Russell decided to address the fashion world specifically — a community she has been involved with since her late teens — in her letter as a way to confront institutional and interpersonal oppression we engage with in our own circles. "This work is personal, hard, and painful. It requires some of us to give up power and money and privilege," she noted. "It requires us to see the harm we have done to others, and to listen to people who will challenge us. We have to make room for people to change."Plus, fashion has historically been a space where creatives have been able to harness their positions of power and access to create change. "I encourage people in the industry to look at the work Tibor Kalman did with Benetton, what Gran Fury did using advertising concepts, how people like Antanas Mockus and Jose Sokoloff have used creativity and art in their civic work," Russell explained, going on to list contemporary examples of diversity-minded enterprises, such as the media agency Browntourage , the street-casting modeling agency Lorde Inc. , and the work of photographers like Sanaa Hamid and Amaal Said , among others.As a follow-up to this letter, Russell plans on releasing what she calls The List, a resource for those in positions to hire within the industry to do so from a talented pool of women, people of color, LGBTQ and non-binary individuals, and those who are differently abled — and she'll send it to anyone who asks for it. "We are going to need conscious people everywhere — in every studio, at every magazine, in every design house — making sure that we survive and that all people in our society have a chance to thrive," she told us.Russell was signed to a modeling agency at 16, and has long used her public profile to speak out about causes and ideas she believes in, from challenging perception and privilege in a famous TED Talk to raising awareness about climate change with her Inconvenient Handbag project . "I always tell models that we are uniquely poised to become influential activists," she explained, "because we are some of the few women who have direct access to media, through social media as well as close relationships to press." These small motions within a highly visible and influential industry can effect change in the long run, Russell believes. Hopefully, the fashion industry will rally behind her call much like they did behind Clinton.