The Forces of Beauty® Report from The DREAM Initiative® Reveals Demand for New Standards of Beauty and Imagery

News provided by

Sep 22, 2022, 08:00 ET

--Initiative Creates Groundbreaking New, Royalty Free Inclusive Image Gallery In Strategic Partnership with Shutterstock Studios--

IRVINE, Calif. and PHOENIX, Sept. 22, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Allergan Aesthetics, an AbbVie company (NYSE: ABBV), and skinbetter science^® announce a new report from their DREAM (Driving Racial Equity in Aesthetic Medicine) Initiative^®, along with a long-term partnership with Shutterstock Studios. The report, titled Forces of Beauty^®, provides a new understanding of what inclusive and representative beauty looks like today by shedding light on how narrowly defined Eurocentric ideals continue to impact women of color. By surveying over 4,000 women aged 21-65, from multiple geographic locations and backgrounds, the report explores what defines beauty, how beauty impacts women's lives, and the interplay between beauty and race. Some key insights include:

Only 17% of all women, regardless of their race and ethnicity, feel like their racial beauty is accepted by society.
1 in 4 Black, Hispanic, and Multi-Racial women believe that society's standards of beauty are racist
52% of women agree that "anyone can be beautiful," with only 11% of women agreeing that society makes them feel beautiful

The full report and findings are available for download at DreamforEquity.com

"We are in a position, as industry leaders, to drive the necessary change within the aesthetics industry. We need to create a candid dialogue about racial representation and perceptions within our aesthetics community. We hope that the Forces of Beauty^® Report will contribute to moving us all in the right direction," said Jonah Shacknai, Executive Chairman of skinbetter science^®.

Forces of Beauty^® is the third deliverable from The DREAM Initiative^®, following the successful launches of both the Curriculum for Advancing Racial Equity (CARE) produced by Solomé Rose Consulting, LLC - the American Academy of Dermatology and other leading dermatology societies are supporting the curriculum's inaugural implementation in five highly regarded dermatology residency programs- and the Full Spectrum of Dermatology: A Diverse and Inclusive Atlas, developed by co-editors Misty Eleryan, MD, MS, and Adam Friedman, MD FAAD.

Forces of Beauty^® continues the exploration of the unique relationship between racial/ethnic diversity and beauty for women. The companies are raising awareness about the need for inclusive and representative beauty, providing education, and driving action among medical and consumer audiences.

"Historically, the industry hasn't included all women in its definition of beauty," said Carrie Strom, Senior Vice President at AbbVie and President of Global Allergan Aesthetics. "As industry leaders, our goal is to create a more equitable beauty and aesthetics industry that focuses on diversity, representation, and inclusion. That is what Forces of Beauty^® is about, impacting change and creating a space where the origins of beauty are honored, the definition of beauty is vastly expanded upon, and where uniqueness is the standard."

As part of its multi-media launch, Forces of Beauty^® will be brought to life through an engaging and emotional video series, produced by Shutterstock Studios, Shutterstock's end-to-end custom creative shop. The series, directed by Tiffany Frances, will feature four women as they share their stories and experiences linking directly to dedicated chapters within the report: defining beauty, empowering uniqueness, the history of beauty standards, and appropriation. Each chapter will support the report's overall findings which include: that women of all races strongly believe that "one of us cannot represent all of us"; that the standard of beauty should not be defined by only one group; and, that the origins of beauty and cultural practices be celebrated without being exploited.

Coinciding with the launch of Forces of Beauty^®, the DREAM Initiative^® will also unveil a first-of-its-kind partnership in the aesthetics category with Shutterstock Studios and introduce a royalty free, gallery of diverse images available to the public. The thousands of images will showcase beauty across race, culture, gender, age, ability level, and body type and will bring to life a key takeaway from the Forces of Beauty^® report that "one of us is not the face of all of us." A driving force behind the gallery is the goal to encourage industry peers to leverage these assets within their own efforts, creating a first step towards collective change to a more equitable industry. All inclusive marketing materials will be easily accessible on https://www.shutterstock.com/explore/dream.

"The DREAM Initiative^® brought us this incredible idea to create a more diverse royalty-free image set. And through our partnership on the Forces of Beauty^® report it helped us all recognized an important gap in the market. Most of the visuals used in advertising and branding do not reflect the diversity we see around us every day, and an online search of imagery reveals just how underrepresented many groups are in this space," said Aiden Darné, VP and Global Head of Shutterstock Studios. "Shutterstock interviewed over 2,700 marketers around the world last year and found that 74% of them wished they had access to more diverse content. This realization was the catalyst for a unified pledge to close that gap, and we are excited to partner with the DREAM initiative^® on this journey to put authentic representation at the center of all creative content."

To learn more visit DreamForEquity.com or follow us @AllerganAesthetics and @skinbetter

About Allergan Aesthetics
At Allergan Aesthetics, an AbbVie company, we develop, manufacture, and market a portfolio of leading aesthetics brands and products. Our aesthetics portfolio includes facial injectables, body contouring, plastics, skin care, and more. Our goal is to consistently provide our customers with innovation, education, exceptional service, and a commitment to excellence, all with a personal touch. For more information, visit www.AllerganAesthetics.com or follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn.

About AbbVie
AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas: immunology, oncology, neuroscience, eye care, virology, women's health and gastroenterology, in addition to products and services across its Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and LinkedIn.

About skinbetter science^®
The skinbetter science^® team of aesthetic experts has a profound understanding of skin aging and what it takes to help defy the effects of time. Tapping into a rich dermatological heritage, the team at skinbetter science^® set out to create a new paradigm in clinical skincare. Cutting-edge, data-driven science is the principal driving force behind all our unique formulations. skinbetter science award-winning products are available exclusively through the leading dermatology, plastic surgery and medical aesthetics practices nationwide. For more information, visit us at Skinbetter.com or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

About Shutterstock Studios
For 20 years, Shutterstock has contributed to films, documentaries, and storytelling of all types with its vast stock library. Now through its Studios arm, Shutterstock is putting forward stories of its own, leveraging the unique expertise of its production and creative professionals, and archive of over 60 million assets across photo and video, covering royals, film, music, sports, wars, politics and celebrities. Shutterstock Studios specializes in producing branded and commercial content plus documentary and nonfiction films. Studios has rapidly emerged as a best-in-class creative partner for brands globally using physical and virtual production to create evocative content. With the acquisition of TurboSquid, the world's largest 3D marketplace, Shutterstock Studios now offers Web3 services, and 2D and 3D animation.

SOURCE AbbVie