The wellness industry is not selling wellbeing to black women
I recently attended a wellness event built around the promise that feeling better was only a simple product purchase away. There were supplements for stress, products for better sleep, routines for optimizing hormonal balance, and tools designed to help women feel calmer, healthier, and more in control. The room reflected a booming industry built on the belief that wellness is something we can…
A recent wellness event touted the idea that achieving better health hinges on purchasing the right products and habits. The Global Wellness Institute predicts the global wellness economy will reach $9.8 trillion by 2029. However, the conversations at this event largely failed to address critical issues affecting Black women, the demographic most likely to need these solutions.
While discussions revolved around supplements, sleep routines, and stress management, there were no dialogues about economic disparities, job security, caregiving duties, or economic opportunities. Economic data reveals that approximately 600,000 Black women lost their jobs, resulting in a $37 billion financial impact on the U.S. economy and exacerbating their exhaustion.
Despite these hardships, the wellness industry primarily offers individual and consumer-centered solutions, such as additional supplements, apps, and self-care rituals. These products may provide temporary relief but cannot tackle the underlying structural issues exacerbating Black women's well-being. For centuries, the wellness industry has portrayed health as a matter of personal responsibility.
If you are stressed, meditate. If you are tired, use sleep aids. If you are burned out, create a better morning routine. However, many factors influencing Black women's health are systemic and not individual. Structural issues like redlining, racial wealth gaps, employment discrimination, and unequal access to healthcare significantly impact who can rest, afford care, and enjoy financial stability.
Simple self-care measures cannot compensate for these systemic inequalities. At Mama Glow, the team supporting Black women in childbirth encounters women who invest significant time and energy in pregnancy and birth support without receiving education on financial management, credit building, or retirement planning. These financial skills can greatly influence stress levels, health, and long-term well-being.
The conversation around debt, savings, and financial security is often overlooked as health interventions, yet it plays a crucial role in determining whether wellness feels achievable in daily life. Instead of solely focusing on personal wellness routines, the conversation must broaden to encompass economic empowerment. Entrepreneurship can provide a pathway to wealth creation, offering autonomy in scheduling, income, and work values.
For Black women, entrepreneurship is not merely a career choice but an opportunity to break away from corporate structures, regain control over their time and future. A Goldman Sachs survey indicates that most Black women consider entrepreneurship essential for wealth creation, and many believe access to training and business development opportunities would increase its feasibility.
This trend signifies both a burgeoning market and efforts to address historical disparities in representation and culturally sensitive care. Growing awareness of disparities in areas like maternal health, mental health access, chronic stress, and conditions such as fibroids, endometriosis, and Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome has generated demand for services tailored to the unique experiences of Black women.
Many seek practitioners, communities, and products that recognize cultural identity, hair care practices, skincare needs, and lived experiences rather than treating them as isolated concerns. This has led to the emergence of businesses reflecting cultural identity and specific health needs, such as Black Girl Vitamins, Therapy for Black Girls, and The Honey Pot.
While the wellness economy is vast, real well-being cannot be achieved through the mere acquisition of products. It requires investments in the conditions that enable people to thrive, including accessible healthcare, stable housing, decent work, and supportive communities. Social determinants of health, which account for up to 80% of health outcomes, must be prioritized.
Black women do not require more products that only offer temporary solutions; they require sustained investment in their health, well-being, communities, and access to care that addresses systemic inequities, not individualized problems.
Written by urgent.news from Fast Company's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
