How to Fix Well + Good Files

IIn the wake of the racial justice protests following the assassination of George Floyd by police, Well + Good has made a number of public promises to its readers to make a substantially diverse, inclusive and welcoming place for all people. We did not want to involve or allow the parts of the industry that exclude the voices, talents and experiences of those who do not fit the white, same-sex, affluent, body-fit mold of “wellness”. We swore to change ways immediately.

In the months since we made this initial promise, we have made a new (and belated) commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI) with our content, business practices and corporate policies. One aspect of this work included the creation of new branding guidelines for the language we use and how to cover our basic verticals (health, food, fitness, beauty and lifestyle). We apply these standards (such as providing an appropriate historical and cultural background when covering specific ingredients, dishes, and therapeutic practices) to each piece we publish, now and in the future.

But we also knew that something had to be done for our library of about 21,000 articles. These stories date back to the founding of Well + Good in 2009 and are still read by thousands of people every day who find their way to our site through Google and other avenues. It was important to look back at our history and deal with the mistakes and failures of the past.

Thus, while our DEI guidelines are immediately applicable to all new content, we work diligently through our library to review or remove content that has been flagged as harmful, non-sensitive, or offensive.

What could motivate a story to be reconsidered? It depends. We started in July by crawling the site for terms we deem culturally appropriate or non-culturally sensitive (such as “guru” or “mecca”) and removing them from the stories. We also work to better educate ourselves on specific cultural practices — such as sage and mozzarella, sacred indigenous practices adopted by white health professionals — and to revisit the stories discussed in order to better reflect these practices. and our knowledge. In some cases, we deleted completely old stories that we thought could not be reworked to meet our standards.

This library update is ongoing and we recognize that we have a lot of work to do to correct the errors in our previous content. We will work hard to ensure that all content, past and present, reflects our values. In the spirit of transparency, we invite you to email us at [email protected] if you see anything on the site that does not meet the above standards of diversity, equality and inclusion. We want to learn from you how we can better serve and represent our community.

Thank you for continuing to help us make Well + Good a better place for everyone to be well.