Bones and blood found in a black garbage in southwest Arkansas , on Friday, have been confirmed as the remains of missing 4-year-old Maleah Davis. View this post on Instagram Houston loves you, #MaleahDavis. And so does the world. #RestInPeace. A post shared by KHOU 11 News Houston (@khou11) on Jun 3, 2019 at 9:16am PDT Hours before the remains were found, Davis’ stepfather Derion Vence allegedly confessed to Quanell X, an advocate for Maleah’s mother, to dumping her body in Arkansas, CNN reports. “All I can say is he told me it was an accident, and that she is dead and where he dumped her body,” Quanell revealed. “He said he pulled over in Arkansas, got out of the car, walked to the side of the road, and dumped the body off the road.” A roadside mowing crew reportedly discovered the black garbage bag with a pungent odor near Interstate 30. Vence reported Maleah missing on May 4, offering an elaborate story about her mysterious disappearance. Vence claimed he was attacked and Maleah kidnapped on his way to pick up the girl’s mother from the airport. After being allegedly “knocked unconscious” he woke up 24 hours later to Maleah missing, but her one-year-old brother, who he was also in care of, still there. Surveillance footage later showed Vence leaving the family home carrying a mysterious package. Blood was found in the home. Vence became a suspect. He was arrested a week later. He was initially charged with tampering with a corpse, but with new evidence we expect there will be charges to come. Maleah’s mother became a subject of infatuation from people who think she was negligent leaving her daughter in the care of Vence when she had suffered a serious head injury in his care a year before. CPS removed the young girl from the home pending an investigation that concluded, she was simply fell. This is heartbreaking story and though justice won’t bring Maleah back, we pray Vence never sees the light of day. RELATED STORIES: Search For Missing 4-Year-Old Maleah Davis Continues Near Texas Haunted House Cardi B Tells Mothers To Stop Leaving Their Children Their Boyfriends, Polarizes Black Twitter
Source: Johnny Nunez / Getty When Tierra Milton got the call to do Summer Jam hours before showtime, her hustler instincts immediately kicked in and, without hesitation, she said ‘Yes.’ Make that a “hell yes!” It wasn’t until reality set in that she realized she had signed up to do the nearly impossible. How could she prepare 10 ponytails for 10 dancers with no products and no hair to do the job? She called her best friend, a stellar celebrity makeup artist Tatiana (@BeatFaceHoney) who happens to be seven and a half months pregnant and her beauty assistant Kay Montana. And like the women in your Black girl tribe, they rushed to her side. Tierra, Tatiana and Kay reached the parking lot at Met Stadium by 7:30pm and only two hours until Cardi and her dancers were scheduled to hit the stage. In a bind, she left her car in the hands of her girls and rushed backstage. Milton, owner of She And Her Studio in Staten Island, New York has worked with celebrities like Keyshia Cole, Sevyn Streeter, Miss Ksyn and more. But her desire to bring luxury and quality to the everyday woman prompted her custom wig line Her Collection. View this post on Instagram Be your own role model and show the what your about ! your designer units can look as natural as this one here . Meet the one and only P R O M I S E ! She’s always going to be the #1 seller in our catalog… protect your hair now and get this look. A post shared by New York Wig Maker (@sheandherstudio) on May 3, 2019 at 4:24pm PDT As a celebrity hairstylist, she is no stranger to pressure but a last minute 10-person job presented new obstacles, but even bigger opportunities. Determined to deliver, Tierra and her crew began glueing tracks and drying them over the car vents on the way to the Summer Jam parking lot. She finished the last dancer with 47-seconds left til’ showtime. “We made it look seamless and effortless when it was anything but,” she wrote in a detailed and inspiring Instagram post. “Team work makes the dream work and opportunity is there only for those who are ready to take it.” Here’s how you can recreate the look in 5 steps: Step 1: Straighten and smooth hair by passing a flatiron over tresses for a frizz-free smooth look. Step 2: Pull hair back into a ponytail then coat with Tresseme hair spray. Step 3: Create a braid at the tail of the ponytail. Begin wrapping extension hair from bottom to top and secure with glue (you can also sew it on). Step 4: Use a hair pin to secure the weft. Step 5: Use a piece of the hair from the ponytail to wrap hide the end of the weft. Go BTS with Teirra below: View this post on Instagram Behind every great ponytail is a hairstylist with hairspray, pins and a #BlackGirlMagic team to help her pull it off! @SheAndHerStudio takes us backstage Cardi’s dressing room where she styled her dancers’ hair. Tutorial coming to HelloBeautiful.com A post shared by HelloBeautiful (@hellobeautiful) on Jun 3, 2019 at 11:00am PDT RELATED STORIES: Summer Jam Was Lit, But Wendy Williams’ Single Swag Was A Mood The Parking Lot At Summer Jam Was A Lituation
Source: Keysus / Keysus Like its hip-hop counterpart, Dancehall is evolving. Trap beats are replacing traditional dubbing but, the raw and unfiltered lyricism continues to keep our attention. See Also: Black Music Month: Afrobeats Bangers For Black Music Month, we’re introducing you to a new class of dancehall artists that include Shenseea , Koffee and Rygin King. Press play below.
