Kate Glavan and Emma Roepke, a.k.a. the Sea Moss Girlies have taken over my Instagram feed with their niche, adaptogen-based, and definitely excessive ‘wellness’ memes. Known for their Sea Moss Girlies podcast and Instagram meme page @seamossgirlies which pokes seemingly self-aware fun at the founders' health rituals, they explore the world of supplements, running lifestyle, affordable health, chickpea cookie dough, cure-all beverages, bone broth, alternative milk, dandelion tea, and the like in their media platform based in NYC. These girls have tried and now live by the most out-there ‘wellness’ products on the market. But is this ‘wellness’? Why must the healthy-girl character be defined by hyper-activity and the never-ending collection of expensive supplements? As I try to reflect on the media I expose myself to as a Gen-Z woman, I felt I should dive into the implications of this promotion of health and whether it benefits me or anyone for that matter.

**This promotes collecting multiple plastic packages and containers of expensive wellness goods. Seems excessive. Image** **via.**

The first things you hear on the podcast are ads from various ‘wellness’ companies that sponsor the Girlies. You can imagine the kinds of companies featured—blue light glasses, athletic greens powder, and LOTS of supplement companies. Way to start off with a consumerist bang! Which leads me to my first critique: the wastefulness of wellness. Supplements can be beneficial, but the constant accumulation of products is not. The promotion of products by these influencers only perpetuates the consumer culture we see in makeup and fashion. Consolidate your wellness rituals. Conserve our natural resources. Please!

**Am I the only one who has no idea what adaptogens are? Image** **via.**

Next, they promote themselves as voyagers through the BS of wellness yet their discussion is still tone-deaf. Yes, they do root much of their supplement and lifestyle suggestions in scientific research, but most of their brand is based on their personal testimonials…from their American…upper-to-middle class…perspective. They've criticized brands for marketing campaigns pointedly targeting rich white women, but use their membership in that demographic to sell their own product—their own exclusive aesthetic quality. The Girlies implore that it is “important to invest in your health.” I agree. But it's hard for the average person to follow along when they talk about pulling up to Erewhon and dropping twenty bucks on a collagen smoothie when they go to L.A. Health to them, whether they recognize it or not, is niche and expensive and in no way removed from the elitist ‘wellness’ culture they joke about.

***Trigger Warning: the following paragraph discusses body image and disordered eating. Skip if needed!***

Now let’s shift to what I see as possible immediate harm in their message. In their latest episode titled “Othorexia and Life After ED Recovery,” the Girlies address the important role that eating disorders play in the modern obsession with health. To clarify, Orthorexia is an unhealthy focus on eating in a healthy way. With applaudable vulnerability, they shared their journeys and methods in eating disorder recovery. However, it came off in an abrasive way. Peppered throughout the episode were phrases like “I was a restrictive freak” and “just grow a tough skin against triggers.” Open discussion of recovery is constructive, but is lost in the Girlies’ meme-ification of “living off of chickpea cookie dough” and “eating a single brazil nut as a snack.” They make fun of an excess of ‘wellness’, but simultaneously practice and promote its restrictive, orthorexic nature; their frank, do-gooder podcast talk is hypocritical. You can't speak against the culture you also make money from. I’m happy to hear their claims of having found a balanced relationship to all of this, but can’t help but think that they aren’t doing much to help the journeys of their followers. The culture of Western ‘wellness’ inextricably communicates a certain degree of restricted or disordered consumption to its primary audience: young women.

**A meme featured on their instagram. Pokes fun at macro-tracking gym bros, but does it also influence obsessive eating behaviors? Image** **via.**

I wanted to also touch on the normally overlooked fact that this natural and holistic approach to health is rooted in the traditional practices of Ayurveda, an ancient Indian medical system. This system emphasizes the manipulation of diet and lifestyle to regain a balance between the body, mind, spirit, and the environment. The Western ‘wellness’ culture oftentimes only cherry picks from this cultural practice that implores the necessity of its practice in totality to be effective. Here we have a classic case of appropriation versus appreciation. While Ayurvedic medicine has been proven to be effective if used as intended and developed over millennia, its practices are often misused or their cultural importance unrevered. I’m not saying that these practices should be gatekept; in fact, Ayurveda is in its core intended to be found in the natural world that surrounds ALL of us. I just think these treatments should be used thoughtfully in combination with the totality of the system and in dialogue with those actually knowledgeable in Ayurvedic medicine.

Ok, their attempts in making this glitzy Gwenyth Goop world feel accessible with their memes and coy discussion is honorable. But let's be real—this lifestyle can’t reach anyone outside of a high-income bubble. If you are in the 99% percent that can’t afford these rituals or are even just someone who doesn’t know the f**k ashwagandha is, I don’t think it will be on your grocery list or even at your grocery store. I’m not saying they should stop what they’re doing and hide away in shame. We all consume. Rather, wellness influencers should find ways in which a healthy lifestyle can exist for all types of people. It seems like the class distribution of ‘wellness’ is awfully top-heavy, something that those with the platform aren’t doing much to help change. And, a little mention of how to give back and help alleviate this inequality wouldn’t hurt.

