Laverne Cox on #ChampionYourSkin, Bad Hair, & the power of community
By Sabrina Reed
Laverne Cox discusses her partnership with Gold Bond for #ChampionYourSkin, self-love, self-care, and embracing community.
Gold Bond has launched a new campaign, #ChampionYourSkin, to celebrate those who put their skin to the test every day as they strive to make the world a better place. The face of the campaign, Laverne Cox, is a #SkinChampion whose advocacy for the trans community can be seen in her work as an actress and a producer.
Before the event spotlighting Cox’s partnership with Gold Bond and highlighting the work of Mariana Marroquin, the program manager for the Trans Wellness Center, Laverne spoke with Culturess about the #ChampionYourSkin campaign, her upcoming role in Justin Simien’s Bad Hair, and how self-love and community are important aspects of self-care.
Cox defines skin champions as “folks who are daring to be themselves in really bold and beautiful ways.” Her partnership with Gold Bond is about uplifting individuals who give back to their communities, but it also recognizes the brand’s Ultimate Healing Lotion as a “high-performance skin-care product [for] people who need a skin routine that keeps up.”
Gold Bond’s Ultimate Healing Lotion has seven intensive moisturizers, three essential vitamins, and soothing aloe meant to soften and nourish rough, dry skin for 24-hour hydration. The pairing of this product with the #ChampionYourSkin campaign aligns with the brand’s advocacy for health and wellness.
According to Helene Pamon, the Head of Personal Care at Sanofi Consumer Healthcare, “Gold Bond gives people the comfort and confidence to feel good and comfortable in their skin.” She derives Gold Bond’s purpose from a “higher-order mission” that supports change makers and, to her, Laverne is the epitome of a #SkinChampion.
Cox looks to the trans community for her skin champions. She describes 2020 as a historical moment, one where “personal wellness and self-care are essential.” It’s why she and Gold Bond are highlighting the Trans Wellness Center (TWC), an organization in Los Angeles that caters to the needs of trans and non-binary people.
For Cox, the trans community are skin champions by their very existence. She says, “We live in a culture that continues to devalue the lives of trans people.”
TWC, however, is a community organization for trans people, by trans people. The fact that the center is peer-run is invaluable to Laverne because having the ability to seek counsel and advice from those in your own community is important.
During the event, Mariana Marroquin spoke to this need. She said:
"This place is a big responsibility that is something that I do every day with a lot of honor because taking care of our own community and taking care of ourselves is something that I never [could] imagine in my life. That I could put my life to a service to my own community…When we see parents come in with their trans kids, and they see trans people working and giving back to our own community, I think that brings a lot of hope to the future of their kids."
Representation is a discussion that has been exhausted in the entertainment industry with change being incremental and slow, but it’s also important in our day to day lives for adults and children to see their community members loving and leading.
When discussing leadership, both Laverne and Mariana spoke to transition being one part of someone’s identity but there’s also their message or dream to keep in mind. They encourage youth to go after what they want in life be that writing, acting, singing, or something else.
As Mariana puts it, “That’s something that [the Trans Wellness Center does] regarding leadership: Remind our youth that there’s so much that they can give. Besides the hormones and everything else, we help them with that part. We can take that from their shoulders…we want them to focus [on] what they really want to do with their lives. Leadership is something we always foster here at the Trans Wellness Center.”
Laverne, from the screen to her advocacy, is a leader who goes after what she wants including a role in Justin Simien’s Bad Hair. The film is a horror satire set in the late ’80s that is a commentary on Black hair and the beauty standards of white supremacist societies that politicize and restrict how Black hair is maintained, styled, perceived, and policed.
To Laverne, Simien is “one of the most important voices working today,” and she made a point of letting it be known she wanted to work with him from passing the message through cast members of Dear White People to telling him herself when she got the chance. That’s how she landed the role of Virgie, a salon owner whose clients swear the hair she weaves is magic.
Explaining her pursuit of the opportunity to work with Simien, Cox says, “So much of the work I’ve been doing over the years is about how we tell stories and represent people who haven’t been represented and who desperately need to see ourselves and see our stories reflected. It’s so deeply validating.”
Her mindset about the validation of representation is why she’s partnered with Gold Bond. She loves that “no matter color, shape, or condition your skin is, it’s for you.” Like the brand, Laverne is about being comfortable in your skin and “celebrating the things that are unique and beautiful about who we are.”
It’s the kind of celebration that extends to self-love, a form of self-care that Laverne describes as being about how you treat yourself. She says, “It’s about being cognizant of the messages I’m saying to myself, what I allow myself to internalize.”
Laverne goes on to say that self-love is a daily practice that involves valuing her heart, soul, and spirit. It’s a practice that includes her skin and valuing the body that she has today even if there’s something she may want to change.
The message she sends herself is that “love is about what we do” and, for her, that means accepting who she is every day. While it’s frustrating that self-love is a daily practice, Laverne describes it as liberating because “every day we can start over.”
Celebrating your skin is self-love, it’s self-care, and it’s necessary. It’s also something you can do with, for, and by the support of others.
The Trans Wellness Center celebrates the skin of its community members by being a resource for them. Through providing legal services, aid with housing and employment, support groups, medical and sexual health services, youth programming, mental health assistance, and a clothing closet.
Gold Bond embraces the diversity of our skin types, our varying needs, and prides itself on being a brand that goes deeper than skin to the heart of what their customers need.
And Cox, as the spokesperson for Gold Bond’s Ultimate Healing Lotion, shows us through her character, passion for community, uplifting of heroes, and the body of her work that a skin champion can be anyone who chooses to make the world a better place.
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