DEI Archives

The Evolution of Feminism

What does it mean to be a feminist today? We have a long way from the days of suffragettes and Rosie the Riveter. Of bra burning and free love. From first wave to third wave to intersectionality, we’ve learned lessons and won victories along the way. Women in the United States won the vote (1920), can open our own bank accounts (1960s), and are recognizing the intersections of class, race, privilege, and gender identity in this struggle for… what exactly?

The issue with broad movements is that without a specific ask, it’s hard to know whether you identify with the movement or not. The general understanding of feminism changed sometime in the ‘80s and ‘90s. Suddenly, radical thinkers were out and corporate feminism was in, although it didn’t get that name until later. We were no longer trying to change the system, but please let us have a slice of the patriarchal pie, thank you.

Now, much of feminism is capitalist. We have T-shirts and slogans and very expensive scarves, saying words that have been stripped of their meaning, their authors nothing but relics in the wind:

Corporate Feminism

Corporate feminism says that anything that puts women in power is feminist. We’ve waited long enough for a seat at the table; now it’s time to do whatever it takes to get more of us there. This is the feminism of SheEOs and the #girlboss, but is replacing men with a fair share of women really the way to an equitable society?

That wasn’t a real question. Of course it’s not. Capitalism may have coopted #feminism, but you can’t smash the patriarchy by simply throwing matriarchs in men’s places of power. The point is not to pull up a seat to the table. The point is to get rid of the table. The point is liberation. Which is different from freedom, but we’ll get to that.

Since the pandemic began, we have seen the fall of the girl boss. While Nasty Gal founder and author of #Girlboss Sofia Amooruso had a limited run of success, Nasty Gal went under like lead in a pool. In her 2020 Atlantic piece, The Girlboss Has Left the Building, Amanda Mull explained, “Like Sheryl Sandberg’s self-help hit Lean In before it, #Girlboss argued that the professional success of ambitious young women was a two-birds-one-stone type of activism: Their pursuit of power could be rebranded as a righteous quest for equality, and the success of female executives and entrepreneurs would lift up the women below them.”

But that didn’t happen, and it never will. Like the boybosses before them, the only person that particular kind of power helps is the person wielding it.

Why I Am Not a Feminist

Somewhere along the way, feminism became trendy and the real message got lost. Suddenly, women wanted to embrace the title without stepping too far out of the mainstream. In 2017, Jesse Crispin published an incredible piece of feminist writing called Why I Am Not a Feminist: A Feminist Manifesto. In it, she scoffs at the young feminists who have become almost apologists for feminism, distancing themselves from radicals like Andrea Dworkin. She’s talking to the aforementioned aspiring girlbosses. Crispin explains candidly, “Asking for a system that was built for the express purpose of oppression to ‘um, please stop oppressing me?’ is nonsense work. The only task worth doing is fully dismantling and replacing that system.”

A problem with the broad idea of feminism is that women have different wants and needs, and the public face of the movement somehow turned into upper middle class educated women, usually white, always ambitious. And these women look down upon working class women who would rather find safety in marriage and homemaking than work in grueling conditions.

The house might be a prison, but when freedom looks like wiping up someone else’s vomit and urine under migraine-inducing fluorescent lighting, can you actually blame someone for asking to be let back into their cell?

She goes on to explain how the feminist trajectory exemplified individual freedom over community support, family, marriage, and other structures, leaving us as individuals without the aid or assistance of others because we should be able to do it on our own. How very American, and a lovely parallel to our current public health crisis, but that is an analysis for another time.

Certainly, there are intersectional lenses of feminism that value community support. Such as the feminism of women of color, like the late bell hooks who asked us to imagine more in Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics: “Imagine living in a world where there is no domination, where females and males are not alike or even always equal, but where a vision of mutuality is the ethos shaping our interaction.” But that is not the feminism that has been sold in stores and seminars. That’s not the feminism of lucrative book deals. The mainstream narrative has pushed independence. This means freedom, I suppose but that is not the same as liberation. Crispin asks:

How are women faring in the job market compared to men? Does that really matter when due to overwhelming student loans debt, sharply decreased job stability, the gutting of social services and work benefits, rapacious CEOs and boards of directors, and globalization, the world of work and money is hurting everyone?

