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A review by thechanelmuse
More Than Enough: Claiming Space for Who You Are (No Matter What They Say) by Elaine Welteroth
2.0
Half of Elaine Welteroth's memoir, More Than Enough, is about her goal orientented and career-focused mindset that's not only inspiring, it's relatable in how imposter syndrome and the fear of rejection seeps into our life's journeys. How we lean into fear or retract defines our direction as Elaine displays in her coming of age years. There were a number of times I smiled while reading, due to her tenacity to enter into the competitive field of beauty and style for a major magazine.
Based on the other half of this memoir, the title should’ve been called More Than (Black) Enough. Elaine is a biracial woman with a Black American mother and a German-American father who self-identifies as Black. In her youth, she notes:
Lineage is a permanent aspect of one's Identity; It's unchanging. But, in Elaine's coming of age, it appears she leaves her molding in the hands of what others "view" her to be per certain aspects like hair.
It's funny that when she chronicles her Teen Vogue era, she speaks about wanting to revamp the company and bridge in the celebration of Black woman. She pens an article that’s met with backlash from Black women readers around the topic of hair. During this personal setback, she mentions:
So she frames herself as Black then frames the model as biracial
Based on the other half of this memoir, the title should’ve been called More Than (Black) Enough. Elaine is a biracial woman with a Black American mother and a German-American father who self-identifies as Black. In her youth, she notes:
"Eric and I decided that we would buck the system, challenge racial norms, and defy our parents by checking both Black and White [boxes]. The way we saw it then, checking just one was a dismissal of half of our family tree. Plus we were kids and breaking rules was fun. Checking both felt like a little victory—our own tiny act of resistance, a small but powerful way to tell the world who we are."
Lineage is a permanent aspect of one's Identity; It's unchanging. But, in Elaine's coming of age, it appears she leaves her molding in the hands of what others "view" her to be per certain aspects like hair.
It's funny that when she chronicles her Teen Vogue era, she speaks about wanting to revamp the company and bridge in the celebration of Black woman. She pens an article that’s met with backlash from Black women readers around the topic of hair. During this personal setback, she mentions:
“No one on the internet seemed to recognize that the story was tackling harmful stereotypes about Black hair, nor did they notice that a Black woman had written it, or that the biracial model we photographed in braids was as Black as I am.”
So she frames herself as Black then frames the model as biracial