Freeform/Phillippe Bosse(NEW YORK) — No devils wearing Prada here. Freeform’s new show about the fashion magazine industry, The Bold Type, is more about empowering women rather than tearing them down Miranda Priestly-style.
The series, which premieres tonight, follows three young women working their way up the masthead at the fictional Scarlet magazine. It’s based on the experiences of former Cosmopolitan editor-in-chief Joanna Coles, who executive produces the show.
“What I felt was that the fashion world was misrepresented as if everybody was a b**** in it, and actually, that was not my experience of working either with female bosses or with people in fashion,” Coles tells ABC Radio. “It does everybody a disservice if we think that women are terrible bosses.”
Melora Hardin plays Coles’ on-screen counterpart, Scarlet editor-in-chief Jacqueline Carlyle. She says playing a highly successful-yet-still-supportive boss is what drew her to the role.
“I think it is so important for young women to see women of power on television that are holding up lots of balls in the air, doing it very successfully,” she says. “Every woman that I know in my life is succeeding in multiple areas.”
That empowerment translated off camera, too. The show’s cast of young women — Katie Stevens, Aisha Dee and Meghann Fahy — all looked to Hardin as a role model.
“We have the most wonderful cast, very, very funny, lively, and I think what I can say is how much they enjoyed working with Melora on set,” Coles says. “I mean, they all held a candle to [her].”
The two-hour series premiere of The Bold Type premieres at 8 p.m. ET tonight on Freeform.
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