Feminism, Community Development, and Worker Reform

The history of feminism is intimately tied to worker reform. The establishment of a federal minimum wage in 1938 was actually the first step in bridging the gender pay gap, at least on an hourly basis. But as Karina Margit Erdelyi points out, there are plenty of places where the gap remains. And then there’s domestic labor and the labor of childbirth and childrearing, which is unpaid and yet essential to the functioning of our society.

But that’s not the only labor women performed for free. Before women entered the workforce en masse, particularly during and after World War II, women who could afford leisure time thanks to their husbands’ or families’ money were pivotal leaders in philanthropy and community building, even laying the foundation of the social work profession. But today, communities, schools, and children have suffered because that pivotal element of volunteer community organization no longer happens. Women have fewer hours in the day for volunteering. They’re too busy at work. Now there are organizations like nonprofits where women can get paid for the labor of service, but women only make up 43% of leadership in these organizations — despite making up the majority of leadership when their philanthropy was an unpaid service.

In Silvia Federici’s Caliban and the Witch: Women, the Body, and Primitive Accumulation, she draws complex lines between witch hunts, the exploitation of women’s unpaid domestic labor, the Trans-Atlantic slave trade, and the rise of capitalism:

…capitalism, as a social-economic system, is necessarily committed to racism and sexism. For capitalism must justify and mystify the contradictions built into its social relations — the promise of freedom vs. the reality of widespread coercion, and the promise of prosperity vs. the reality of widespread penury — by denigrating the “nature” of those it exploits: women, colonial subjects, the descendants of African slaves, the immigrants displaced by globalization.

So how do we say Girl Power and Black Lives Matter in the face of all that?

This is an extreme view that I’m sure plenty of folks may not be 100% on board with, but it does force us to think about the implications of systems and the ways that we participate in them. There may be a way that the capitalist grind can overcome oppression. It may be obvious to some. It may not be necessary to others, which is part of the problem.

Feminism is fragmented because many women come from complex backgrounds and a variety of belief systems. Not all women are feminists, and they shouldn’t have to be. Not all women are united under the intersectional lens because, despite their own intersectional identities, not all women think the same way.

Facing the Truth of Biology and Work

Growing up in the ‘90s, I was fed the narrative that I could do anything a man could do. That not letting my womanhood get in the way of success was essential. As an adult, I realize that is not equality. That is not equity. The fact is women get periods. Women get pregnant. We create life, birth it, and are more often than not the primary caregivers to this offspring. And without those things, our species would die out. Many developed countries have begun to acknowledge that and make sick time available for menstruators with painful cramps. They have generous parental leave policies that include fathers, which ultimately lessens gender discrimination as it encourages both parents to take leave from work. But that is not the case in the United States, which is a big problem.

I’ll admit, a lot of this is personal. I’ve been a competent student and professional my entire life, but now I am also pregnant and tired. I am nauseous and fatigued and in pain a lot of the time, but I still feel the pressure of showing up and getting my work done and not losing the strides I’ve made for myself in my career. I haven’t felt good in over two months, and my question is this: Is pregnancy that awful, or am I just asking too much of a body that is trying to build a human?

Because right now, I don’t feel capable and strong and powerful, but maybe that’s because I’m coming up short within a paradigm that doesn’t support the functions of my body. I don’t know what the right answer is when it comes to creating a more equitable society, but I do know that the emotional and mental tolls of living in a female body have been immense.

I’m not the only one that feels that way. In 2012, Ann-Marie Slaughter wrote Why Women Still Can’t Have It All. In this deeply personal and poignant piece, she explores the issue of having ambition while wanting to care for your children. Maybe, she hesitatingly suggests, many of us actually want to have the flexibility to be home with our kids. And if we’re a nation that values family, why don’t our policies reflect that?

I felt resistance turning this discussion about feminism into a discussion about pregnancy and childrearing, but the fact of the matter is that our anatomy and the blessings and curses of it are at the focal point of our oppression. (That’s why birth control and abortion access was and is such a massive deal when it comes to women’s rights.) Let me introduce you to a term I recently learned: the feminization of poverty. This term refers to how the burden of pregnancy and childrearing and life events like divorce affect women overall more than men and worsen their economic situation.

Not only that, but there is such a thing as the “motherhood penalty” and the “fatherhood reward” when it comes to employment. According to research by sociologist Sherry J. Correll, mothers make 4% less per child while fathers make 6% more. And when the burden of childcare falls on mothers, hiring managers looking out for their bottom line will of course choose a mother last for a job or promotion. During the pandemic we experienced a “she-cession” as many mothers bowed out of the workforce to care for their children who were no longer in school.