Source: Keysus / Keysus Like its hip-hop counterpart, Dancehall is evolving. Trap beats are replacing traditional dubbing but, the raw and unfiltered lyricism continues to keep our attention. See Also: Black Music Month: Afrobeats Bangers For Black Music Month, we’re introducing you to a new class of dancehall artists that include Shenseea , Koffee and Rygin King. Press play below.
Source: Aurelien Meunier / Getty The impractical shoes, the resolute gait, the single mindedness, you can spot a Black fashion girl from a mile away. They march annually straight from the halls of FIT, LIM, and the school of life into an industry that is at its best indifferent and begrudgingly democratic and at its worst deeply racist and openly hostile. Black fashion girls grew up eyeing the fantasies erected in the hallowed pages of W , Elle , and Vogue . They learned terminology from The Hills , they searched for internships on Media Bistro , they scoured Women’s Wear Daily for an edge that would allow them to join the few non-melaninated people at the top rung of the traveling circus. As they envision the change they will enact when they finally claim their seats at those exclusive tables, Black fashion girls rarely consider how their power can be limited by not only their skin color but also their job title. Sadly, when Black women reach their coveted jobs at fashion companies, it’s as an intern on entry level employee. The few that make it higher than this, retention then becomes the issue as microaggressions infiltrate the day. Change is not created by mere presence alone. It happens when the voices in the room are empowered to speak up, and no one is more empowered than Rihanna. Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty Meticulous about her image from the very beginning (she notoriously sued a British retailer for using her image without her permission), her place at one of the world’s most powerful companies is one of unprecedented control. Rihanna converting her influence as a pop star turned style icon into tangible results has the potential to create a shift in culture that could upend the pervasion of offensive key chains and bubble coats. Her celebrity has taken her somewhere that apprenticeships and assistant gigs have not yet been able to go and she leaves the door so much as slightly cracked it will change many lives. Provocative ad campaigns and reactionary diversity councils aside, leadership in the fashion industry is still overwhelmingly white and male. The height of perceived luxury is governed by stakeholders who do not include island girls from Barbados with the balls to rock doobies on the red carpet, pilfer wine glasses, and flip off the paparazzi. Source: Jason LaVeris / Getty That is why what Rihanna has done with Fenty matters even if she has done it with the support of a major conglomerate. Using an inclusive strategy that rejects ageism and mommy shaming while embracing sex and body positivity she has already set standards in the beauty and lingerie spaces that are spurning growing investment into black models, executives, and designers. Rihanna is forcing companies to invest and expand in what they don’t have. Her partnership with LVMH for Fenty Beauty proved to be a success, utilizing new selling models and turning the industry on their head. Naturally, fashion is next. Rihanna will now force the industry to support what they haven’t for a long time: Black women (whether in size or color). For a (undisclosed) price, Rihanna is using her influence and changing how we know the fashion game. One can hope, in this moment, she’ll use her profits to invest in other Black women or this moment to give Black women a seat at the table. Source: Kevin Mazur / Getty LVMH is a company that controls the trends you’ll be wearing all summer, the bottles you cling to at brunch, and the endless selfies you snapped at Liberty State Park this weekend. Their autocratic leadership being destabilized by Rihanna will have a ripple effect throughout the entire industry. It is easy to dismiss her accomplishments because she has done it by partnering with LVMH but to do so would be to ignore the potential of her impact. If her expressing her agency as a designer means clients, contracts, and steps forward for even one Black woman then it is a win for our community. And that should matter, to the gatekeepers, to the ambitious newcomers, to us all because it’s one small step for a multinational corporate giant but it’s a leap for Black fashion girls. DON’T MISS: Dapper Dan’s Designs At The Met Gala Make The Ultimate Play On Camp By Representing High Fashion Harlem This Black Financial Blogger Helped Create A Bill To Teach Middle Schoolers Money Management MODEL MONDAY: Bianca Golden Wants Everyone To Get A Top Education [ione_media_gallery src=”https://hellobeautiful.com” id=”2981964″ overlay=”true”]
