Welcome to Unstyled. I'm your host, Christine Barberick, co-founder and global editor-in-chief of Refinery 29.

Each week, I invite a notable person to come in and talk with us as we explore the funny, inspiring,

sometimes heartbreaking tales of life, work, and love, as told through the things that we wear.

When the world asks you to shrink, expand. That's advice Elaine Welteroth is apt to give to the thousands of young women who follow her every move on social media.

It's also the philosophy that's currently guiding her life,

and helping to move out any barriers in her way.

As editor-in-chief of Teen Vogue,

Elaine was the youngest ever person to hold the title in Connie Nass history.

Not to mention only the second black editor-in-chief at the company.

Under her, Teen Vogue became so much more than a fashion magazine. It became an oasis of diversity and a place for the thoughtful analysis of timely, political, and cultural issues her younger audience had been craving.

Teen Vogue's evolution into a progressive political and cultural publication surprised many.

Most famously, Tucker Carlson, who sniffed that it should stick to writing about thigh-high boots.

But to Elaine, it's not a contradiction that teenage girls would or could care about face masks and fiscal policy,

or that they yearned for more diverse faces and voices across their

social media. In fact, she very accurately intuited that serving Generation Z's intellect and

sense of social responsibility was just table stakes for a media brand these days. As Elaine put it,

she was determined to create the magazine that she needed growing up.

Elaine left the position in 2018 and is now a judge on the revamped Project Runway

and the author of her first book, A Memoir, titled More Than Enough,

Claiming Space for Who You Are No Matter What They Say.

In it, she shares the earlier struggles that ultimately shaped her, from some harsh

lessons in love to navigating the caught between two worlds feeling of being mixed race. In many ways,

...