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https://www.blackenterprise.com/essence-launch-black-women-led-marketplace-weloveus-shop/
Amid a challenging period for small businesses, Essence is supporting Black women entrepreneurs with the launch of Weloveus.shop, an online marketplace showcasing Black women-led brands.
Launched on Dec. 3, WeLoveUs.shop, powered by Essence, is a community commerce platform designed to support Black women-led and culturally rooted brands. The marketplace aims to support Black-owned small businesses with visibility and direct access to consumers during the holiday season and beyond.
Showcasing a curated selection of 100 brands and 1,000 products across beauty, wellness, home, lifestyle, and gifting, all vetted by Essence’s editorial team, shoppers can confidently support Black founders while buying Black the block.
“Black women are building businesses in the midst of economic uncertainty, and they often do it without access to the retail infrastructure their peers rely on,” said Chief Content Officer at ESSENCE Communications Inc., Michele Ghee, in a press release. “The WeLoveUs.shop platform was designed to offer stability and a real pathway to scale in a moment where that support is needed most.”
The marketplace launches amid challenges for small businesses, including the impact of Trump’s tariff policies, widespread job losses across sectors, and the loss of visibility for Black founders after Target and other retailers rolled back their diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
“There was a lot of pushback, especially on social media, and you couldn’t really talk about being in [Target],” LaToya Stirrup, founder of Kazmaleje, told Digiday. “That limits you from being able to advertise, because we were getting the response of, ‘We’re not shopping there.’”
Stirrup debuted on Target’s shelves in 2022 alongside 20 other Black-owned beauty brands as part of the retailer’s plan to spend over $2 billion with Black-led businesses by 2025. However, Target’s rollback of its DEI initiatives earlier this year sparked backlash and a boycott, leading many loyal shoppers to avoid the store.
Stirrup experienced “a complete sales slowdown” before Target removed her haircare products from shelves, selling them online only. This prompted her and other founders, like Brittny Horne of RVL Wellness Co., to join Weloveus.shop. For Horne, who was also affected by Trump’s tariffs, the marketplace launch has provided a “really big boost” in sales.
The platform offers bi-weekly payouts, real-time inventory syncing via Shopify Collective, centralized customer service, and a transparent 30%-35% commission structure. While higher than other marketplaces—Amazon, for example, takes 8%-15% per sale, depending on the product category, but also charges for services like advertising and fulfillment—WeLoveUs.shop’s commission provides access to Essence’s complete media ecosystem, including editorial coverage, social promotion, newsletters, and PR support. Brands have also expressed appreciation for the bi-weekly payouts, compared to the typical 90–120-day payment cycles in wholesale and consignment arrangements.
“For [Essence] to be able to put their media power behind more Black-owned brands at a time of great need, when small incomes are struggling, can really support them,” said Sky Canaves, a principal retail analyst at eMarketer.
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A woman is facing backlash online after revealing she called an ambulance during a severe hangover. Many viewers argued the situation didn’t warrant emergency services and accused her of wasting resources.
In her initial clip, which has garnered over 936,300 views, TikToker Gia (@gia.marini) films herself with an IV in her arm, looking visibly unwell. “U guys ever have a hangover so bad u call 911,” she writes in the video’s text overlay.
Sheila Atim has been crowned the new Queen of the Damned. The Ugandan-British actress, singer, and playwright has been cast as Akasha, the legendary Queen of the Damned in The Vampire Lestat, AMC’s next chapter in its Interview with the Vampire universe. Despite her name not ringing with instant familiarity, casting Sheila Atim as Akasha is a sound choice, given the actress’s formidable stage presence, her quiet intensity, and her ability to embody both grace and ferocity — the qualities that make her perfect for the role.
But before we familiarize ourselves with Sheila Atim’s career and why she’s the best choice for reintroducing one of gothic fiction’s most iconic queens to a whole new generation of viewers, let’s take a side-step to discuss the upcoming series, The Vampire Lestat. For those who haven’t seen Season 2 of The Interview with the Vampire, which first aired in May 2024, please beware, the following paragraphs contain spoilers.
