Phyllida Swift, CEO of Face Equality International, has spearheaded this empowering campaign with Sephora UK. She sustained facial scarring when she was 22 after surviving a car accident in Ghana. “It was a massive adjustment,” she tells GLAMOUR.
“A big part of why it is challenging for anyone, and it was particularly challenging for me, is that every time I saw a scar on screen TV, it was a villain, a vulnerable person, a victim. And I hated that, and I hated the idea that someone might pity me or think that I was untrustworthy or evil or villainous because of something that I had no control over.”
Phyllida continues, “It was seeing the complete and utter lack of representation of scars and a positive light out there in the world that lit the fire in my belly, to go out there and recognise that this is not okay. Why is this narrative constantly being pushed? And Halloween is only a further example of that, where we’re constantly telling children to fear scars and facial differences.”
As part of her work with Face Equality, the subject of Halloween costumes crops up time and time again. “I hear stories of people being asked whether their face is a mask or having things said to them, such as, ‘Oh, well, you don’t need to wear a mask because you’ve already got your Halloween costume’.
“Kids are bullied using examples like, ‘Hey, you look like Freddy Krueger’ or ‘Hey, you look like the Joker’. We have this assumption that it’s just fun, it’s just dress up, it’s just play, it’s just a film. But actually, this is playing out in people’s real lives, and it’s incredibly dehumanising.”
It’s also something that Phyllida has experienced herself. “I’ve had people ask me around this time of year whether my face is makeup […] Why is that person questioning if I’m wearing a costume, and what’s the subtext behind those costumes? Is that I’m to be seen as scary? That hurts, and it’s something that people with facial differences, who are already subject to hate crime and bullying, experience at this particular time of year – particularly when supermarket shelves are lined with scarring kits and costumes.
Phyllida asks, “What is the message that we are selling to our children about people with facial differences, and why are we poisoning their young minds with this narrative that is forcing them to other us – and have an aversion to this entire community who are amazing and deserve to be celebrated?”
I ask Phyllida why it’s so important that Sephora UK has embraced the campaign, given that so many people will likely buy their Halloween makeup from the beauty retailer. “When [Face Equality INT] pitched the idea to Sephora UK, we knew it was a potentially confronting concept,” she begins.
“But we were blown away by how positively it was received. We were so thrilled by their willingness to engage their community in a conversation because that’s ultimately what it is. It’s not about cancel culture. It’s not about making people feel guilty. We’re all on this journey towards inclusion of marginalised communities.”
You can watch the powerful campaign video in full here:
For more from Glamour UK’s Lucy Morgan, follow her on Instagram @lucyalexxandra.