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 purchase, optimize, and achieve through the right combination of products and habits. According to the Global Wellness Institute, the global wellness economy is projected to reach $9.8 trillion by 2029
I couldn’t stop thinking about the women who are rarely centered in these conversations, but who may be most in need of these solutions
Products can’t address economic conditions
Throughout the event, I listened to conversations about supplementation, sleep routines, and stress management. What I did not hear were conversations about wealth disparity, job security, caregiving responsibilities, or economic opportunity. Labor data from the Economic Policy Institute and Congressional testimony by Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) confirm that approximately 600,000 Black women lost their jobs, greatly impacting the U.S. workforce and costing the economy an estimated $37 billion.
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Black women are exhausted. They are navigating rising economic insecurity, caregiving responsibilities, workplace discrimination, and health systems that continue to overlook their needs. Yet the solutions most often offered to them are individual and consumer-driven: another supplement, another app, another self-care ritual
These products may ease symptoms, but they cannot address the conditions that create them
Forces shaping Black women’s health are structural
For decades, the wellness industry has framed health as a matter of personal responsibility. If you are stressed, you meditate. If you are tired, you optimize your sleep using bedtime supplements and apps. If you are burned out, you create a better morning routine
But many of the forces shaping Black women’s health are structural, not individual. The legacy ofredlining, racial wealth gaps, employment discrimination, and unequal access to healthcare continue to influence who has time to rest, who can afford care, and who has the financial security to prioritize their well-being. No amount of self-care can compensate for structural inequality
In our work with doulas and birth workers at Mama Glow, we have watched women spend years learning how to support families through pregnancy and birth without ever being taught how to build credit, negotiate rates, or plan for retirement. Yet these skills can have a profound impact on stress, health, and long-term well-being. Conversations about debt, savings, and financial security are rarely considered health interventions, but for many women they shape whether wellness feels attainable in everyday life.
For many women, the question is not how to perfect a morning routine; it is how to create stability. Conversations about wellness must expand beyond consumption and include economic empowerment
Entrepreneurship offers a path to wealth creation
Entrepreneurship, in particular, offers something that many traditional workplaces do not: autonomy. The ability to control one’s schedule, determine one’s income, and build work that reflects one’s values is deeply connected to health and wellbeing. For many Black women, pathways into entrepreneurship and community-based care work are not simply career choices; they are opportunities to escape the taxing corporate structure, reclaim agency over their time, labor, and future
A recent Goldman Sachs survey found that most Black women view entrepreneurship as an important pathway to wealth creation, and many say access to training and business development opportunities would make that path more attainable
This trend reflects both a growing market opportunity and efforts to address historical gaps in representation and culturally responsive care. Greater awareness of disparities in areas such as maternal health, mental health access, chronic stress, and conditions like fibroids, endometriosis and Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome, has created demand for services designed with Black women’s experiences in mind. Many Black women have sought practitioners, communities, and products that acknowledge cultural identity, hair care practices, skincare needs, and lived experiences rather than treating them as niche concerns, launching businesses that reflect their cultural identity and specific health needs, while also building businesses across nutrition (Black Girl Vitamins), fitness, mental health (Therapy for Black Girls), birth work, yoga, coaching, menstrual health (The Honey Pot), herbal products, beauty (Black Girl Sunscreen), and digital wellness communities.
Final thoughts
The wellness economy is massive, but scale is not the same as support. Real wellbeing is not just about consuming another product to make your problems instantly vanish. It is an actual investment in the conditions that allow people to thrive: accessible health and wellness care, stable and affordable housing, decent work, and supportive communities. Some estimates suggest that social determinants of health, the non-medical factors that impact how we experience health, account for as much as 80% of health outcomes.
Wellness cannot be reduced to what we buy when so much of our health is shaped by the conditions in which we live. This is why intersectionality is a critical lens when it comes to accessing our health outcomes
Black women do not need more products promising a fix, rendering them dependent on temporary relief. They need sustained investment in their health, wellbeing, communities, and access to care that addresses systemic inequities rather than individualizes them. We do not need to convince Black women they need to be fixed; rather, we need to build a world that recognizes their wellbeing has always been worth investing in
Latham Thomas is CEO and founder of Mama Glow. Leona Hariharan is a medical student at University of California, San Francisco
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