Self magazine recently ended up looking quite foolish when they ran the following about Monika Allen and her fantastic jogging tutu. From UT San Diego:
After getting permission from Allen to use the photo without spelling out exactly how it would appear, the magazine splashed it in a section called “The BS Meter,” which differentiates between “legit” and “lame.” In a blurb about “new running tulle,” the magazine opined, “A racing tutu epidemic has struck NYC’s Central Park, and it’s all because people think these froufrou skirts make you run faster. Now, if you told us they made people run away from you faster, maybe we would believe it.”
That didn’t sit well with a lot of people considering that Allen is a brain cancer survivor who ran the LA Marathon while completing chemotherapy treatments and the tutus are used to raise funds for charity. From The NY Daily News:
She co-founded Glam Runner, an organization that sells racing tutus to raise money for San Diego’s Girls on the Run, a youth development program. She’s raised about $5,600 for the program by making 2,000 tutus over the past three years.
Allen ran the L.A. Marathon dressed as Wonder Woman and wearing a starry blue tutu. Her friend’s running bib reads “Die Tumor Die!”
Now of course, the folks at Self could’ve found this out before hand and saved themselves the hassle. But they didn’t and were forced to the go to the public woodshed for an apology:
Self editor-in-chief Lucy Danziger has apologized after her magazine mocked brain cancer survivor Monika Allen in a recent issue.
“I am personally mortified,” Danziger told USA Today. “I had no idea that Monika had been through cancer. It was an error. It was a stupid mistake. We shouldn’t have run the item…”
In a statement, Self apologized “for the association of her picture in any way other than to support her efforts to be healthy.”
“Of course if tutus make you run with a smile on your face or with a sense of purpose or community, then they are indeed worth wearing, for any race,” the statement reads. (via)
Too little too late? Does it really matter when you look that damn good? I say just keep running and brush the dirt off your shoulders. Beating cancer is sort of like reaching old age, you can wear and do what you want. That’s why I’m planning a huge bank robbery on my 80th birthday.
Then I plan on giving the money to the poor because it means more when you do it for a good cause. Keep it up, Ms. Allen!
(Via NY Daily News / UT San Diego / Glam Runner)