With a 27-year career to her credit, Brazil’s Black actor Taís Araujo is a symbol of female empowerment. She is also an activist and businesswoman who is preparing to increase the representation of Black artists as an executive producer at Globo, the largest media group in Brazil and publisher of Vogue Brazil.

Tais Araujo covers the April 2022 issue of Vogue Brazil, styled by Rita Lazzarotti in ‘She is 'Carioca', meaning a native of Rio de Janeiro. MAR+VIN [IG] captures the dark-skinned beauty, with beauty by Henrique Martins.

The UN Women Brazil advocate for Black women’s rights shares two children João Vicente and Maria Antônia with actor and director Lázaro Ramos. She is the first Brazilian black actor to star in soap operas and to host a Sunday TV show in her country.

Araujo speaks to Vogue Brazil about the changes in her attitude around body image — a topic potentially more brutal for women in Brazil than here in America, where it looms large in the consciousness of women of every skin hue.

“When I was younger, around my 13, 15, 18, 20 and even older, I was full of nerves,” Araujo explains. Besieged by stretch marks and the size of her ass, this multi-talented woman was instead ashamed of her own body, and especially when she was modeling.

The story is so familiar to women, and 50 years into a post-feminist second wave world, it hits home that we’ve accomplished so little in eliminating shame from women’s physicality. There are moments when AOC believes that we’ve made no progress on this important front of women embracing our own bodies. And while we are all very good about talking about the problem — one that goes back hundreds if not thousands of years — where is the progress? ~ Anne