Further evidence of the disregard with which we treat working mothers is that the United States has higher maternal mortality rates than other developed nations. This is often attributed to having less paid leave.

Until parental responsibilities are equally distributed, this kind of discrimination will not stop. That can’t happen until all parents are awarded parental leave, which has been shown to help even the burden and reduce stigma against working mothers in other developing countries. It also improves maternal health and decreases infant mortality.

It’s not just about putting more women in leadership roles or eliminating the gender pay gap, but about addressing an entire system built on our unpaid labor. A system that needs and adulates mothers while simultaneously punishing them.

What Can I Do?

Here are a few simple initiatives that companies can take to alleviate some of the burden:

Prioritize diversity, equity and inclusion by understanding unconscious bias, and not only recruiting with that in mind but also when making promotions and leadership hires.

Offer generous parental leave that includes both parents so that the burden and stigma of time off does not solely fall on mothers.
Include employee resource groups and offerings for community organizations both internally and externally. Maybe even offer paid time off for charity work.
Vote for policies that support women, children, and families. That includes access to education, contraception, medical services, community support, and financial support for low-income families.
Imagine a future that values cooperation over competition, and implement those values in your organization.

About the author.
Alessandra is the mentor, educator, and writer behind Boneseed, a private practice devoted to deep self-inquiry through a range of physical, energetic, and mental modalities. She has over 500 hours of yoga, mentorship, and facilitation training and can be found slinging knowledge on her website, newsletter, and @bone.seed.

The rationale for diversity, equity, and inclusion in recruiting is stronger than ever. Research has revealed, again and again, that organizations with diverse workforces perform better financially. As our ideas about work continue to evolve at a rapid clip, companies that are not fashioning more equitable workplaces are being left behind.

Workplace diversity is the idea that your company should reflect the makeup of the society around you — including race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, physical ability, and more. Diversity recruiting is the dedicated practice of searching for and hiring candidates using a merit-based process. It is structured to give all applicants an equal opportunity.

Why is a Diversity Recruiting Strategy Important?

Expanding your team’s range of cultural awareness, skills, and experience will positively benefit your business performance and productivity. Organizations that include people of different races, ethnicities, genders, cultural backgrounds, sexual orientations produce significantly more innovative, creative, and effective results. According to research conducted by Oracle, businesses with the most diversity outperform those with little diversity by 36%. And CEOs concur, with 85% saying that having a diverse workforce has improved their bottom lines.

As issues around lack of diversity become more evident, job-seekers are doing more research into a company’s culture, diversity, and inclusion, paying particular attention to the makeup of a prospective employer’s existing workforce and leadership team. More than three quarters of job-seekers say diversity is essential when considering companies and job offers. If people feel unwelcome in this tight talent market, they will not opt to work for you.

“Diversity in the workplace is extremely important to candidates, as they want to work for a company that is made up of people with different ideas, backgrounds and life experiences,” says Shannon Robinson, a senior recruiter for Creative Circle. “When candidates see a variety of different types of people in various departments, as well as in middle management and senior management, then they know they’ll have a fair shot at those opportunities as well.”

But diversity does not just *happen* — organizations need to actively pursue, recruit, and engage candidates from distinct backgrounds to foster a more inclusive workforce, which is why having a smart diversity recruiting strategy matters. The first step to building a more diverse team? Craft a recruitment process that generates a robust and varied candidate pipeline. Here are some tips that can help.

Defining Your Diversity Recruitment Goals

The first step in crafting a smart diversity recruiting plan is to lay out what you want to achieve. Every organization needs to assess the right diversity and inclusion strategy based on culture, industry, regional nuances, and more — there is no one-size-fits-all approach. Some key questions to ask include:

What are our DEI goals?
How do we measure DEI success?
How should we measure diversity recruiting metrics?

Discuss and define what diversity in recruiting looks like for your organization. Identify what you want to accomplish. Do you want more women in software development roles? Do you want more ethnic diversity for your branding team? Get specific about your aims.

Planning and Initial Stages for DE&I

If you want to hire a diverse group of people, make sure there is diversity in who is applying to your positions. If your applicant pool is not diverse in the first place, you will have a tough time achieving your diversity aims. One way to do this is to mindfully create more inclusive job descriptions.

