VP Nominee Kamala Harris Is On The Cover November's Elle Magazine

OAKLAND, CA — Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee and Bay Area native Kamala Harris was featured on the cover of Elle Magazine's November issue Tuesday. In her sprawling interview with the fashion magazine, she encourages Americans to find optimism in an otherwise trying year for the country.

The feature is chalked full of vivid callbacks to her childhood memories of the Bay Area and her influences growing up around activists.

Harris shares a memory of being pushed in a stroller through a crowded civil rights march, taking place in the streets of Oakland. She was accompanied by her uncle and parents, who were activists and immigrants of India and Jamaica.

She also shared her favorite way to greet people with Elle Correspondent Ashley C. Ford. Its's a greeting she learned from various cultures in Africa.

"When you [are introduced] for the first time, the greeting is not ‘Pleased to meet you.’ The greeting is ‘I see you.’ I see you as a complete human being. At this moment in time, it is so critically important in our country for all people to be seen in their full selves, in a way that gives them the dignity they deserve," Harris told Elle.

Harris is the former attorney general of California and was the second Black woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate. This year, she became the first Black vice presidential nominee, and Wednesday she will take the stage to face standing Vice President Mike Pence

The opponents will be separated by a plexiglass barrier and will be more than 12 feet apart, given the landslide of new positive coronavirus cases coming out of the White House in recent days, including President Donald Trump himself.

SEE ALSO: Vice Presidential Debate, Pence Vs Harris: Time, What To Know

Within Harris' feature, she shares snapshots about her life growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area. As a child, she frequented a community center for Black families called The Rainbow Sign. The place was apparently a melting pot for up and coming activists and musicians such as Nina Simone, Ruby Dee and Maya Angelou.

Harris' godmother, Mary Lewis, was also the cofounder of the Black studies department at San Francisco State University.

When asked how these strong influences shaped her, Harris replied "There was no question that you had to dedicate yourself to fighting for justice on some level or another."

The article frequently references "optimism," during a year of turmoil for the U.S. amid the devastating COVID-19 pandemic, historic wildfires across the West Coast and a bleak economic outlook.

“Optimism is the fuel driving every fight I’ve been in,” Harris told Elle Magazine.

Harris accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president in August, marking the first Black and Indian American woman to accomplish such.

The striking, black and white vertical cover features Harris sitting in an office chair in Washington D.C., where she poses, grinning warmly in a suit and high heels, on Sept. 9. The grayscale portraits were taken by Inez And Vindoodh.

Read the full Elle Magazine article here: Kamala Harris Is Fueled By Optimism

As November 3rd looms, vice presidential nominee @KamalaHarris is urging Americans to feel hopeful. “Optimism is the fuel driving every fight I’ve been in,” she tells @iSmashFizzle in ELLE’s November cover story. https://t.co/sVgody0D2T pic.twitter.com/W6ezIjv55F
— ELLE Magazine (US) (@ELLEmagazine) October 6, 2020