The Poetic Justice of Amanda Gorman’s Estée Lauder Contract

There was a moment, starting on Jan. 20, 2021, as the 23-year-old poet Amanda Gorman stood on the steps of the Capitol in her sunny yellow coat, reading her work “The Hill We Climb” at President Biden’s inauguration, when the viewing country seemed to go into a collective swoon.

The wooing and offers rained down soon after: Would she be the face of this product? The spokeswoman for that one? Would she marry her image and fame to a big brand?

A mere month or so later, she told Vogue for a May cover story, she had turned down about $17 million in various promotional opportunities.

This week, however, she finally pledged her troth. And the winner is … Estée Lauder.

Although to be fair the winner is also Ms. Gorman, who signed what may be one of the most multidimensional representation agreements in beauty history. As well as a swath of unexpected beneficiaries.

Here’s what it involves: Ms. Gorman will become the first Estée Lauder “Global Changemaker” — as opposed to, say, spokeswoman or ambassador or “face,” though she will also be all of the above.

That’s not just a semantic shift, but one that reflects a different balance of power in the current consumer reality, in which the influence of real people can carry more weight than the purely transactional nature of the celebrity model relationship, and where substance is particularly prized, as for-profit companies feel an imperative to prove they stand for something more than simply — well, profit.

For at least the next three years, she will represent Estée Lauder’s flagship brand in ad campaigns and speaking events, just like,