Craft inclusive job descriptions

The words you use to create job descriptions have an outsize impact on your ability to attract diverse applicants. Some top tips include:

Using gender-neutral language

Avoid words and phrases that can subconsciously deter diverse candidates. “Ninja,” “rockstar,” “dominate,” and “work hard, play hard” tend to put off female and older candidates.

Nix jargon and “company speak” (aka the internal language of your corporation) because it can make potential candidates feel unqualified, discouraging them from applying at all.

Enhance job ads with encouragement

A single line of encouragement may make a difference and help your job description stand out. Research backs this up—for example, women will often not apply for a position unless they feel 100 percent qualified, whereas men will apply when they feel only 60 percent qualified. A Harvard Business Review study attributes this to women being concerned that not meeting all requirements means they will not be hired, making applying a waste of time. Want to see if your ad passes the gender-neutral test? Drop your job description in here to see what gender-coded language you might inadvertently be using—you may be surprised.

Assemble a diverse hiring team

Want to build a diverse workforce? Start with a diverse hiring team. Different perspectives are offered when distinct backgrounds are represented, helping nix the groupthink mentality that often results in homogenous hiring patterns. Additionally, it is essential to train all hiring and recruitment partners to recognize biases that can lead to unfair hiring decisions.

Interviewing with DEI in Mind

If you want to see clearly, you may want to cover your eyes—say hello to blind hiring practices. To mitigate bias in the initial applicant selection process, hiring managers can strip away identifiable characteristics from a resume unrelated to the role or experiences needed for success.

Blind Hiring Practices

The origins of blind hiring practices go back to the 1970s, when symphony orchestras were made up mostly of white men. To increase diversity, orchestras began holding auditions behind a curtain so judges could make decisions solely based on performance quality without being swayed by gender or sex. And it worked: as a result, 25% to 45% more women were hired.

Blind Resumes

Blind resumes are an increasingly popular method recruiters and hiring managers use to remove name bias and other forms of unconscious bias from initial candidate screenings. By striking out all personally identifying information on resumes, including names, gender, ethnicity, address, and schools, one can decrease biased assessment of candidates. Even just a name on a resume can undermine the most earnest diversity recruitment efforts.

Blind Interviews

After candidates are invited to move to the next round, blind interviews are a great next step. Before doing face-to-face interviews, hiring managers send candidates questions via email or the recruitment platform of their choice. Candidates answer these questions anonymously, taking care not to divulge personal information. The rationale? Looks, accent, gender, and more can sway an interviewer, whereas a blind interview offers an opportunity to learn more about a candidate while remaining as free of bias as possible.

Creative Circle offers client support with unbiased hiring

We offer a candidate submission process with candidate names removed from resumes if desired. We have also created internal training for our account executives and recruiters to identify implicit biases and biased/gendered language in job descriptions. We support our clients in creating more impactful and neutral job profiles.

This initiative is intended to drive unbiased hiring, provide more opportunities to our candidates from marginalized groups, and support our clients in their diversity hiring improvements. Research shows that neutral job profiles can result in an increase of applicants by 42%.

Re-evaluate current interview practices

Whether in-person or video, face-to-face interviews are a critical part of the recruiting process—but can be rife with bias. Therefore, it is essential to train hiring managers to recognize unconscious bias and conduct standardized interviews. Otherwise, discrimination can seep into the interview process, impacting a candidate’s chance of being chosen for the role. Some things to consider when looking at your current interview practices:

Do the interviewers come from diverse backgrounds?
- To recruit diverse candidates, make sure your interview panel includes diverse team members.

Have interviewers undergone training to recognize different types of bias?
- It is imperative to educate your team on conscious and unconscious biases that may arise during the interview process.

Are interview questions structured to mitigate or eliminate bias?
- Standardize your interview process so that candidates are all asked the same questions and evaluated using the same set of criteria.

Journey to a Stronger DEI Program

If you want to expand diversity and inclusivity at your organization, people need to feel genuinely part of the company culture. While focusing on recruitment is an essential first step, it is not enough on its own.

Devise metrics to monitor diversity recruiting efforts

Transparent, measurable metrics will let you track progress and correct course where necessary. Some key metrics for your recruitment team include:

Percentage of diverse candidates at each recruitment stage
Percentage of job offers to diverse candidates
Percentage of diversity, broken out by type, at different levels of your organization
Employee satisfaction scores for DEI measures
The retention rate for diverse employee hires
Pick policies that pack a punch

To increase diversity, create a company culture that attracts a diverse group of candidates. Some ways to do that include instituting PTO policies with built-in flexibility to accommodate important holidays for different religions, parent-friendly policies like job-protected, equal paid leave for all parents, and LGBTQ+-friendly policies like health insurance for domestic partners.

