Barbara Summers facts for kids

Barbara Summers (born September 6, 1944 – died November 2014) was an American writer and teacher. She also had a very successful career as a fashion model for 17 years, working with Ford Models, one of the best modeling agencies in America. Her book, Skin Deep, published in 1998, is a really important book about Black models in America and around the world. She spent more than ten years talking to fashion experts on three different continents to gather their stories for this book.

Who Was Barbara Summers?

Barbara Gene Summers was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on September 6, 1944. She was one of five children. Her family moved to Hartford, Connecticut in 1949, where she grew up.

Her Education and Career

Barbara graduated from Weaver High School in 1963. She then went to the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a bachelor's degree. She continued her studies at Yale University and then at the University of Paris at the Sorbonne in France. She loved France very much.

After living in Paris, she moved to Puerto Rico and Haiti for several years with her husband, Marc Albert, and their son. When she returned to New York City, she started her career as a model while also teaching at a college. Later, she went back to teaching full-time at Hostos Community College in the Bronx.

Writing Important Books

As a writer and editor, Barbara Summers published many books. Some of her works include:

• I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America (1989)
• Nouvelle Soul: Short Stories (1992)
• The Price You Pay (a novel about the modeling world, 1993)
• Skin Deep: Inside the World of Black Fashion Models (1998)
• Black and Beautiful: How Women of Color Changed the Fashion Industry (2001)
• Open the Unusual Door: True-Life Stories of Challenge, Adventure, and Success by Black Americans (2005)

Her most famous book is Skin Deep from 1998. This book explores the role of African-American models in the fashion industry and how Black designers became important. It shares amazing stories of Black supermodels like Dorothea Towles, Beverly Johnson, Iman, and Barbara Cheeseborough. The magazine The Crisis called the book "an amazingly comprehensive history" and "an inspiring read."

Barbara Summers once wrote about herself, saying that her life was a surprising adventure. She was a Ford fashion model, traveled the world, taught, wrote, and was an editor. She believed that artists have a special job to not just speak the truth, but to "sing it." She also believed that "We are all related" and that "war is not the answer. Love is."

She passed away unexpectedly in 2014 when she was 70 years old.

A Look at Her Life

Barbara Summers' son is Kimson Albert, who is an animator and producer. She was also survived by her sisters, Lucy Summers and Dona Carter, and her brother, Don Summers.