Welcome to E!'s Tales From the Top, our series on women who are leaders in their fields and masters of their craft. Spanning industries and experiences, these powerhouse women answer all the questions you've ever had about how they got to where they are today—and what they overcame to get there. Read along as they bring their resumés to life.
It's the sort of accolade a million girls would kill for. And landing on Vogue—as the fashion bible's first ever Black cover model, no less—is certainly in the highlight reel of Beverly Johnson's life. "It's our Oscar," the pioneering supermodel told E! News of that initial 1974 cover, one of the more than 500 that she's graced. "It's our gold medal in the fashion world."
But when considering her legacy, it's the moments not caught on camera that often come into sharp focus. Explained Johnson, "I think about how many people that I touched."
Like the woman who recently approached her at an airport. "She goes, 'I met you decades and decades ago. And I was on my way to interview for a Wall Street job," Johnson shared. The woman then recounted how the Buffalo, N.Y., native gave her a hug and told her she was going to nail it.
"I'm listening to her, and I said, 'Well, did you get the job?'" recalled Johnson. "And she said, 'Yeah, I got the job. And I'm the ambassador to Trinidad.' Could you imagine that you could affect somebody's life like that?"
And, yet, the 70-year-old has done so time and again, perhaps most crucially on the board at the Barbara Sinatra Children's Center. Dedicated to child abuse prevention, treatment and education, the center is currently presenting an exhibit called "Overcame: Art of The Abused Child" at Virginia's Petersburg Area Arts League, featuring pieces created by abuse victims as they underwent art therapy.
Marveling at the difference in, say, the "really out of control" stick figures a child may have created at the start of treatment to the sunshine and trees they drew at the end, Johnson noted, "It's softening and it's getting brighter and lighter."
She saw a similar unburdening when tapped to lead a self-esteem seminar at the California-based non-profit.
"I make them look very close into the mirror, really into their eyes all the way to their soul," she shared of her go-to confidence-boosting trick. "And once they stop laughing, I tell them to say, 'I love you.' They're saying, 'I love you' to themselves and, just, something is released in them that is staggering.
It's a practice she does herself whenever in need of a lift. And it's not the only secret to success that the entrepreneur is modeling.
Five decades after she turned that Vogue cover into a career that's included acting roles, a reality series, three books and a seemingly endless slate of products, Johnson told E! News how she continues to do her thing—on the runway and off.
E! News: Your first job in fashion was working at a boutique in Buffalo. How did that set the stage for everything that came after?
Beverly Johnson: I was forced! I was this nerd and I was like, "Work at the boutique? No." And [my mom] insisted because I had no clothes for school. All I had was sweatpants and cut-off jeans and all that kind of jock wear. It was Mimi, the manager of the store, who kept talking about if I ever give up this idea of becoming a lawyer, to be a model. And I was just like, "Mimi, I love you, thank you so much. But I'm going to be a lawyer." In my family, you went to university. There were no ifs, ands or buts about it. And that's what I wanted to do. At the end of the summer—of course I was the No. 1 sales clerk—she gave me a little piece of paper with a name on it and said, "Just take the paper."
E!: What happened next?
BJ: I went to my college in Boston, Northeastern University. But I was so homesick. And I ran into a group of girls who really got tired of me crying every night on the phone to my parents. They were the A-crowd. So they took me under their arm to tell me about the soap operas and all of those cool things.
I worked at the Roxbury YWCA teaching people how to swim and when I was fired from that job, I was freaking out. And they said, "Why don't you just become a model?" They picked up a magazine and there was a girl standing there with her hands on her hips. And they said, "They make $75 an hour." My father made $75 a week working in the steel plant. Then I remembered I had that piece of paper! And that was it. My mother went against my father's wishes and we went up to Condé Nast and I got my first job at Glamour magazine as a model.
E!: When did you set your sights on the Vogue cover?
BJ: You needed to have a Vogue cover in order to be a top model. I was in a meeting with Eileen Ford. She was the most powerful woman I've ever seen. I said, "I want to have a cosmetics contract and I want to have a Vogue cover." And that's when she said, "You'll never have a Vogue cover." Now, she wasn't being mean or anything. In retrospect, she was just telling me the flat-out truth. I realized I wasn't going to get that cover there. But I wrote her the sweetest note saying, "You were like parents to me and it's business, that's why I'm leaving. And I hope if I ever change my mind, you will welcome me back." And I went to Wilhelmina [Models], I got the Vogue cover and about six months later I did go back.
E!: How did you deal with someone telling you that your dreams were too big?
BJ: There was a fire in my belly and I'm really hyper-focused. I was a competitive swimmer and you're taught to keep your head down and swim as fast as you can. Sometimes you can take a little peek at your competition, but basically it's you in the water. So I really applied that to everything in my life: to schoolwork, to getting a boyfriend. I was not really affected by what people said or did or the jealousy that surrounds you. It doesn't throw me off track.
E!: Tell me about landing that first Vogue cover.
BJ: It was one of the most exciting moments in life. Right now my heart is beating when I think about that cover. You hear that song, "If you make it here, you'll make it anywhere," that was my theme song walking down the street after that cover. It was huge to me. I had put a goal out there and I had reached out. I could help my family out because of the money I was earning. I got a chance to go around the world. It was definitely a defining moment in my life.
E!: Did you feel pressure to stay on top?
BJ: You go in with that. We're taught when we first go into the business that this is a five- or six-year career. You know, you better get what you're getting ready to do after this, because the phone is going to stop ringing. So I started right away with what I was going to do afterwards. I was working with a guy for a skincare line, doing these avocado wraps on my hair. It was just really exciting that I didn't feel that, when the phone stopped ringing, I wouldn't have something to fall back on.
But then the '80s came and that's when everything was more, more, more. And I said, "I'm not going anywhere. Now they're making all this money and I'm supposed to go somewhere? I'm staying." So I just kept reinventing myself. To this day.
E!: So you started planning for your second act while still in the first?
BJ: Yes. I think it's a valuable lesson in life, period. Because sometimes people don't understand that momentum is the most valuable thing you have. If you get momentum, you better ride the wave because it's very hard to start again. And people sometimes just take for granted that it's always going to be there and just kind of thumb their nose up at it if you're lucky enough to be successful at something.
E!: What would you go back and tell your teenage self?
BJ: This is what I tell my grandchildren—I have four of them, from age 4 to 10. They're doing sports and they're crying when they come off the field. I go, "Little David, I know this loss is hard, but you are going to learn more from this loss, more from this failure than you ever would from a win."
E!: What advice have you received that's stuck with you?
BJ: I think that what people don't realize is that nobody makes it alone. Nobody. I had mentors, I called them gurus. Somebody helped me every step of the way. Nobody does anything in a vacuum. I think people feel, "Oh, I've got to do it by myself." And it's this struggle and it's not fun.
I love collaborating with people, that's how I run my business. Because I know I can't do it by myself. And I know I'm not the smartest person in the room and I'm not afraid to empower people and bring everybody on the dream. That's something that a lot of young people that want to be entrepreneurs don't realize. It does take a team.
E!: You said you're still reinventing. What else are you looking to accomplish?
BJ: I have 28 projects. I diversify my portfolio. So there's movies, there's books, there's home décor lines. And I'm having fun. And what I realize is that you have enough time for everything. When I was younger, I didn't stop working for 10 years. I traveled the world. There was no Thanksgiving, Christmas, whatever. That's what I did. And what I realized is that time is an illusion, there's enough time for everything and you just kind of have to let go. I'm having a blast.