The bottom line

Diversity and inclusion initiatives need to be more than a program. Want to make meaningful change manifest? Embed your efforts into your company culture and infuse them throughout your organization. Communicate your DEI vision and goals so that everyone in your company is clear on your objectives and why they matter. Set clear aims. Craft innovative recruiting strategies. Track successes and study missteps. Monitor your progress and adjust your process accordingly.

About the author.

An award-winning creator and digital health, wellness, and lifestyle content strategist—Karina writes, produces, and edits compelling content across multiple platforms—including articles, video, interactive tools, and documentary film. Her work has been featured on MSN Lifestyle, Apartment Therapy, Goop, Psycom, Yahoo News, Pregnancy & Newborn, Eat This Not That, thirdAGE, and Remedy Health Media digital properties and has spanned insight pieces on psychedelic toad medicine to forecasting the future of work to why sustainability needs to become more sustainable.

Interviewer: Valaencia Thompson, Creative Circle Houston Account Executive
Interviewee: Ramsay McCoy, Creative Circle Houston Recruiter

Creative Circle is committed to supporting individuals with their career journeys. For creatives, that journey can be winding, and the next best step is often unclear. For creatives of color, this journey can be even more intimidating due to lack of access.

Creative Circle is working to bridge the access gap. Within our organization, we have Employee Resource Groups that are centered around creating safe spaces for often underrepresented or marginalized individuals. One of those ERGs is the Black Women of Creative Circle.

The Black Women of Creative Circle ERG and our DEI Committee are leading the charge on a collaboration with the Emma Bowen Foundation in 2022. The Emma Bowen Foundation is an organization that recruits students of color and places them in multi-year paid internships at some of the nation’s leading media, PR, and tech companies. The organization makes it so that these students can enter their careers with valuable training and experience. The Emma Bowen Foundation creates true leaders, and one of our very own Circlers is a proud alumna of the Emma Bowen Foundation.

Houston Lead Recruiter, Ramsay McCoy is a former Emma Bowen Fellow. After her involvement with the organization, Ramsay landed roles with various PR/media companies and beyond, and eventually that brought her to her current position at Creative Circle.

Check out this Q&A with Ramsay McCoy on her experience as an EBF Fellow.

Valaencia Thompson: How did you become a part of the Emma Bowen Foundation? Ramsay McCoy: My mom found the Foundation for me when I was a freshman in college. I was looking for scholarship opportunities and internships when she stumbled upon EBF. We were excited because it was specifically for people of color. It matched with what my degree was in, which is PR. I was one of the youngest people in my program at the time. The Emma Bowen Foundation ended up giving me a summer internship every summer while I was in college. I was paid and I had a scholarship. I was able to buy my first car because of the EBF. It gave me some independence.

Thomspon: Why do you feel like organizations like EBF are needed?
McCoy: I think that it is so hard for people of color in corporate America — especially women of color — because you are fighting with things like “if your name is spelled a different way,” you are often overlooked. This kind of bridges the gap and gives you an opportunity to be seen. You need organizations like this to give people opportunities to grow and learn.

Thomspon: What were some of your biggest takeaways being a part of the EBF?
McCoy: The organization gave me some really great hands-on experience.
The companies that work with EBF, they are coming to them because they want top caliber talent. Being a part of the organization allowed me to grow my skills and have the talent that companies were looking for.

Thomspon: What do you hope this collaboration with EBF and Creative Circle accomplishes?
McCoy: Creative Circle cares about their candidates and aligning them to opportunities that will serve them, and EBF does the same thing! I think it is important to connect organizations that are aligned. I want to see people from CC spread the word about EBF and see more people from EBF join the CC team. I want to see other recruiters that come from EBF, as well! Ultimately, I want to help make sure that this industry is open for all people.

Thomspon: What would you say to someone who is unsure of their career path? McCoy: You’re always going to be unsure at every phase of your life. Decisions are hard because we want to know the answer. You’re always going to be wondering, “Am I making the right move?” When you make a decision, make it with courage, and make it because that is what felt right in the moment. You don’t have to be one person the rest of your life! Starting at EBF, I knew nothing, not even what my degree was going to be. So, I chose journalism and got a degree in PR, but I did not know that going into it. EBF taught me, but it’s because I took a shot. I was taking a chance! The good Lord blessed me. It’s important to pull up the people that are next in line. We have to pay it forward.

