 Hey everyone, I'm Colin Daniels, an editor here at AdWeek. Today I'm joined by Corey Weaver of Abercrombie Brands, and we're going to be talking about how Abercrombie is spreading LGBTQ plus inclusion, not just in June, but year round. So let's get into it. Corey, thank you so much for joining us today. You're so welcome. Thank you so much for having me. Can you give us a little bit of background on what you do for Abercrombie, kind of what your role is? I am the head of brand PR and influencer marketing for Abercrombie Bitch. I get to do the fun sort of PR, work with all sorts of different broadcast shows and magazines and websites and media outlets in general to really tell the story about the Abercrombie brand and our great products and campaigns and things like that. On the flip side of that, for influencer marketing, I oversee our influencer marketing campaigns and our affiliate marketing channels. So I love everything I do here. I've loved seeing how you all have stepped into away from just doing diversity and inclusion just in June, but it's really implemented in part of the brand. So whether you're looking on social or you're in store, you guys are really trying to put not just LGBTQ plus inclusion, but all types of inclusion into the brand. I'm so glad you noticed that. You know, that's something that's really important to us. Diversity, inclusion, representation is so much more than what's in front of the camera. It also has to be everything behind the camera as well. So that spirit of belonging that we try and engender amongst all of our customers and associates is really woven throughout the fabric of everything that we do here. I think that's very key, because I feel like a lot of times, even brains that are inclusive and do try to show diversity and inclusion will just have it on their website, maybe hidden down at like maybe size three font. But you can easily go to your guys' website wherever and find like, okay, this is what they're working with. We know what we value as a culture based off of what we show and what we talk about. So you go to our website and right along the top navigation, it says Purpose right there. And you can click into it and it's a whole page talking about what our commitments are, what our values are, what our purpose is as a brand. And then you go to our social media pages and you see that representation of LGBTQ couples or text or copy only posts saying, hey, gay, lesbian, bi, trans, non-binary, intersex, asexual, pan, however you identify, it's okay to say. From an internal aspect, do you guys do anything to highlight your LGBTQ plus employees and just inclusion like your round or interwoven the people who work their opinions into the collaborations and just anything else that you all do? We do a couple of different things internally. We have an associate resource group, which is very robust, inclusive of people who are LGBTQIA plus identified as well as tons and tons of allies. And then we obviously have the Trevor Project collab that we do and we bring in all manner of people to take part in that. Recently we had Amit Paley, who is the head of Trevor Project, come and talk about the impact that our relationship has had on the work that they do. How did the partnership with the Trevor Project come about? The Trevor Project is one of the longest relationships that we've had in terms of a purpose partner for Abercrombie. It started over a decade ago. The relationship sort of took a new form. A couple of years ago, we got a new CEO in 2017, Fran Horowitz, and early on in her tenure as CEO, she was like, what more do you guys wanna see here? And Corey Robinson, who's now the head of merchandising and design for Abercrombie, said, hey, we've got this really wonderful relationship with the Trevor Project. Let's take that to the next level. He came up with the idea of creating a co-designed collection with the Trevor Project, not just bringing products out there and then slapping the Trevor name on it, but really working with them in tandem to bring a collection about and then keeping that collection around year long. And then throughout the year, we have roundup campaigns that we do with them. So shoppers can round up their purchases to donate to Trevor Project. We work with them on some content stuff, so National Coming Out Day, various posts and content on our Instagram via our A&F Conversation series about the importance of mental health and supporting LGBTQ youth. So it's been a very wonderful relationship that we've had with them over the years and it's just grown even closer. You can tell that it's now actually interwoven into the brand and that you guys are really taking that partnership serious, not just to please everybody, but you actually wanna be there and really cultivate that partnership. I think that's one of the most gratifying things about being a part of this brand as a queer person myself is seeing the commitment from everybody at the company, from our CEO, all the way to our in-store employees to maintaining that close relationship that we have to the Trevor Project as well as our commitment to the community in which I belong. Speaking of the collab with the Trevor Project, is there anything you're most looking forward to for the new stuff that you guys have coming out? Yes, we've got the stuff that is like bombastically rainbow as every pride clutch. But the thing that I love is that there are so many pieces that are really, really wearable for every day, like a color block set that's really cool and multicolored and I'm actually really excited about that one. My last question is, what advice do you have for brand tours saying like, we want to be more inclusive, we want to do more, but how can we support the LGBT people's community year-round? Like where do we start? The way that I operate in communications and the like purpose marketing that we do, it's less public relations and more public relationships. I think for a lot of brands, viewing the relationship that you're forming with a community is the same way as forming a relationship with another human being. Would you date yourself? Would you date your brand? A lot of brands wanna show up for the pride parades with the streamers and the flags and the glitter and the lips and lashes and all that good stuff. A lot of people don't wanna show up and get their hands dirty when times get tough though and that's really the function of an ally. Celebrate with us, but also get in and do the work with us as well. We've LGBT identities into your regular campaigns. Think about things intersectionally. Maybe your best resource is just talking to your employees. Make sure that your employees personally, they can bring their whole selves to work where they might have these ideas that say, I'm like, oh, like let's do a panel on supporting black trans women for Black History Month. So it's important, like you said, to kind of build that relationship. That is so spot on because the fact is, you can't really engage your employees and expect them to be vulnerable and honest with you if you're not creating an environment in which they feel safe to be vulnerable and honest with you. Thank you so much, Corey, for joining us and talking with us. Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure chatting. Happy Pride Month. Happy Pride.