Mona Chalabi
Mona Chalabi is a New York-based data journalist who is most well-known for her eye-catching charts. Apart from being a multi-talented media wizard who’s resumé already consists of FiveThirtyEight, the Bank of England, the Economist Intelligence Unit, the International Organization for Migration, the Guardian, and multiple podcasts, Chalabi also identifies as a multidisciplinary artist. Her Instagram page mostly consists of colorful, quirky digital drawings each based on hard data. Her ideology is that hard data is often “decontextualized” and “dehumanized” in the media, and she seeks to represent statistics through a more human-friendly narrative. She also is keen on addressing the biases we approach numbers with. “I think everyone approaches a dataset with their own lived experience,” she said in an interview with Artnet. Personally, her charts were influential to my understanding of COVID-19 data. In a sea of misinformation on the virus, Chalabi used easy to understand (and beautiful) graphics to represent data from reliable sources on mask-wearing, antibody testing, hospital beds, and social distancing. Chalabi embodies the ideology that the news does not need to be dry and boring, despite the life-or-death stakes of the data she seeks to present. If all news were aesthetically pleasing, maybe people would tune-in more.
Humans of New York
I’ve been a loyal follower of @humansofny since 2014. What started as a photography project to capture the faces of 10,000 New Yorkers has now evolved into one of the most thorough journalism feats I’ve ever seen – an account that posts mini feature stories on different individuals from different socioeconomic and racial backgrounds. What I find so interesting about Humans of New York is that it does not only feature the stories of those who are traditionally “newsworthy and notable” – it truly embodies the motto that there is a story everywhere, and a good journalist can dig deep enough to find it. Journalists working for Humans of New York have incredible interview skills – they find just about anyone on the street and manage to extract their most gripping tales, from heart wrenching stories of soldiers’ PTSD to success stories in treating pediatric cancer. Sometimes the stories are about divorce or a death in the interviewees family, but they are always given justice in being addressed personally and sensitively. One interviewee told the story of one of her high school teachers who made an extra effort to check-in when the student showed signs of depression. “I’m about to begin my Master’s in education. I’m hoping to become the same kind of teacher as Mrs. Hunt. When I needed it most, she recognized my cries for help,” said the interviewee. There is a compelling quality to this kind of writing that merits reader attentiveness – no matter how small or mundane the tale may be. As a journalist, I hope to give each of my interview subjects the same respect, and I hope to keep in mind the important lesson that there is always a story to be told – it just requires time, attention, and most importantly, human empathy.
https://www.instagram.com/humansofny/
Leandra Medine Cohen
Out of all the people who may identify as “influencers,” I consider Leandra Medine the most akin to a true newsmaker. Medine is a fashion and lifestyle blogger who is most known for Manrepeller, her blog that debuted in 2010 and ended in 2020. As someone who is interested in fashion and lifestyle reporting, I value her unique approach of intellectual wit and humor in a superficial industry. For one thing, her out-of-the-box personal style lacks sex-appeal – a quality I revere in the current airbrushed media-scape of botox and lip-filler. Medine showcases her femininity through men’s shirts, balaclavas and vintage denim paired with ultra-femme pieces such as Amina Muaddi heels and the occasional lace chemise. She rarely wears makeup in her selfies, which are accompanied by witty, relatable captions such as “Y/N: high waist white jeans are a form of masochism in quarantine,” or “How will I ever succeed to potty train my kids when I can’t keep it in myself?” However, Medine’s personal style isn’t what makes her so impactful: Manrepeller taught fashion-loving young girls that wit and good style aren’t mutually exclusive. Her personal essays, many of which she posts excerpts of on Instagram, manage to be both highly intelligent and conversational, framing the seemingly mundane topics into gripping stories. She compared her transition out of her high-profile position at Manrepeller to growing pains in an essay that I revisited frequently throughout my first semester at college. “It’s like the bones in my thighs are trying to escape the agonizing sensation of pliers… There’s no way I will survive this – I am dying tonight,” she writes, describing a childhood memory of growing pains. Upon realizing there was a word for her condition, she was able to manage the ache. Despite the necessary (yet sorrowful to many) way in which Manrepeller was “cancelled” and shut down, Medine responded gracefully, and guided her 1m following through the trials and tribulations of transition in turn. If I choose to pursue fashion journalism, I hope to embody some of the humor, relatability, and transparency that Medine imbues into what could be a lifeless craft.
Diet_Prada
@Diet_Prada self-identifies as a “fashion watchdog group.” Along with simply identifying copied designs, the account draws attention to racism, misogyny, lack of diversity, and cultural appropriation in large and influential fashion corporations. Diet Prada’s cattiness is what makes it so unique, but it’s the genuine desire to uncover injustice in a “toxic” industry that makes it so worth reading. Despite being designers themselves, the founders of Diet Prada have no fear in addressing systemic issues in the fashion world – despite the possibility of being blacklisted by chiefs of corporations such as YSL, Dolce & Gabbana, Chanel, and more. “With its two million followers, catty tone, and encyclopedic knowledge of runway history, Diet Prada has been called ‘the most feared Instagram account’ in the industry by the Business of Fashion,” says Rachel Tashjian of GQ. In 2020 alone, Diet Prada exposed the famous Danielle Bernstein for stealing designs from small businesses, called out police officers for performative racism when seen pushing an elderly man to the ground before taking a knee with protestors, and busted Anthropologie for racially profiling customers. They also played a key role in exposing Reformation’s racist corporate culture (which came as a shock due to their “clean” branding), and most notably, making sure Alexander Wang was issued deserved shame for his sexual harassment allegations. With over 2.4 Million followers, the impact of Diet Prada’s posts is wide-ranging and powerful. However, their main message is as simple as this: newsmakers must have the guts to stand up to the “bad guys,” no matter how powerful they are.
Chrissy Teigen
I’m not hugely into influencer culture or celebrities on Twitter, but I do feel that Chrissy Teigen deserves recognition for her Twitter account. There’s a lot of talk on Instagram and TikTok right now about unfollowing influencers who don’t post their “bad days,” feigning that their beautiful “influencer life” is the reality they actually live in – and all their loyal followers must be consistently envious and self-resenting by contrast. I definitely agree that influential people on social media should be as real and raw as possible, and I view Chrissy Teigen as the pioneer of this attitude. Her posts (despite being so honest they make jaws drop) give an account of her whole life experience – the good, the bad, and the ugly, including everything from parenting “failures” to recipes for home-cooked junk food. When trying to describe the awe-spiring power of Chrissy Teigen’s tweets, Bustle described her as being like a “friend” to other women. “She shows her stretch marks on Instagram, she shows her bitchy side on Twitter… Whereas some celebrities appoint themselves to an untouchable status, Chrissy Teigen seems like a friend,” said Rosa Heyman, the Social Media Editor for Marie Claire. Personally, I found Teigen’s most influential moment to be her honesty in discussing her recent miscarriage. She posted a photograph of herself naked and crying on a hospital bed, and another of herself cradling the child who she lost. In the caption, she wrote “To our Jack – I’m so sorry that the first few moments of your life were met with so many complications, that we couldn’t give you the home you needed to survive. We will always love you.” For those who struggled with infant loss in private, Teigen’s braveness was a call to let them know they are not alone. Bustle points out that many celebrities are jumping on the “relatability” bandwagon on social media, but what sets Chrissy Teigen apart from other celebrities is that she lives and breathes social media – she understands the breadth of her following (no one really knows what she is famous for other than Twitter), creating a social media presence that is so comprehensive that women could even refer to it as their guide to womanhood.
Camilia Fateh 