Thanksgiving is my mother’s favorite holiday. We have a time-honored tradition of making my great-grandmother’s stuffing recipe while singing along to Christmas carols in the kitchen (although I’m pretty sure one year we shifted to Disney soundtracks). Cubans love America hard, and so my assimilated family embraced this tradition especially hard.

The older I got, and the more I learned about America’s brutal history with the Indigenous peoples that lived on Turtle Island before colonies, territories, and eventually states took hold, my love of the holiday started to wane.

More recently, Indigenous history and stories have become part of the narrative. Indigenous People’s Day became a holiday, and now, we’re honoring Native American Heritage Month in November. So how do we even begin to integrate this newfound acknowledgement with our perception, language, and practices?

Let’s break down myths, misconceptions, and points of confusion about Thanksgiving. But before we dive in, I want to acknowledge that I’m writing this from historically Hohokam, Sobaipuri, Tohono O’odham, and O’odham Jewed land, although I typically reside on Taino, Tequesta, and Seminole land. (To learn whose land you’re on, check out Native Land).

There is a bloody truth to Thanksgiving.

Poet, speaker, and scholar Lyla June shared the story in 2019. You can watch the full talk here, or read a small excerpt below:

You know, during the time that we talk about Squanto coming and helping the pilgrims and healing them and helping them understand how to plant food, how to survive on the land, he was also being kidnapped and sold into slavery in Europe only to come back here, and to find his entire nation completely obliterated by smallpox. So this man who gave a lot of compassion to people ended up getting sold into slavery.

A really important thing too, is that in 1637, when you have the governor of the Massachusetts colony, John Winthrop — this is only 16 years after the supposed Pilgrim feast with the native people — he declared the first day of Thanksgiving, but it wasn’t for what we think it was. It was actually after the massacre of hundreds of Pequot people down in Connecticut. And the Thanksgiving feast was to thank God that all of his soldiers had returned from this massacre.

They massacred hundreds of Pequot men, women, and children. So we have to understand that the colonies here in Massachusetts were not peaceful. They were colonial. They were fearful and they were aggressive and they harmed many, many, many indigenous peoples. And that’s really, really important for us to understand so that we don’t rose-tint the history that we stand on.

Now that we have this really uncomfortable misconception out of the way, let’s dig into daily life.

There are a range of ways to describe Native Americans, and an equal range of preferences.

So what words can we use during these conversations? The answer varies across individuals, nations, and situations. These are notes I’ve gathered from this webinar held by the Native Governance Center. As they mention, this cannot provide the preferences of every single Indigenous person, but can be a general guideline for the public.

Indian Country

Indian Country is an official term used to describe land inhabited by Native Americans and is widely used by them as well as government officials.

American Indian vs Native American vs Indigenous vs First Nations

Indian and American Indian seem to be the least preferred (although among themselves they may colloquially use the term). Native American and First Nations are specific to the U.S. and Canada respectively and tend to be the preferred formalized words when referring to populations in general. Indigenous encapsulates all Indigenous peoples worldwide, so while another highly accepted term, it is more general.

Tribe

The coopting of this word has killed the vibe, so maybe meditate on how you use this world in your daily life. (There are plenty of other words that have weird histories, like “pow-wow” — not a casual meeting but a sacred ceremony.)

Nation vs Reservation

While the land allocated by the US government is known as reservations, many members and citizens prefer to be referred to as Nations, since they do have their own sovereign government.

Most Indigenous peoples do not receive monthly checks, and those who do don’t get them from the U.S. government.

I spent a few months last summer working with an electrician who went on and on about his Native American friend who received monthly checks, which he took to mean that Native Americans have it so good in this country. That there are some sort of reparations going on. Certain that there was a misunderstanding, I found this helpful breakdown of where the confusion lies.

What my electrician misunderstood was two things. First, his friend was a member of the Florida Seminole Tribe of Florida (not to be confused with the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma, who come from the same origins but have very different opinions of the use of their namesake). The Seminoles have casinos, and the profits of those casinos are distributed among tribal members. The money does not come from the government, but the tribe’s own economic ventures.