Photo Credit: Kia Caldwell Name: Phylicia Gilzene IG: @phylicia_theplusmodel_ Agency: Self-Represented Seven years ago, Phylicia Gilzene understood how items got on shelves. But as for what went on the sets of the photoshoots held to promote those items, she had no clue. Despite her extensive experience in advanced retail operations and striking beauty she had never thought she would end up in one of the ads that she was once oversaw the distribution of. Her foray into the limelight started on a dance floor. “It’s kind of a funny story, I was at a party dancing and having a good time and this lady came up to me and asked if I ever thought about modeling,” she told HelloBeautiful in an exclusive interview. View this post on Instagram I've always been in Love with myself , and to me that's the only thing that ever mattered !! Photo shot by @josepaganphotography , MUA @viva_glam_lorac , Wig made by @adore_lamour_ Creative director and Mentor @plusmodjeannief , My Look is from @byashleystewart . #ModelMondays #PlusModel #PhyliciaRene #CelebrateMySize #Curves #PlusModelMag #IAmAshley #CurvesAreSexy #GoldenConfidence A post shared by Phylicia Rene (@phylicia_theplusmodel_) on Mar 13, 2017 at 8:37am PDT The thought had never occurred to her even though she was confident about her appearance. Photo Credit: Kia Caldwell “I’ve always been into fashion and thought I was cute, but I had no idea about this plus community,” she explained. She said her connection to the body positivity movement was limited to, “only what I saw on TV.” The candid conversation led to Gilzene enrolling in a runway course. “I met Jeannie Ferguson while doing a runway class. At the time there was a big plus size modeling casting coming up and she told me to go for it.” View this post on Instagram She’ll be here before we know it [[ The dream team always makes it happen]] A post shared by Phylicia Rene (@phylicia_theplusmodel_) on Apr 8, 2019 at 5:14am PDT She put action behind the words of encouragement right away without waiting for additional training. Gilzene was ready to be a star even if she didn’t have all the tools to shine just yet. “I had a friend of mine who was a photographer take some pics and I went for it,” she said.Her nerves didn’t hold her back from going for it the way Ferguson suggested and her assured energy is transferable. “All my onset experiences have been amazing fun and relaxing. I do get nervous sometimes believe it or not in front of the camera but every photographer I’ve ever worked for made me feel very comfortable and gave direction if needed,” she recalled. View this post on Instagram Confidence is #PlusModel #NYC #FashionWeek #PhyliciaRene A post shared by Phylicia Rene (@phylicia_theplusmodel_) on Sep 22, 2016 at 6:56am PDT Chuckling she added, “Looking back on those pics now I can see I’ve come a long way.” She’s not only come a long way as a model but as a mother. She balances pursuing her modeling dreams with raising her sixteen-month-old son and newborn daughter. She’s already begun thinking about how her career will give her an entry point to talk to her children about societal beauty standards – after they get that whole ABCs thing down. View this post on Instagram The Gilzene-Grady Clan @levue_ A post shared by Phylicia Rene (@phylicia_theplusmodel_) on Apr 14, 2019 at 6:46am PDT “I want my kids to know that beauty isn’t everything! Everyone’s definition of beauty can be very different,” she said. She also doesn’t want them to feel appearance disqualifies them to work in any atmosphere. “I never want my kids to feel like they have to look like whomever to be considered beautiful or to be considered for that particular job,” she added. Restrictions that she doesn’t want placed on her children are rejected by her as well. She is not intimidated by the slender models stalking the catwalk. View this post on Instagram Fingers Crossed #FFFWEEKCASTINGTOUR2016 A post shared by Phylicia Rene (@phylicia_theplusmodel_) on Mar 12, 2016 at 7:42am PST “I would love to grace some runways during fashion week and to model for some designers who don’t normally hire plus size models.” She’s prepared to hit the ground running in high heels in between midnight feedings. DON’T MISS: MODEL MONDAY: Aba Forewa Is Going Full Force MODEL MONDAY: Christina Mendez Kept Her Children First On Her Climb To The Top MODEL MONDAY: Ifeoma Somiari Is A Bio Student Selling Bundles And Closures Between Classes [ione_media_gallery src=”https://hellobeautiful.com” id=”3027813″ overlay=”true”]
Source: NurPhoto / Getty Sephora is pledging to correct a mistake a store employee made at one of its locations after SZA claimed she was racially profiled and accused of stealing. The matter got enough national attention that Sephora will shut down 400 of its stores this Wednesday (June 5) for diversity training. Back in April, SZA detailed via Twitter that a Sephora employee by the name of Sandy put the press on her and accused the TDE songstress of stealing while she attempted to purchase some Fenty products. While SZA didn’t make a large stink about it beyond a pair of tweets, the incident caught Rihanna’s eye, who sent her a gift card to the beauty line with a short note. Sephora has taken notice of the exchange between the two stars and via a video posted a couple weeks ago, the company will host a diversity training in order to address matters such as the one SZA faced. Similar moves have been made by corporate giants such as Starbucks in times past in handling these types of explosive moments so hopefully, this has the desired effect. — Photo: Getty
