About Belle-Noir.com
Belle-Noir.com was originally concepted in September 2003 after a discussion in the Yahoo! Group EbonyBBWsandEbonyGentlemen in which several of the female members voiced their concerns over the lack of representation of BBWs of Color in print media. It was agreed that whether it was a magazine geared towards BBWs or a magazine for Women of Color, women size 14 and over were rarely ever featured at all. Ms. Aja B. Stubbs, seeing the past and recent demise of several magazines for both BBWs and women of color, decided to take her personal goal of starting a magazine to the 21st Century by creating an online publication that would be dedicated to women just like her and the lovely ladies in "Ebz". With the help of several friends in "Ebz" and a lot of determination, Belle Noir E-zine launched on November 1, 2003 on a Geocities site. The site witnessed 800+ hits in its first month online. Now, as it takes a permanent home on www.belle-noir.com, Belle-Noir.com hopes to continue to grow and be of service to BBWs of Color everywhere.

Belle-Noir.com's Objective
• To promote the positive image of Big Beautiful Women of Color by featuring content (i.e. articles, poetry, photos, etc.) of an informative, entertaining, and inspiring nature, created specifically with the Big Beautiful Woman of Color in mind.

• To support the work and deeds of other individuals who promote size acceptance and the positive portrayal of Big Beautiful Women both online through our website and off-line through the hosting of events such as workshops, luncheons, conferences, fashion shows, etc.

About The Founder
Ms. Aja B.Stubbs is a native of The Bronx, New York. She obtained her B.A. in Communication Arts from Marymount Manhattan College. She credits her internship in the Online Advertising department at Bloomberg L.P. in New York City for giving her the vision to realize that she could take two of her passions--graphic design and writing--and use them to turn her goal of starting her own magazine a reality. Having been a "round and curvy" female all of her life, she hopes to continue her work within the size-acceptance community through Belle-Noir.com.