What’s a Black Man’s Letter?

BML is one of our Culture segments dedicated to giving Black men or masc-identifying people a platform, a voice, and a space to heal their hurt with a supportive global community. These are personal essays where you can share your lived experience, air your grievances or bring awareness to a cause close to your heart. These submissions must be honest and introspective, chronicling unfiltered thoughts with a personal affiliation to these truths. For op-eds, think pieces or cultural commentary, please refer to our contributor guidelines.

Who can contribute?

We encourage submissions from Black men / masc people from all walks of life. As such, you don’t have to be a member of the VAGUE community — our global network of artists and technologists working in our creative agency or regularly contributing to our media platform — to submit a letter.

How do I submit a Letter?

First, you’ll need to submit a pitch or media request. Our editors will then get in touch to confirm your pitch, discuss publishing dates and provide you with a submission link and our invoicing guidelines. We strongly encourage letters written in your own words, but you also have the option to work with one of our community writers e.g. meet Ikhade, a Nigerian expat in Ukraine during the Russian invasion.

Once you’re finished writing, upload your story as a Google / Word doc via the link provided, check out any editorial suggestions from peer review, and submit your invoice. For members, we’ll hit you up on the community Discord server with updates. Otherwise, we’ll shoot you an email you once your article’s live.

Will I get paid?

Yes! However, we are currently only able to offer a flat rate of £30 per article.

VAGUE is a small self-funded company run by two young Black women working part-time alongside other commitments to manage a global community of over 500 members; a creative agency catering to clients such as the Royal Exchange Theatre, Portico Library and Entertainment One; as well as VAGUE’s media platform with over 200,000 monthly impressions across our channels.

As creatives ourselves, fair pay is at the forefront of our minds so we regularly review our rates with our members as the agency grows. Keep an eye on this page for our latest rates, or join the community to receive price increase (PINC) alerts in our members newsletter.

How often can I submit?

As many times as you like! We’re a community so we love to see how our contributors and the stories they share are developing over time. We even encourage dialogue between our contributors — check out how Ayan and Rebecca lifted the lid on the beauty industry’s mismanagement of young women’s expectations and ideals.