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Season Three of Netflix’s monster hit, Orange is the New Black is right around the corner and ESSENCE magazine is celebrating all the various Black beauty the show has to offer.

Series’ stars Uzo Aduba (Crazy Eyes), Danielle Brooks (Taystee), Laverne Cox (Sophia), Vicky Jeudy (Janae), Adrienne C. Moore (Cindy) and Samira Wiley (Poussey) all donned the finest orange fabrics and knocked out a great cover article thanks to the talents of Akiba Solomon.

Via ESSENCE:

Two-time ESSENCE cover star Laverne Cox describes her ritual of learning to love herself, no matter what: “This is intense, and it’s hard. What I’ve been doing is looking in the mirror and listing all the things I have an issue with and then saying, ‘This is beautiful.’ I just go down the list and tell myself, ‘You have to accept that this is you today.’ I make time to do this.”

“Being [my size] in this industry is so rare,” says 25-year-old stunner, Danielle Brooks, “but regular people look more like me than runway models. To show beauty in a different way really lights me up inside. That’s so cheesy, but it does.”

Emmy-winner Uzo Aduba admits it took her time to fully embrace her signature smile. “For the majority of my first 18 years, I hated my gap. My mom would tell me that in Nigeria, it’s a sign of beauty. I was like, ‘We’re in Massachusetts.'” She continues, “Today there’s not a selfie or personal photo I take where I’m not smiling wide. It sometimes feels as if I’m making up for lost smiles.”

The Orange Is The New Black ESSENCE issue is on newsstands now. Season 3 premieres on June 12. Check out the cover on the next page.

Photo: SIPA/WENN.com, ESSENCE

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