The vast majority of Tribal Nations do not have lucrative casinos or other economic ventures that supply surplus funds. In fact, the rates of extreme poverty are much higher on reservation territory than anywhere in the country.

In fact, the Navajo Nation has some of the highest rates of poverty in the country. A Diné photographer and tour guide explained the situation as such:

When driving through the Navajo Nation you’ll find that the neighborhoods that are considered “rich” or “wealthy” would be considered poverty-stricken off the Navajo Nation. It’s not because our people don’t strive for better lives, but truly because the systems that work against them. Many times if you read through posts on TripAdvisor about the homes on the Navajo Nation, you will see complaints about the shacks or state of homes as it ruins the views. It’s terrible, but that is just simple life on the reservation.

He also explained how starting businesses is more challenging when you have to navigate tribal, state, and federal laws, making economic advancement even harder.

On top of that, property rights are still rather contentious when it comes to buying back tribal land and claiming sovereignty, as Justice Ginsberg upheld in 2005.

Spirit Animals and Teepees and Appearance, Oh My!

I know. It’s so fun to say. I have certainly claimed spirit animals thought out my life, but as I’ve learned, I’ve worked to change my behavior. Much like headdresses, spirit animals are part of sacred ritual. Cowlitz Indian Tribe Member Joey Clift offers a simple alternative. Why not call that animal your Patronus instead? We have a fictional alternative that could satisfy that same desire!

Additionally, modern day Native Americans were not born in teepees. Actually, only Great Plains Native Americans even used teepees at all.

And finally, expecting every Native American you meet to look like they came out of an old west film is weird. They are modern humans living modern lives with a range of appearances. Honestly, telling anyone they don’t look like whatever it is they are is weird. I know, I get it all the time. “You don’t look Cuban.” How is a person of Cuban descent supposed to look exactly?

We continue to live through an epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women

Indigenous women are 10x more likely to be victims of homicide than the average American.

This isn’t a new phenomenon. This is embedded in the way that Indigenous people have been treated historically in this country. From broken treaties to boarding schools that cut children off from their families, cultures, and their lives. Earlier this month, 102 dead students were discovered in Nebraska.

The Biden administration has taken steps to address the myriad of atrocities, but it will take a lot of time to make amends here.

For additional information and resources, you can look here and here.

Media depiction of Native practices don’t quite line up with the spiritual and religious reality.

Rituals like dancing around fires, smudging with sage and other herb, chanting, and various form of regalia aren’t just for fun but for ceremonial purposes. Most the songs that are chanted aren’t just songs but prayers.

And Native American freedom of religion wasn’t legalized until 1978. That’s right. That smudge stick you can buy at Urban Outfitters, the fake regalia you can pick up at a costume shop, was illegal for Native Americans to practice with until 43 years ago. Imagine if it was illegal for your parents and grandparents and great-grandparents to practice your religion in the country you grew up in. (This may ring too familiar for our Jewish friends in the audience, which reminds me that Hitler’s inspiration for concentration camps was in fact the Native American reservation system.)

In spite of the tragedy, oppression, prejudice, and injustice, there is still so much we can learn about how to move forward.

Earlier this month, I listened to a conversation organized by Collective Idea Lab which featured Lyla June, Michelle Schenandoah, and Neal Powless. While the conversation spanned many topics, I was struck by the way they discussed “the technology of forgiveness.”

Powless asked, “Would you be willing to forgive someone who ate your uncle?” Because that’s what his ancestors did in order to forge peace and alliance on this continent before any colonizer appeared. Unfortunately, that kind of radical forgiveness will be required again.

They also highlighted that before colonizers started murdering Indigenous and African folks, they were murdering each other. The world has a long and bloody history, and it has affected all of us. Whatever your lineage, most of us hold a mix of colonizer and colonized at some point in our ancestral history. I don’t what to tell you what to do with that information, but there is heartbreak and power there. Maybe just sit with it or talk about it.

They also brought up a Haudenosaunee (also known as Iroquois) ritual of greetings and thanks known as the Thanksgiving Address. They are known as “the words that come before all else.” Perhaps you could use it as a jumping off point for thinking about what you might be grateful for this year. Things that our minds may not always think of. Like the insects and blades of grass. You can also listen to it here. Consider it an exercise in shifting perspectives and digging deeper.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Photo: Mattel/Barbie

Say hello to two new iconic Barbies: Celia Cruz, Afro-Cuban Queen of Salsa, and Julia Alvarez, lauded Dominican-American activist, author, and poet.

