Photo: CoverGirl
America Ferrerawants to set a new easy, breezy,inclusivebeauty standard as the latestCoverGirl.
The Golden Globe winner, 37, tells PEOPLE exclusively “it feels surreal” to be named the cosmetic company’s latest brand ambassador, for which she’ll appear in an upcoming campaign for a new collection.
“I think if you were to go back and tell 17-year-oldGotta Kick It Up!,Real Women Have CurvesAmerica, or even 9-year old America, 10-year old America, that there would be a place for her in the mainstream narrative about beauty, she would pass out and faint and not understand,” Ferrera says.
She explains that she “didn’t really grow up seeing myself reflected in beauty standards anywhere. The fact that at this point, that narrative is expanding, is really momentous and surreal for me to get to say out loud, ‘I’m a CoverGirl.’ It’s crazy.”
As a barrier-breaking Latina actress, director and producer, as well as an investor in the Los Angeles-based NWSL teamAngel City FC, Ferrera embodies CoverGirl’s empowering message of individuality and inclusivity.
“We have admired America for years and her message about owning your identity as your superpower. She is intelligent, authentic and fearless and always honors herself, which is exactly what the CoverGirl brand loves about her,” Stefano Curti, Coty’s chief brands officer, consumer beauty, says in a statement.
Ferrera appreciates the iconic brand for a number of reasons, including CoverGirl’s wide range of cosmetic staples that are perfect for her “super simple” everyday beauty routine.
“My personal beauty style is a natural and a fresh look, really easy. Easy enough to get on quickly, sometimes even without a mirror,” she says, adding: “It’s about beautiful, fresh breathing, glow-y skin, mascara and a tinted lip. It’s those three things that make me feel ‘done up.’ If I have mascara on, I feel awake and I feel ready.”
“I think that that’s a really positive and powerful thing for such a large and iconic brand to do, to really lead in a direction that the beauty industry should be going in and really thinking about how to make their products safer and also more sustainable and cruelty free.”
Covergirl
But at the end of the day, theGentefiedexecutive producer feels most beautiful when she’s with her two kids, sonSebastian Piers, 3½, and 18-month-old daughterLucia Marisol, whom she shares with her husband of 10 yearsRyan Piers Williams, 40.
“The way that they see me and look at me and love me … I guess they reflect back to me the beauty that they see in me, and being with them always makes me feel so loved and beautiful,” Ferrera gushes.
RELATED VIDEO: ‘Gentefied’ Star Karrie Martin Loved Working With America Ferrera: ‘She is a Boss’
Ferrera has been on an “ongoing journey” of “embracing my own beauty” and “letting go” of expectations since making her onscreen debut at 17, noting the anxiety that comes with red carpet appearances, best and worst dressed lists and growing up in the public eye. “That’s a lot of pressure that can feel very crushing and overwhelming,” she says.
“Over the course of my life and career, I’ve gotten to a place where I feel like beauty is playful and fun and an expression of some facets of who I am,” Ferrera adds. “It’s not all of who I am. It’s not the most important thing to me, but it is at best, incredibly fun and empowering.”
TheUgly Bettystar imagines what her barrier-breaking fashion journalist character Betty Suarez would write about her partnership with CoverGirl: “Hopefully, it would be something along the lines of, ‘We are all CoverGirls.'”
“Because I do hope that that’s the message people get from seeing me in an iconic role of setting beauty standards,” Ferrera says, adding: “I think the hope is that if someone can see me as beautiful, as embracing my beauty, as loving my beauty, as reveling in what is authentically me, that translates as we all are beautiful, and we can all be the picture of beauty.”
source: people.com
