Did you hear us yell "finally!" where you are? Mindy Kaling is on Elle's February 2014 issue cover, and we all couldn't be more excited. Profiled in a black-and-white, close-up portrait, Kaling stuns on her first major fashion magazine cover.
Kaling was featured as a part of Elle's fourth annual "Women in Television" issue. The issue also profiled Zooey Deschanel, Amy Poehler, and Allison Williams, putting Kaling in great company. Despite the talent of the other women featured, this cover has been a long time coming for Kaling in particular. Here's why she deserved this cover.
1. She's a different type of fashion icon
Between creating, writing, and starring in her own show to writing a wickedly funny book, Kaling amazingly still has the time to dress well. However, whether on The Mindy Project or the red carpet, we're always waiting to see what she wears. Her outfits are refreshingly personalized, yet always stylish — a hard combination to master in Hollywood. An entire blog was inspired by her wardrobe on The Mindy Project, and if you didn't already want to go shopping with her, check out her own blog, which is full of fashion inspiration.
2. She's relatable
Mindy Kaling has ticked every box on the best friend checklist. She's creative, talented, and is much funnier than anyone any of us know in real life. Much like her sense of style, Mindy is relatable and refreshing in a way all her own. Plus she writes things like, “If I’m at a party where I’m not enjoying myself, I will put some cookies in my jacket pocket and leave without saying good-bye.” I think we've all been at that party at one point or another.
3. She says what we're all thinking
In a recent Parade article Kaling said:
I always get asked, ‘Where do you get your confidence?’ I think people are well meaning, but it’s pretty insulting. Because what it means to me is, ‘You, Mindy Kaling, have all the trappings of a very marginalized person. You’re not skinny, you’re not white, you’re a woman. Why on earth would you feel like you’re worth anything?’
It's that type of honesty that makes Kaling a woman for all of us to look up to.
As deserving of Mindy is of her Elle cover, of course, it can't just be... well, awesome, and that's that. As Tyler McCall at Fashionista points out, when you compare her cover with the photos of the other actresses featured in the issue. Mindy is featured in a close-up, cropped shot while the other, slimmer actresses are featured in full-body photographs. Additionally, Kaling's is the only shot that is in black and white. While all of this could be nothing but pure coincidence, it definitely calls to memory some other Elle cover controversy.
