It’s no secret that gossip, clickbait, and content material that performs on our fears and insecurities will get essentially the most traction. Particularly now in a world that’s over-saturated with data, it’s usually those who shout the loudest, strip their content material of nuance, and push the most recent scorching tackle a trending matter that develop the biggest audiences.
Verily has at all times taken a unique path. Our group has grown through the years largely by folks discovering us by way of Google search, and in addition by phrase of mouth and in-person encounters. When folks learn our work, they need to share it with others. It’s a sluggish, natural, human-to-human type of progress.
I skilled as {a magazine} journalist on the prime faculty for journalism in London in 2011, and left feeling very dispirited after experiencing the trade from the within. Editors of profitable magazines advised me that ladies weren’t keen on content material that made them be ok with themselves and others, and in addition that simply wasn’t the way you make cash within the journal enterprise. Apparently, you make cash by making girls really feel insecure, then bombarding them with the “solutions” to their insecurities and perceived issues within the type of fixed ads. Whereas I used to be coaching for my Masters, the supermodel Elle Macpherson advised me in an interview that she thought I used to be too good to be a journalist, and my supervisor advised our class that you simply needed to have (and I’m quoting word-for-word right here) “a shard of ice in your coronary heart” to make it within the media world. You’ll be able to see why I ended that 12 months feeling considerably disillusioned and not sure of which steps to take subsequent in my profession.
A 12 months later I heard about Verily, a brand new girls’s journal that I may really feel really proud to write down for. I used to be so grateful that different girls felt the best way that I did in regards to the media and had been working to alter the dialog for ladies. Having labored on the employees of Verily journal for simply over 4 years (from 2014-2017 and in 2023-2024) all advised now, I can safely say that there’s a starvation for media that makes girls really feel seen, not offered to; that builds up somewhat than that tears down’ that embraces the wrinkles, sweat, and pores of residing, respiration girls featured of their pages; and all of the nuance and complexity of our tales. I do know there’s a starvation for this more healthy media, as a result of our crew has heard repeatedly from Verily readers who inform us that our work inspired and impressed them for years.
As for the perception that the editors on my Masters course shared, that media that doesn’t assault a girl’s sense of self-worth gained’t promote? That half at the very least I’ve seen play out.
However this is the reason Verily exists, in opposition to the percentages maybe, and now as a non-profit—to maintain reminding girls of their inherent dignity and value. To remind us that, whether or not we’re a stay-at-home mom or C-suite govt or anyplace in between, now we have a worthwhile contribution to make to society, and we’re worthy of relaxation, group, and considerate dialog.
After I assume again to 2011, the 12 months I completed my journalism MA and Verily’s founding crew was busy creating the primary girls’s journal with a no-Photoshop coverage, I can see how the necessity for sincere girls’s media has solely elevated through the years. Now, along with Photoshop, now we have AI fashions to cope with. This 12 months, the American clothes firm Guess made headlines for utilizing AI fashions of their advert campaigns, which had been featured in magazines like Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, and the primary ever AI tv anchor and AI actress each launched in latest months. Which means that not solely are girls evaluating themselves with filtered and Photoshopped variations of actual girls, however we’re additionally starting to match ourselves to girls who by no means existed within the first place.
On prime of those unrealistic magnificence requirements and body-image struggles, social media has intensified the issue, not solely with filtered photos but in addition with polarizing echo chambers, the rise of on-line misogyny and “incel” teams, to not point out the widening political hole between younger women and men.
The rising rifts between women and men, and between a girl and her sense of self, have by no means been in additional pressing want of our consideration.
For years, Verily’s most-read articles have been working to heal these rifts. It’s been our mission for this variation to succeed in past our pages and web site and develop into a cultural motion in girls’s media, preventing the objectification of ladies at each degree of society. This objective is now extra reachable than ever, and we’re excited to ask you now to hitch us on this mission, in a particular new approach.
Saying Verily’s brand-new membership program!
We’re delighted to announce the launch of Verily membership, a brand new chapter for Verily that may allow us to maintain doing this work whereas going deeper into group and dialog with you, our readers. Merely choose the tier you’d like to hitch to get pleasure from staying in nearer contact with us with common member Q&As, workshops, roundtables, and extra. Don’t fear—our lovely print journal isn’t going anyplace, the truth is it’s now one of many perks of being a member, and your help will assist us to maintain creating and distributing this culture-changing media.
As a Verily member, your help allows us to:
- Put the tales of on a regular basis girls, so usually crowded out by an over-focus on superstar tradition, again within the highlight
- Promote the message that ladies should not objects by means of our lovely print and on-line media
- Create area for essential nuanced conversations that strengthen communities and interpersonal relationships
- Assist extra girls get offline and return to extra nourishing types of studying that enhance consideration spans and wellbeing
- Encourage girls in all walks of life—from stay-at-home mothers to these in workplace buildings or halls of Congress and in all places in between—to maintain being culture-changers by reinforcing how a lot their contribution to society deeply issues
- Enhance the relationships between women and men, members of the family, these in our communities and friendship teams, by means of content material that nurtures wholesome connection somewhat than isolation
- Work with writers, photographers, designers, and different people in order that they’ll proceed their craft creating high quality media in a tradition saturated by AI content material.
Collectively, we’ll maintain pushing again in opposition to a tradition that claims girls can by no means be sufficient. Our pores, indicators of ageing, and pure our bodies as girls aren’t flaws, they’re a part of what it means to be alive. Sadly this message is required now greater than ever as our tradition dangers shedding contact with the truth of our humanity.
In a world the place filters, noise, and not possible beliefs are harming younger girls’s self-worth and confidence, you may assist us to alter the story. By becoming a member of Verily as a member, you’re not simply subscribing to content material, you’re fueling a motion for sincere, actual, and exquisite media that empowers girls to be who they honestly are.
As a member, you’ll have entry to unique insider occasions and content material that may allow you to go deeper with the matters we discover in our articles as we herald specialists for interviews, panel discussions, e-book golf equipment, and extra.
Your membership isn’t about perks alone. It’s about belonging to a group and making a cultural influence. Collectively, we will construct a extra optimistic media tradition, one which lifts up as an alternative of tears down, conjures up as an alternative of pressures, and tells girls: you aren’t a method to an finish, you worthwhile as you’re.
That is greater than a membership. It’s a motion.
We’re so grateful that you simply’re right here, and hope you’re as excited as we’re to get to know one another higher inside Verily membership.
With a lot love,
Sophie (Inventive Director) & the Verily crew
P.S. Discover our membership choices right here and tell us you probably have any questions. We are able to’t wait to see you inside!
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