Editor’s letter: autumn 2024

Taken from the new print issue of THE FACE. Get your copy here.

Fame, fame, fatal fame. We didn’t set out to make an issue wrestling with the pitfalls of modern stardom. But that seemed to be a pressing concern for our four autumn cover stars, each grappling with their own kind of 21^st century pressures.

Take Emma Chamberlain, a 23-year-old ​“so influential,” writes contributor Biz Sherbert, ​“that her name has become shorthand for the characteristics of her entire generation.” Having had her start on YouTube in 2016, Emma’s been famous for almost a third of her life – and she’s candid about the psychological toll of making a living from being online: ​“There’s always a cost. With great success or great fortune, there’s always going to be an equal that is pain.” But, as she tells Biz, success or fortune isn’t what drives her: ​“I don’t care about being famous as much as I care about doing a good thing.”

It’s a feeling shared by fellow viralite Madeline Argy, who tells Senior Fashion Features Editor Eni Subair, ​“I just try my best to be someone that people can think of as comforting and as clever.” The 24-year-old was pulled through the wringer this summer after her break-up with Central Cee went nuclear, and more than 150 million people watched her videos detailing the fallout. For someone who’s made a USP of over-sharing, it certainly gave pause for thought: ​“Sometimes I’ll meet an influencer, and start having a genuinely heart-wrenching, deep conversation with them. And they kind of look at me like: ​‘I don’t know you.’ I forget that not everyone has that relationship with privacy.”

Privacy, too, was on the mind of writer Hanif Abdurraqib, when he spoke with Sudanese-Canadian musician Mustafa about his moving new album, Dunya. As Hanif writes, ​“every invitation presented to the public means a blurring of a border … The artist becomes a projection of the public’s ideas and ideals, and through that, everything warps.” What’s extraordinary about 28-year-old Mustafa, then, is that he remains an ​“artist 10 toes down for what [he] believes in,” be it the concerts he’s organised to aid Sudan and Gaza, or the video for his single Gaza is Calling, which featured Bella Hadid, and depicted the lives of Palestinian children seeking refuge. Both Mustafa and Bella have drawn a kind of international attention that takes some adjusting to: ​“I’m exhausted by the paranoia [that comes with that],” Mustafa tells Hanif. ​“We make heroes and idols out of regular people that didn’t ask for that position.”

Which leads us to Chappell Roan. The 26-year-old Missouri-born pop star has blown up quite spectacularly this year, following an opening slot on Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts tour and a string of viral performances (Chappell’s set at Lollapalooza is said to have drawn the festival’s biggest crowd of all time). She’s also generated headlines for her (perfectly reasonable, all things considered) determination to maintain boundaries: ​“I feel like fame is just abusive,” The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess singer tells Delia Cai, in a revealing profile of a star on the cusp of mega fame. All Chappell really wants is for ​“people to believe that I’m a good person and me believing it, too … When people are like, ​‘Whatever you’re doing, it helped me’ – I don’t think any award or any money or whatever can be exchanged for that compliment.” You have to imagine her fellow autumn cover stars would agree.

Matthew Whitehouse, Editor-in-Chief

London, August 2024