Celebrity women take to social media to empower and uplift each other

Michaella Huck

Celebrities like Ava DuVernay, Gabrielle Union and Vanessa Bryant have all participated in the new social media photo challenge that encourages women to support other women.

Alex Behunin, Reporter

Celebrity selfies can be seen as superficial by onlookers, however, a new social media photo challenge, “Women Supporting Women,” has gone viral resulting in women uplifting each other through selfies.

Instagram photo challenges come around every month or so. Some popular ones that have come and gone are #365photochallenge, #10yearchallenge, #UntilTomorrow and #QuarantineBingo.

The latest challenge is women supporting one another and celebrating themselves by taking a black-and-white photo of themselves and using the hashtag #womensupportingwomen, #blackandwhitechallenge or captioning their photos with the phrase “challenge accepted.”

The challenge promotes positivity and female empowerment amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as building women’s confidence and supporting each other online.

It is unclear who exactly created this photo challenge or how it got started, but there are currently 7.5 million posts tagged with #womensupportingwomen and 1 million posts tagged with #blackandwhitechallenge.

Many celebrities have joined in on the viral challenge, including Zoe Saldana, Kerry Washington and more.

Zoe Saldana, an actress who plays Gamora in “Guardians of the Galaxy,” joined the movement. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDH7LUQhd7u/

Kerry Washington, the star of “Scandal,” posted her picture on Instagram and tagged Vannessa Bryant, the late Kobe Bryant’s wife, to participate.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDHx2YmH0I5/

Reese Witherspoon,  a prominent television star seen in “Big Little Lies,” “The Morning Show” and “Little Fires Everywhere” posted on Instagram.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDJo20Pg4IT/

Mj Rodriguez, one of the stars of Pose on FX joined the challenge.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDJvh2njFVF/

Academy Award, Emmy, and two time Tony winner Viola Davis joined in.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDIOf4EB912/

Some celebrities such as Camila Blackett, TV writer, suggested the challenge was nothing more than a reason for women to post a “hot photo”.

https://twitter.com/camillard/status/1287768130140246022