what are you waiting for, check it out now!
17. TikTok growth
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We launched our TikTok profile back in 2022 — and since then, we have been absolutely killing it over there (not to toot our own horn or anything). In just over a year, we've skyrocketed to over 200 thousand followers and have been viewed over 9 million times. You've all been loving us on TikTok, and we've been loving the new platform. So, here's to sharing many more viral moments together in 2024!
For more from Glamour UK's Lucy Morgan, follow her on Instagram @lucyalexxandra.