Though it sounds like an entirely new series adjacent to The Interview with the Vampire, based on Anne Rice’s fantastic novels, The Vampire Lestat is actually Season 3 of the show, just rebranded with a new title. The first two seasons adapted the first book of the same name, and followed the vampire Louis recounting his past and tumultuous relationship with his maker, the vampire Lestat. At some point in Season 2, it’s revealed that Louis did not have the un-beating heart to actually kill Lestat, and that the latter is alive and well, with the series ending seeing the two reunited once again.
Due to its success, the series has been renewed for the third season and, given that it covers the events of the second book in Anne Rice’s The Vampire Chronicles, has been “rebranded” to The Vampire Lestat, aptly adhering to the second book’s title. The second book covers the events following The Interview with the Vampire, Lestat’s origins, and his encounter with Akasha, the progenitor of all vampires. This is where Sheila Atim comes in, bringing a depth of theatrical and screen experience to the role.
In The Vampire Lestat novel, Akasha is depicted as the most powerful and ancient figure in vampire lore, whose tragedy is inseparable from her power. She’s the origin and undoing of all vampires, who slept beneath centuries of dust until Lestat’s music and his pure rockstar aura-farming woke her from her slumber. Her re-emergence shifts the story completely, and the power dynamic between her as the creator of vampires and vampires as her creations shakes the vampire world to its core.
Her own origins as a mortal queen becoming the first vampire, her dual nature as both the creator and the destroyer, and her longing for companionship, particularly from Lestat, make her an immensely complex character to portray. This portrayal demands experience and depth, and given her award-winning stage work and her roles in film and television, such as The Woman King, Bruised, The Underground Railroad, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Sheila Atim will undoubtedly deliver an astounding performance.
Atim also steps into a role famously portrayed by Aaliyah in the 2002 movie Queen of the Damned, which adapted sections from Anne Rice’s The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned novels. The cinematic adaptation, though really entertaining, is only loosely based on the original material, which diminishes its storytelling quality. But it did introduce Aaliyah’s version of Akasha to the world, transforming the character from a literary myth into a pop-culture icon, untouchable, unapologetic, and beautifully dangerous.
Given her talent, Atim’s upcoming portrayal has the potential to honor Aaliyah’s legacy while also depicting Akasha’s depth and complexity as they were written by Rice. Atim’s previous performances showed that the actress doesn’t just perform her roles, but also inhabits them, and her upcoming portrayal could give us Akasha that’s ancient, intelligent, enduring, and quietly devastating. Of course, Atim’s upcoming performance will undoubtedly draw comparisons between hers and Aaliyah’s version of the character.
But those comparisons don’t have to be competitive in nature, because they can be viewed as a continuation. While the previous works, like The Interview with the Vampire and Queen of the Damned movies, did make some significant deviations from the source material, Aaliyah’s performance made Akasha into an immortal pop icon. Atim’s performance can still build on that legacy instead of trying to replace or surpass it, and expand the character further.
Sadly, we’ll have to wait until 2026 to witness Sheila Atim’s performance, as The Vampire Lestat still lacks a precise release date. For those interested in the character she’s set to portray, we strongly encourage you to watch The Queen of the Damned from 2002; the movie might’ve blasphemed against Anne Rice’s work, but it’s entertaining if you like goth culture and exceptionally good soundtracks. Also, Talamasca has also premiered, and the series unpacks even more of Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe.
The post Who Is Sheila Atim, the Queen of the Damned in ‘The Vampire Lestat’? appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.
A Boston woman has gone viral after her friend’s birthday dinner was soured by their server. The three-minute debrief, which currently sits at 4,052 views, begins with the TikToker explaining that she wasn’t going to name the restaurant. However, she had no qualms about putting the server on blast.
The meal started like any other, with TikToker Esteffany (@arrozysancocho) and her friend sitting down at this restaurant and putting in their drink orders. For the dinner, which was to celebrate the friend’s birthday, they decided to go straight to entrees. As the friend began telling the waiter her order, he stopped her halfway. He told her that this was a lot of food and that these were meant to be shareable.