Belle Noir: For Big Beautiful Women of Color

In my time of blogging for plus sizes I have had the opportunity to work with some fantastic ladies. One of those women is my good friend Aja Stubbs the founder and editor of Belle Noir, a ezine dedicated to “to promote the positive image of Big Beautiful Women of Color by featuring content (i.e. articles, poetry, photos, etc.) of an informative, entertaining, and inspiring nature, created specifically with the Big Beautiful Woman of Color in mind.”

Back in 2003 when Mode magazine folded there print version and went online Aja decided that she wanted to do a ezine of her own and eventually take it to print. She asked me to help out by writing for a segment called Ask the Admirer in which as a man who has a preference for a woman of size I answer questions that are submitted by readers.

It has been my pleasure and an honor to write for such a great ezine. Not only because of the great things that Aja is doing but because there is a need for ezines and magazines like this for plus size men and women. This months theme is ReInvent You. In addition to my part DeluxeGrrl Isabella Murphy offers a great article on taking care of your skin. Other things included in this months issue are articles about food, motivation, self esteem, and the beautiful you.

I have said before and will say again that ezines like Belle Noir are needed becuase there would be:

1. A Built in audience - Since magazines dedicated to plus size men and women are rare as soon as something like this hits the newsstands it would have a built in audience looking to read things about themselves. There would be no need to try and piece information from the other magazines together and try to apply it to being larger.
2. Reader Loyalty - A magazine of this type would not only attract readers but would retain them because the information would be specifically for them.
3. Reader participation - With the success of the Mo’Nique’s Readers choice awards and other similar events there would be a lot of participation from readers in areas that would allow them to strut there stuff.

If you haven’t had the chance to check out Belle Noir yet stop by and check things out. There is also a MySpace presence for it as well. Check Belle Noir out and tell Aja that Glen sent you.

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