Source: Michael Kovac / Getty Jay-Z and his steady pivot between an elite-level recording artist to one of the savviest businessmen of his era have been well documented over the past decade and more. In a new piece from Forbes , the veteran Brooklyn wordsmith is in a company of his own after becoming the first rapper to join the billionaires club. Forbes writes: Less than a decade later, it’s clear that Jay-Z has accumulated a fortune that conservatively totals $1 billion, making him one of only a handful of entertainers to become a billionaire—and the first hip-hop artist to do so. Jay-Z’s steadily growing kingdom is expansive, encompassing liquor, art, real estate (homes in Los Angeles, the Hamptons, Tribeca) and stakes in companies like Uber. His journey is all the more impressive given its start: Brooklyn’s notorious Marcy housing projects. He was a drug dealer before becoming a musician, starting his own label, Roc-A-Fella Records, to release his 1996 debut, Reasonable Doubt. Since then he’s amassed 14 No. 1 albums, 22 Grammy awards and over $500 million in pretax earnings in a decade. Crucially, he realized that he should build his own brands rather than promote someone else’s: the clothing line Rocawear, started in 1999 (sold for $204 million to Iconix in 2007); D’Ussé, a cognac he co-owns with Bacardi; and Tidal, a music-streaming service. Read the entire profile on Jay-Z’s inspirational climb from Marcy Projects to becoming a billionaire by following this link . — Photo: Getty
Pamela Taylor , the West Virginia official who called First Lady Michelle Obama “an ape in heels” was sentenced to prison after defrauding the government of 18,000 in FEMA disaster benefits following June 2016 floods that claimed lives and delivered significant property damage. Taylor was sentenced to 10 months in prison and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine, according to WSAZ . She will be confined to her home for two months following her release. Get the latest news delivered right to your inbox every morning! Close Thank you for subscribing! Please be sure to open and click your first newsletter so we can confirm your subscription. Email Submit Earlier this year, Taylor was facing a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for her actions but she pled guilty in order to receive a lesser sentence. She admitted in February of taking in $18,000 in flood relief benefits by falsely registering for FEMA benefits after the June 2016 floods that killed more than 20 West Virginians and caused more than $100 million worth of damage. Taylor lied and said that her primary residence had been damaged in the flood and that she was forced to rent a place to stay. “There’s no such thing as a little bit of FEMA fraud. Taylor’s fraudulent scheme took FEMA dollars away from those who needed it the most,” U.S. Attorney Mike Stuart said in a statement, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. More than two years ago, Taylor came into public view when she resigned from her county government development job for calling Mrs. Obama “an ape in heels” on Facebook . She was suspended for her comments, then fired and secretly rehired and then fired for good . “It will be so refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady back in the White House. I’m tired of seeing a Ape in heels,” Taylor wrote in November 2016. In her plea agreement, Taylor also agreed to pay restitution of over $18,000. Join Our Text Club To Get The Latest Music, Entertainment, Contests And Breaking News On Your Phone. Text VIP to 71007 to join! RELATED: West Virginia Official Who Called Michelle Obama ‘An Ape In Heels’ Faces 30 Years In Prison For FEMA Fraud
Pamela Taylor , the West Virginia official who called First Lady Michelle Obama “an ape in heels” was sentenced to prison after defrauding the government of 18,000 in FEMA disaster benefits following June 2016 floods that claimed lives and delivered significant property damage. Taylor was sentenced to 10 months in prison and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine, according to WSAZ . She will be confined to her home for two months following her release. Get the latest news delivered right to your inbox every morning! Close Thank you for subscribing! Please be sure to open and click your first newsletter so we can confirm your subscription. Email Submit Earlier this year, Taylor was facing a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison for her actions but she pled guilty in order to receive a lesser sentence. She admitted in February of taking in $18,000 in flood relief benefits by falsely registering for FEMA benefits after the June 2016 floods that killed more than 20 West Virginians and caused more than $100 million worth of damage. Taylor lied and said that her primary residence had been damaged in the flood and that she was forced to rent a place to stay. “There’s no such thing as a little bit of FEMA fraud. Taylor’s fraudulent scheme took FEMA dollars away from those who needed it the most,” U.S. Attorney Mike Stuart said in a statement, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. More than two years ago, Taylor came into public view when she resigned from her county government development job for calling Mrs. Obama “an ape in heels” on Facebook . She was suspended for her comments, then fired and secretly rehired and then fired for good . “It will be so refreshing to have a classy, beautiful, dignified First Lady back in the White House. I’m tired of seeing a Ape in heels,” Taylor wrote in November 2016. In her plea agreement, Taylor also agreed to pay restitution of over $18,000. Join Our Text Club To Get The Latest Music, Entertainment, Contests And Breaking News On Your Phone. Text VIP to 71007 to join! RELATED: West Virginia Official Who Called Michelle Obama ‘An Ape In Heels’ Faces 30 Years In Prison For FEMA Fraud
