--- title: Why InStyle's Laura Brown Launched Badass Women Series description: Why 'InStyle' magazine's editor, Laura Brown, launched the Badass Women series, which celebrates women who are impacting their communities. canonical: https://time.com/5321505/laura-brown-instyle-badass-women/ author: Laura Brown article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-26T12:01:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:39:04.925Z og:title: Why InStyle’s Editor, Laura Brown, Decided to Launch a Series Celebrating Badass Women og:description: 'Being a badass is speaking your mind and showing up' og:url: https://time.com/5321505/laura-brown-instyle-badass-women/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf59060d37b22060c/698933da929fadd282bf0e98/laura-brown-instyle-badass-women.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3000 og:image:height: 1688 og:image:alt: InStyle's Laura Brown and Ellen Pompeo, Badass Women og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Why InStyle’s Editor, Laura Brown, Decided to Launch a Series Celebrating Badass Women twitter:description: 'Being a badass is speaking your mind and showing up' twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf59060d37b22060c/698933da929fadd282bf0e98/laura-brown-instyle-badass-women.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Why _InStyle_’s Editor, Laura Brown, Decided to Launch a Series Celebrating Badass Women > Sponsored content. 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Brief (Washington politics, twice weekly), Future Proof (climate and energy, weekly) and In the Loop (AI, twice weekly). All are free at time.com/newsletters and together reach more than 1.1 million engaged readers. #### Which TIME newsletter should I subscribe to? It depends on what you follow. For a daily briefing, The Brief. For health, Health Matters. For Washington politics, D.C. Brief. For AI and technology, In the Loop. For climate and energy as a business story, Future Proof. For culture recommendations, Worth Your Time. For how TIME's journalism gets made, Inside TIME. Readers can select any combination at time.com/newsletters. #### Are TIME's newsletters free? Yes. All seven TIME newsletters are free to join at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes TIME's newsletters? TIME journalists write them. Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=59b346b1-48ab-452a-a79a-bc9de97ec323&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) by [Laura Brown](https://time.com/author/laura-brown/) ## Laura Brown Jun 26, 2018 12:01 PM UTC  Actress Ellen Pompeo (L) and InStyle Editor in Chief Laura Brown attend InStyle and Brahmin's Badass Women Dinner hosted by Laura Dern on April 14, 2018 in West Hollywood, Calif. Actress Ellen Pompeo (L) and InStyle Editor in Chief Laura Brown attend InStyle and Brahmin's Badass Women Dinner hosted by Laura Dern on April 14, 2018 in West Hollywood, Calif. Donato Sardella—Getty Images for InStyle by [Laura Brown](https://time.com/author/laura-brown/) ## Laura Brown Jun 26, 2018 12:01 PM UTC When President Trump announced a [ban on transgender individuals in the military](http://time.com/4916871/donald-trump-transgender-military-ban/) Iast summer, I was furious. I immediately asked my team at [_InStyle_](https://www.instyle.com/) to research and profile a transgender woman serving in the U.S. military for our next issue. They landed on U.S. Army company commander [Jennifer Peace](https://www.instyle.com/celebrity/badass-woman-jennifer-peace-transgender-military), who joined the military when she was 19, is a married mother of three and has participated in every war of her generation. “The idea that I could lose a job I’m passionate about because of something that has no impact on my ability to serve is really difficult to think about,” she said. “Nothing else makes sense to me. I can’t imagine not putting on a uniform.” As I read about Peace’s journey, and saw pictures of her – on duty, and with her wife and children – I thought, damn, what a badass. It was then that my team and I decided to launch [Badass Women](https://www.instyle.com/tag/badass-women), a series celebrating fearless women who have consistently fought for equality. History is filled with women who have changed the world with a singular or daring act, but it’s those who keep going — with or without attention — whom I really admire and who are truly changing the game. One badass I am incredibly attached to is [Mary Lou Robinson](https://www.instyle.com/news/badass-women-cyber-weapons). I was watching NBC Nightly News and up popped this lady, who looks like your favorite friend’s mom when you were a kid. (You know, the one who had a halo.) Robinson may be that too, but she’s actually the chief of the [high power electromagnetics division](http://www.kirtland.