They’re the faces of the Twin Cities that make this a better—and better-looking—place to live.

October 2006

They are stylish, confident, self-assured, and passionate. They’re creating buzz, stopping traffic, and breaking barriers. They are tastemakers and trendsetters, “famous” or not.

They have that inexplicable certain something—we attempt to describe these sets of characteristics as striking, attractive, hot, cute, alluring, glamorous, stylish, enigmatic, exotic, sexy. They radiate inner beauty—some even an attitude—and one could argue that inner beauty trumps physical beauty. They may even be more beautiful than our photos of them because capturing charisma on camera isn’t easy.

Beauty is an abstract, subjective shape shifter. Our notions of beauty are always changing. We can’t always agree on who’s beautiful, but mostly we can agree on what’s beautiful: a sunset, a newborn, love. The question remains: Does deeming something beautiful mean it’s important? There are more reasons to celebrate beauty than not. We’ve got overflowing inboxes, families, and bad news to deal with. So appreciate the beautiful people we see. Celebrate what makes us us.

Clearly, conventional beauty standards need a lot of revamping. Fortunately, in the last few decades, our culture has expanded its definition of beautiful—being unusual is now more of an asset than ever—though many of us still want beautiful people to have more purpose than just being idle idols. Some of what we once called ugly is now beautiful, and vice versa—and is likely to change again.

Yes, beauty can be about costuming or creating a character. But the truest beauty is both the simplest and most complex. As a society, we’re always obsessing over the most bizarre, extreme examples—and that’s become ugly.

Who’s the most beautiful person to you? Your mother? Father? Partner? Best friend? Odds are you didn’t choose Scarlett Johansson or George Clooney (though they are lovely-lovely). The people on these pages aren’t movie stars. They are faces that define who we are and what we look like. They might surprise, titillate, or inspire debate. Many of our subjects, classically beautiful or not, have quirks that turn conventional notions sideways.

These people symbolize what we are, rather than what we are not. We are not perfect. We are real. These people, and many like them, are worth celebrating—the survivors, activists, intellectuals, good parents, compassionate friends, individualists, musicians, comedians, and whatever else makes being human worthwhile.  —Katie Derdoski

Through Our Looking Glass
Finding people in the Twin Cities who define beauty was a difficult undertaking. It was hard to say no—we have a lot of amazing people here. Here’s how we narrowed our task: First, we generated a list of lookers and professional people-watchers and asked them to submit nominations. As editors and magazine staffers, we submitted our own nominees. Next, we hired four fashion photographers to spontaneously photograph people on the street or in their element. We considered the possibilities and chose a mix we believe represents the faces of the Twin Cities today—inclusive of as many occupations, ages, races, genders, and sexualities as possible. Is our list definitive? No, but it can’t be—everyone defines beautiful differently, and no one person possesses all the perfect features. Plus, we wanted to introduce some fresh faces to our pages (though you may see a high-profile person or two).