Doing away with your daily multivitamins or veggie snacks is not what I ask. Let’s all just be mindful of our conception of ‘wellness’ and whether or not it actually is beneficial, on both a personal and societal level. I have definitely fallen prey to eight dollar adaptogen coffee and probiotics that do nothing for me. Social media is hard. Wellness is hard! But, try to take influencers like the Sea Moss Girlies with multiple grains of hand-extracted himalayan pink salt. Preserve your peace, preserve your health (what health means to YOU, not TikTok).

Cover Image via

Credit to:

The Sea Moss Girlies on Spotify

Instagram @seamossgirlies

“Ayurveda” on Wikipedia

As technological advancements democratize industries such as beauty and wellness, we have witnessed an inundation of indie DTC brands brushing upon a variety of women’s needs, all with similar offerings. As a result, the femtech space has faced claims of being overly saturated. The sexual wellness category has received such criticisms. However, it’s hard to deny the potential for the future of this female-targeted industry that piqued during ‘quarantine’ and continues to revolutionize women’s health.

The fact of the matter is, we know so little about women's bodies. Most of the educational resources focus on fertility science, and, as such, sexual wellness companies working on anything more than luxury sex toys and organic feminine products tend to target aspiring mothers. Companies like Oova and Kegg have developed highly advanced fertility tracking devices that rely on daily tests of urine samples and cervical fluids (respectively) taken at-home on the user’s devices. However, the current technology has ushered in a new form of birth control: the fertility-awareness-method (FAM), which consists of tracking one’s fertility levels to inform decisions about sexual activity. Natural Cycles, an FDA approved hormone-free birth control, uses daily tests of basal body temperature to track fertility, and it’s said to be 93% effective with typical use (99% with perfect use, but who are we kidding). While the majority of fertility tracking devices were developed as methods for family planning, the scientific discoveries behind fertility tracking, and women’s health in general, are highly exciting, and I refuse to believe that women looking to get pregnant are the only ones who would like to know what's going on in their bodies.

As far as popular sexual wellness companies go, there are too many to count, and they all largely gravitate towards two product categories: vaginal health and sex essentials. Shoppers today have no problem finding the right vibrator, condoms, lubricants, and even more hygienic products such as wipes and women’s supplements. While I’m not here to recommend products, it is worth mentioning that the increasing competition amongst sexual wellness brands is fueling even more creativity within the industry. Take the indie brand We Are Nakey, whose single product, the Muff Masque, is a sheet mask for ‘down there.’ Described as a sheet mask for your vulva, this product is certainly a clever take on this popular self-care trend. This all goes to say that whatever sex product you want, it likely exists.

Despite the rising popularity of sexual wellness, the industry struggles to overcome the taboo that is talking about sex. A large obstacle for sexual wellness brands has been ad restrictions. Brands selling products of a sexual nature face real barriers as they rely on guess-work to determine whether or not their ads will be approved. In response to these frustrating restrictions, sexual wellness brands Unbound and Dame Products recently launched an interactive website that presents users with examples of ads that were and were not approved, demonstrating the arbitrarity of the process. However, ad restrictions are not the only area in which sex stigma poses a threat to the industry. Most companies within this category allocate a lot of resources towards increasing awareness about sexual wellness and education. In a failed attempt to destigmatize the category, some companies have taken the luxury approach, setting higher price points and partnering with luxury retailers in order to brand their products as luxurious as opposed to taboo. However, indie brands have critiqued this approach, pointing out that it does not facilitate any larger efforts to destigmatize sexual wellness. At the end of the day, the fate of sexual wellness lies less in the hands of society’s comfortability with discussions of sex and more in the hands of innovation. While sex toys are well on their way to taking their place as an acceptable bedside staple, it’s up to research and technology to catapult this category into the mainstream.

The convergence of sexual wellness into the larger wellness industry is revving up excitement for the future of women’s health. For example, I am specifically fascinated by the start-up skincare company, Veracity, which aims to tackle the largely ignored mystery driver of skin health: hormones. The company has developed a hormone testing kit that informs customers about their personal hormone levels, as well as other biofactors related to skin health like pH, cortisol, and DHEA, and recommends skin care products, dietary strategies, and lifestyle choices that fit your needs. It is becoming more and more clear that there is no one-size-fits-all model for women’s health. Research that gravitates towards customization and personal biological drivers continues to redefine the wellness industry. While Veracity doesn’t serve as a holistic bridge between sexual education and wellness, their incorporation of hormonal science into a field that largely ignored it is pretty disruptive.

While sexual wellness has been trendy for quite a moment, the work of science, along with some incredible leading women, is aiming to make it routine. It’s no secret that we have a lot of ground to cover as we educate ourselves on the biology of womens’ bodies. Whether you interpret this message as a friendly reminder to book a check-up with an OBGYN or an introduction to a new form of sexual wellness, keep an eye out for this rapidly evolving industry; there’s always something to learn.

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