About MARÍA JOSÉ EVIA
In a world where beauty has been shaped by algorithms and fleeting trends, María José Evia doesn’t just report on the industry—she rewrites it. As the digital editor of InStyle México, she has transformed the editorial space into a battleground where ideas challenge outdated standards, where representation is no longer an empty promise, and where authenticity isn’t a marketing slogan but a declaration of principles.
Her work goes beyond aesthetics. María José dissects beauty with a critical eye, confronting the narratives that have dictated for decades who deserves to be seen, which bodies are celebrated, and whose stories get told. Her writing is a scalpel that slices through complacent narratives to expose uncomfortable truths: the normalization of fatphobia, the fragility of unattainable standards, and the urgent need to abandon exclusionary language in favor of a more real and conscious perspective.
She doesn’t just observe beauty’s evolution—she drives it forward. From her role, she has turned InStyle’s digital pages into a platform that doesn’t just inform but provokes thought. Every article, every image selection, and every interview carries her signature: a balance of depth, sensitivity, and a boldness rarely seen in the industry. Her mission isn’t to dictate what beauty is but to expand its possibilities, challenging the filters imposed by both society and the industry itself.
In an era where media can either be an echo or a revolution, María José chooses to be the latter. She doesn’t write to fill space—she writes to create it. She doesn’t follow trends—she dismantles them. And in that reconstruction, she not only amplifies voices that have been ignored for too long but also sets a new standard for what it means to lead in beauty: without concessions, without artifice, and with an unshakable conviction that the stories we tell can—and must—change the world.
How has your perception of beauty changed since taking on a leadership role, and how has this evolution influenced your professional decisions?
I think more critically about beauty since I took on a leadership role, especially regarding products. I love products, and now I try many each year, but I don’t want to be part of a culture where we only seek more quantity of anything. I also think about the concepts we use, ideas like flawless, imperfections, or anti-aging.
I feel discomfort with this constant tension between the interest in everything new and my natural cynicism toward consumer products, but I think it’s a good dose of discomfort. It makes me constantly question my impulses as a consumer and what I want to communicate to those who read both the site I edit and my personal social media. I suppose I’m comfortable with that discomfort.
What strategies do you use to balance external pressures about appearance with your personal values of beauty and authenticity?
It’s impressive how easy it is to fall into a very narrow standard of what beauty is, even forgetting that it is a much deeper, older, and more elusive concept than the beauty industry. I think my age is also a double-edged sword. After 36, I no longer have the currency that was youth, and at the same time, I’ve seen trends and “it girls” come and go. I have the experience to define what beauty is for me.
To be more specific: I read media, authors, and critical texts; I follow a wide variety of people on my social networks; and I have many interests beyond beauty. I also constantly play with makeup with the goal of being creative and experimenting, not to “look better.” In recent years, I started exercising regularly for the first time in my life, with the firm intention of making my body stronger, sleeping better, and managing anxiety, without thinking about sizes or as “punishment” for eating. It has been a very beautiful internal revolution.
All of this helps make my life much more varied, challenges my ideas, and constantly makes me rethink what my values are and whether I am living a life that is authentic to myself.
What is the most significant lesson about beauty that you have applied in your life, and how has it shaped your approach to empowering others?
My best friend since high school is a body-positive activist, and I believe growing up with her shaped who I am in many ways. In the context we’re discussing, she made me aware of internalized judgments, discrimination against people with larger bodies, and the lack of representation.
Having the privilege to learn about this topic from such a young age helped me develop a critical eye that I think takes others longer to cultivate. More recently, my readings on anti-racism have also greatly influenced how I understand beauty standards and how I perceive beauty in myself and others.
All of this, explicitly or implicitly, is part of my work as an editor, especially in how I collaborate with the young writers who contribute to the site. It’s an undercurrent that flows through all the texts I work on.
How do you use your influence to redefine beauty in a way that empowers women and promotes authentic representation?
Throughout my career, there have been times when I could be more or less vocal about my ideas on redefining beauty, but it’s always there because it’s who I am. It’s reflected in what I say in editorial meetings, the way I train writers and interns, the pieces and images I propose, the people I interview, and the words I choose to use or avoid.
What challenges have you faced in attempting to change the beauty narrative in your environment, and what were the keys to overcoming them?
Personally, being the person who always speaks out against fatphobia, transphobia, and racism (three issues closely tied to what we consider beautiful or not) has been a challenge, but I believe I’ve found ways to do it that aren’t just about scolding but rather about creating a dialogue, recommending readings, and asking questions.
It’s the same professionally, although perhaps it’s an even longer and more complicated journey, one in which I wish I had achieved more.
How do you think beauty standards are evolving, and what role should the media play in shaping them?
Each generation has its challenges and its language. It’s interesting to see how Gen Z (whom I really like and admire) is falling into many of the same stereotypes as Millennials, but now things have different names and are more subtle and harder to identify.
It’s not that the obsession with weight, age, or perfection isn’t there; it just goes by different names now, like those videos saying, “tell me what my blindness is, tell me how to do a glow up”… that’s exactly a scene from She’s All That but on TikTok! We still think that a drastic external change can somehow save us or turn us into the person we want to be, but that only comes with time, experience, and internal reflection.
The role of the media, to me, is crucial. It’s up to us to provide context, offer facts, conduct interviews—not just report, “this is what the kids are doing on their weird social network.” In my day, it was “this is happening on Twitter,” and now it’s on TikTok. Of course, we need to cover trends, but not present them without context. We also have to go beyond representation to achieve true inclusion that is visible in all the materials we publish throughout the year.
How do you incorporate your personal values into your beauty rituals, and how does this influence your well-being?
My mom always wore red lipstick, and we would find her lipstick marks on napkins, receipts, notes. Every time I blot my lipstick, I have that super loving flashback.
I love rituals: the “everything shower,” moisturizing my skin, singing, using my skincare, putting on makeup for an event. It’s not an obligation from my gender or my job but a way to reconnect with my body, because I spend too much time in my head. Taking the time to simply care for this person that I am is very healing for me.