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/817191/afrl-scientist-passionate-about-achievements-in-electromagnetics/) of the Air Force Research Laboratory. She is developing missiles with microwave technology, which will be capable of [disarming the electronic systems of dangerous weapons](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/north-korea/microwave-weapon-could-fry-north-korean-missile-controls-say-experts-n825361). Our team hightailed it to Robinson’s base in New Mexico to photograph her with one of her missiles — rather more exciting than a fashion shoot. As she told _InStyle_, “If your job is to hurt me, or the United States, then I can stop you.” Apart from her world-saving abilities, Robinson’s straightforwardness and unshakeable confidence in her ability inspires me. At a media panel in New York that I invited Robinson to, the moderator asked, “Mary Lou, how does it feel to be James Bond?” She replied: “James Bond wishes he was me.” See? Badass.  Serena Williams on the cover of InStyle’s inaugural Badass Women issue. Courtesy of InStyle In order to bring these trailblazing women together, I decided to launch regular Badass Women events. At our inaugural dinner last month, I had the pleasure of sitting near [Saru Jayaraman](http://time.com/4297459/jose-andres-chefs-restaurant-industry-video/), the co-founder of [Restaurant Opportunities Centers United](http://rocunited.org/), which aims to improve wages and working conditions for America’s restaurant workers. She asked the crowd of [Time’s Up founders](http://time.com/5083809/times-up-hollywood-sexual-harassment/) and activists how many of us had ever been waitresses. Almost everyone raised their hand. Then Jayaraman asked us how we could feed ourselves and our families working at a job where, in some states, the minimum wage is $2.70\. $2.70\. I couldn’t get that figure out of my head, nor could anyone else. With such meager earnings, it was painful imagining what some women must have to endure for even a $2 tip. Myself and Laura Mulleavy, one of the sisters behind the fashion brand Rodarte, decided then and there to design a T-shirt to benefit Jayaraman’s organization, which will be available this summer. That was the point of the event, to foster change and opportunity for women. Jayaraman is one of the most compelling, decent and persuasive women you’ll ever meet. Her dedication for fairness in the hospitality industry doesn’t stoke guilt, she just wants to rally all of us to help each other. See, that’s the thing: women have to pay attention. In this fraught political climate, we can’t take anything for granted. Those of us with a voice can’t rest on our laurels — or our [tax cuts](http://time.com/5007788/heres-what-the-republican-tax-plan-would-mean-for-the-average-trump-voter/) — and retreat to our bubbles. As director Ava DuVernay said at our Badass dinner, we were there to represent, “the women not in the room, who will never be in the room.” Being a badass is speaking your mind and showing up — not just for yourself, but for the women around you and all of the women who will come after you. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5321505/laura-brown-instyle-badass-women/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5321505/laura-brown-instyle-badass-women/"},"headline":"Why InStyle’s Editor, Laura Brown, Decided to Launch a Series Celebrating Badass Women","datePublished":"2018-06-26T12:01:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:39:04.925Z","description":"'Being a badass is speaking your mind and showing up'","url":"https://time.com/5321505/laura-brown-instyle-badass-women/","keywords":["motto","activism","Career & Workplace"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf59060d37b22060c/698933da929fadd282bf0e98/laura-brown-instyle-badass-women.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Laura Brown","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/laura-brown/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf59060d37b22060c/698933da929fadd282bf0e98/laura-brown-instyle-badass-women.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"InStyle's Laura Brown and Ellen Pompeo, Badass Women","caption":"Actress Ellen Pompeo (L) and InStyle Editor in Chief Laura Brown attend InStyle and Brahmin's Badass Women Dinner hosted by Laura Dern on April 14, 2018 in West Hollywood, Calif.","creditText":"Donato Sardella—Getty Images for InStyle","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5321505/laura-brown-instyle-badass-women/","name":"Why InStyle’s Editor, Laura Brown, Decided to Launch a Series Celebrating Badass Women"}}]}] ```