Glamour Magazine UK have been criticised for having a lack of diversity in their Youtuber award category.
The nominees
After the publication released the nominees for its annual Women of the Year Award categories, many were quick to point out that all the nominees shortlisted in the Youtuber section had something in common - they were all white, female, heterosexual women.
Popular YouTubers Zoe Sugg, Tanya Burr and Lily Pebbles are among those who are against each other in the YouTuber of the Year category. The magazine give voters the chance to pick someone else via an "other" box for those who have not been shortlisted, but many on Twitter pointed out that this was not enough.
The criticism
YouTuber Grace Victory, who has done a number of documentaries on BBC Three, questioned the magazine's shortlist tweeting that the category had "no diversity at all".
With some of the nominees having as many as eight million people subscribed to their YouTube channels, some pointed out that YouTubers such as Patricia Bright who recently earned one million subscribers were doing well enough to deserve recognition.
Grazia dating columnist Laura Jane Williams also condemned the magazine saying that they needed to "do better at representation" and echoing the backlash for the Oscar nominations in 2016, described the award category as #BlogSoWhite. She then went on to say previous Glamour Award winners who looked like her helped her strive to do better in her youth, suggesting that Glamour had a responsibility to inspire their diverse readership.
Their defence
The magazine replied back to the Grazia columnist on Twitter saying that they "were not sure" how it happened and encouraged Lucy to vote for her favourites using the "other" option. They then clarified that the "other" did not suggest non-white.
The Glamour Women of the Year Awards is in its fourteenth year.The votes for the awards commenced last week and the winners will be revealed at the magazine's awards ceremony in June this year.
