Poet Amanda Gorman has entered a three-year integrated partnership with beauty company Estée Lauder. Gorman, who is the youngest inaugural poet in US history, has been named the company’s first Global Changemaker and will appear in her first Estée Lauder campaign in spring of 2022. As a part of Gorman’s partnership with the beauty brand, the Estée Lauder companies will contribute over $3 million over the next three years to support Writing Change, an initiative to advance literacy as a pathway to equality.
Gorman became the youngest poet to recite her work during the presidential inauguration when Joe Biden took the oath as the 46th president of the United States on Jan. 20, 2021. The 23-year-old Gorman, who was 22 at the time, recited a poem titled “The Hill We Climb,” which talked about the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol during Trump’s final days in office.
“Amanda embodies a new generation and demonstrates the importance and influence of voice. As a company, we are committed to nurturing the leaders and talent of the future, empowering them to use their voices — and to use them loudly,” Estée Lauder’s chief executive Fabrizio Freda told Women’s Wear Daily.
Gorman also spoke with the New York Times about becoming a brand ambassador for Estée Lauder and made it clear that she was staying true to her purpose to drive positive social change.
“I’m never just lending my body or my face. They are getting my spirit, my breath, my brain. Rather than letting the world tell me what I should be doing” — or not doing —I realized this is my moment to tell the world what it needs to get done,” Gorman told the NY Times.
Only five Black women have ever been global ambassadors for Estée Lauder.
“I think about what it would mean to me at five years old to see a dark-skinned woman with a speech impediment as a spokesperson for a beauty brand. Not just in terms of what is expected but in terms of what is possible,” she told the newspaper.
Penguin Random House will also release Gorman’s upcoming collection of poetry titled Call Us What We Carry on Dec. 7.
