The GLAMOUR Women of the Year Awards 2024, sponsored by Samsung Galaxy Ring, are in full swing and, once again, we're packed to the rafters with trailblazing, record-breaking, down right remarkable women.
And none more so than the winner of our Gamechanging Voice Award, Jameela Jamil. One of the most outspoken and prolific online critics of her generation, Jameela uses her platform to call out everything from white privilege in politics to the rise of weight-loss medication.
So it's no wonder Jameela used her acceptance speech to draw everyone's attention to some of the most pertinent issues affecting women and girls.
“I was 27 the last time I won one of these," Jameela said. "I remember what an exciting time that was for women. We were on the precipice of #MeToo, the body positivity movement, age acceptance and we were embracing people because of what made them different; not in spite of it.
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“11 years later,” she continued, “and something weird is going on and we need to talk about it. How is heroin chic on its way back? 20-somethings and teens are destroying their skin barriers and saying things like ‘retinol’ and ‘Botox’. And it feels like we are all morphing, kind of, into the same Snapchat face. Same eyes, lips, cheekbones and noses. Yesterday, I watched a literal 8-year-old on TikTok take people through her night time skin regimen – and it was reported last year, that girls as young as four are now worrying about their weight. FOUR. I want to be clear, I do not disapprove of any choice anyone wants to make with their face or body. Look however you want to look. I love fashion and hair and beauty. But I draw the line at pain, suffering and risking our lives. Because life is hard enough. Why is women’s discomfort and harm still so hyper normalised?"
She continued: “Boys are encouraged to build their bodies, and build their futures and legacies. While women and girls are starving, injecting and hurting – and sometimes literally dying – for the fastest possible route to the ever-changing, fickle beauty standard. And this drives me insane because I promise you, you only get better with age.”
As Jameela finished her rousing, heart-wrenching speech to a room so silent you could hear a pin drop, she said: “I beg of you, as I stand here with a body broken forever because of what I put it through for our society’s beauty standards... to not sell your old lady self short. Don’t take her for granted. Because she’s a legend who deserves protecting. Fill your body with energy and life and joyful experiences. Don’t hurt her for a quick fix, for a beauty standard that can and will probably change again! Everything I do is for the wild, and fabulous old woman I hope to become one day. Time is a beautiful and brilliant privilege and I’m so grateful to people like Emma Thompson, Miriam Margolyes, and Maggie Smith, for modelling the third act in a way that makes me so fucking excited to get there.
"We've been on such a journey together, and I really look up to you."
“I pray that instead of hurting ourselves to bow down to the whims of cowardly misogyny, we instead let all the decisions we make now, be in order to strengthen and protect the fabulous women that we will one day be. To the powerful women with so much influence in this room: Do it for you. Do it for your daughters and their daughters. Do it for the millions of women who follow you online. Because we all deserve more."
And that, ladies and gents, is why Jameela Jamil is one our Women of the Year.
