You don't have to be 60, wealthy, you know, extort a mogul to have a story that's valid enough to be told. Right. And I had to tell myself that through this process. I mean, my brother even over Christmas said to me, dude, Elaine, why are you writing an autobiography? I love what your brother calls you dude. He's like, dude, yeah. And yeah, like, even at this point in my career, I mean, at this point in my career, he's like the only person who will just chop me down to size real fast and just be like, he's like, well, dude, why are you writing an autobiography? Isn't that like something old people do? Wow. Like, seriously, you know, but, but, but is he older, younger brother? He's older than me. And he, and he didn't mean it to be, like, hurtful. But he's not understanding the history of black literature, which is quite often your autobiography is the first book that you publish.

And you may publish it in your 20s or your 30s or whatever, but like I had to tell my story.

You know, my name is Richard Wright. My name is, you know, Claude Brown. My name is whatever. You know, I had to tell my story. You know, my name is Richard Wright. My name is, uh, you know, Claude Brown. My name is

whatever, you know, uh, you know, I had to tell my story first, um, before I could tell you

anything else. Oh, that's so powerful. That, when you put it like that, when you put this book,

you know, in this like larger trajectory of black autobiography in the last 150 years oh my god thank you

i'm going to take that with me because i was like my best comeback was in the moment they don't even

call them autobiographies anymore you asshole and i just like burst into tears so now i have a better

i can come back with some weight on this.

But no, I think that's powerful when you put it into a perspective like that.

And I just think like, listen, you don't have to be, to me, later I realized I was like, that's the patriarchy talking.

You don't see the value yet in the voice of a young black woman, and that's okay.

You're not my audience.

I'm not speaking to you.

And I do think that's rule number one, like, right for your audience.

Elaine Welteroth is fierce and fabulous.

She's got amazing hair, an incredible sense of style, intelligence, grace, humility, and class.

She's the total package.

That's why Anna Wintour chose her to become the editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue.

Now, you might think the day you become the editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue when you're 29 years old is one of the best days of your life, and it was.

But behind the scenes, things were a hot mess.

Today you're going to hear the whole backstory as well as what Elaine did when she was in the halls of Condi Nast that helped propel her to that top spot and how she handled herself while she was there.

...