Grazia

welcome to the issue

After 100 very long days, it feels like the world is tentatively opening up again – and if your friendship group is anything like mine, people are divided about how they feel about it. In our regular Friendeavours column (p45), Emma Jane Unsworth explores the etiquette around friends reuniting and how you can get over any social anxiety you’re feeling after weeks in lockdown. Elsewhere, we help you make the most of a great British staycation, whether that means holidaying from home (p40), going glamping (p74) or just hosting a brilliant barbecue from your balcony/ back garden (p78). And, whatever your attitude to these newfound freedoms, as our cover star – actor and activist Jameela Jamil – reminds us on p32, it’s worth remembering your own lessons from lockdown and…

over to you...

Have your say… Email us at feedback@graziamagazine.co.uk Post comments on graziadaily.co.uk Tweet us at @GraziaUK Find us on Facebook at Grazia UK Follow us on Instagram @GraziaUK CHANGE MUST HAPPEN I so appreciated your Black Lives Matter coverage (‘It really feels like something is changing this time’, 29 June). I’m an Asian Muslim married to a mixed-race (part-Jamaican, part-English) man, both of us born here to immigrant families, and proud of our heritages. I am a mental health professional working with young people from diverse backgrounds and used to feel blessed. This changed in the last few years, which have been very confusing and painful due to the onslaught of racism and hostility played out since the last US election and Brexit. And often we’ve been told again and again by the…

star letter

ROOTING OUT RACISM I was wowed by your bold article on white supremacy (15 June). As an Asian woman, British for 25 years, racism has dominated my life. In the ’80s, in my hometown of Johannesburg, I joined the school boycotts for equality in education; I demonstrated for the release of Nelson Mandela. I was shot at with tear gas and rubber bullets. Yet I’ve experienced more racism here. When your oppressors are openly racist, when they carry burning crosses, racism is easier to define. But when it’s subtle and pervasive it’s much harder. Harder to prove, fight and eliminate. Institutional racism is what harms BAME people in the UK. And that can be defined, quantified and legislated for. The Government must listen and act. It’s not about statues or the…

grazia view

Let’s remember the lessons of lockdown “As we prepare for ‘Super Saturday’ – 4 July, when pubs, bars, restaurants and hotels will reopen – and we reach the 100 days in lockdown milestone, many of us are excited for the freedom this will bring. Yet some are wary about going back to our old way of life and feel a sense of social anxiety. We should see this as an opportunity to take the lessons we learned in lockdown with us into our brave new world: looking out for our community, being more flexible, appreciating the smaller things can all come with us. Rather than rushing back to how it was before, let’s rebuild our life to be better, more inclusive – how we want it to be.”…

my ride on the corona-coaster takes a downward dip…

SATURDAY WAS WEIRD. I saw some friends, who intro’d me to their friends – the first time I’d met anyone new since this began – which felt nice in the moment, chill and (whisper it) normal. But afterwards? I was overwhelmed by a self-consciousness, a shame I hadn’t experienced since I was 13. Was I too loud in front of the new people (I wondered)? Too flirtatious? Too OTT-look-at-me com-e-dy? Too instantly intimate, too inadequately boundary’d? Oh God: I was, wasn’t I? And I wasn’t even drunk! How grotesque! How like me ! How like I always am, always have been… And so on, until I’d skedaddled down an emotional rabbit hole I could only identify as ‘no one at school likes me’, because that was the last time I’d felt…

chart of lust

1. Non-mover MARCUS RASHFORD Our respect for this footballer/ activist knows no bounds. That is how we effect change, eh? Apparently has Jay-Z’s Roc Nation management onside, which makes sense. 2. Up KATE MOSS ON A BIKE Still knocking it out the park in terms of the ‘create a new iconic look in all circs’ situation. This should be nothing much – yet, is everything. But you know her. 3. New in THE ‘ICK’ The exact moment at which fancying a new partner turns to repulsion. Coined by Love Island’s Olivia Attwood, currently being celebrated by the users of TikTok. 4. New in PHILLIP SCHOFIELD V LADY COLIN CAMPBELL How we adore a feud! These two went at it live on This Morning, after Phil dared question the integrity of LCC’s new book on the royals. 5. Non-mover CHRIS PRATT The pre-ripped incarnation of…