These one-of-a-kind role model muñecas were released by Mattel this September 15 in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month — just one example of a broad effort by toy companies to be more inclusive. And Barbie, long criticized for presenting girls with an unrealistic ideal of the female body, has been helping lead the charge towards greater inclusivity. In 2019, Mattel introduced a line of gender-neutral dolls called Creatable World, which are customizable and not limited by gender.

Companies that ignore diversity and inclusivity do so at their peril. Research conducted by Mintel, a marketing research company, shows that nearly nine in ten parents worry about the world in which their children are growing up. If they can help bridge some of the myriad divides that exist by getting toys their kids can relate to, it’s something they are willing to pay for.

Let’s take a look at the legendary icons who Mattel chose to honor.

Celia Cruz

Celia Cruz, “La Guarachera de Cuba,” is a symbol of Cuban and Latin culture and was a pioneer of Afro-Latinidad. She was known as the “Latin Triple Threat” — a powerful stage performer, on-screen actor, and musical recording sensation who managed to find immense success in the male-dominated music scene.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CT2ZC3TP57d/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

“Her long and storied career serves as an endless inspiration for aspiring musicians. Through the Celia Cruz Foundation, her legacy continues to provide scholarships for young Latino students,” Barbie said on Instagram.

Born in 1925 in Havana, Cruz was one of an extended family of 14. After winning a talent show and making a name for herself, she quit school to go after her dream of making it big in music.

In 1950, Cruz became the first Black woman to be the lead singer of the famed La Sonora Matancera orchestra. But despite the group’s success in radio and film, when nightlife evaporated after the Cuban Revolution in 1959, Cruz had to migrate. She first went to Mexico before landing in the United States, where she found fame by becoming part of the salsa music scene of the early 1970s.

The Queen of Salsa is famed for her opera-like voice, flamboyant costumes, brightly colored wigs, and higher-than-high heels. Cruz won three Grammys and four Latin Grammy awards and has been the subject of numerous films and documentaries. She passed away in 2003 from brain cancer. Her autobiography was published posthumously in 2004, and just this year, a street in the Bronx was named after her.

Julia Àlvarez

Award-winning multi-hyphenate Dominican-American author, educator, and activist Julia Álvarez is the other icon Mattel is celebrating. Born in New York City in 1950, she spent the first ten years of her life in the Dominican Republic, until her father’s involvement in a failed political rebellion forced her family to flee their country back to New York.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CT2ZFssPF4B/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

“Julia Álvarez is an award-winning Dominican-American writer, educator, and activist, whose vast body of work explores multicultural themes as they relate to children and adults alike,” Barbie wrote on Instagram.

Much of Álvarez’s work has been influenced by her experience as a Dominican-American. She is known for closely examining cultural expectations of women both here in the United States and the Dominican Republic and taking a penetrating look at cultural stereotypes.

Álvarez rose to prominence with the novels How the García Girls Lost Their Accents (1991), In the Time of the Butterflies (1994), and Yo! (1997). Many literary critics consider her one of the most significant Latina writers due to her widespread international commercial success, and her preeminence was entrenched when President Barack Obama awarded her the National Medal of Arts in 2013.

Representation matters for those of Hispanic and Latinx origin, perhaps now more than ever.

The Census Bureau projects that by 2060, one in three women will be Hispanic in the United States. Mattel likely hoped to be heralded for their effort to be more representational by creating these two Barbies, but this may have backfired. Many have taken to social media to decry what they see as an empty gesture and well-timed publicity stunt. Why? Because these one-of-a-kind dolls are not for sale, according to the official Twitter account of Barbie.

As you might imagine, the Twittersphere is not happy — many are upset and see this as a faux equity gesture. But perhaps Mattel will reconsider if there is an overwhelming clamoring for these iconic Barbies to be commercially released. We hope they decide to bring the Celia Cruz and Julia Álvarez Barbies to market, because the Hispanic community deserves to see themselves represented beyond the tokenism of a one-of-a-kind doll.

These special one-of-a-kind dolls were created to celebrate Celia and Julia. They're not available to purchase.

— Barbie (@Barbie) September 15, 2021

About the author
An award-winning creator and digital health, wellness, and lifestyle content strategist—Karina writes, produces, and edits compelling content across multiple platforms—including articles, video, interactive tools, and documentary film. Her work has been featured on MSN Lifestyle, Apartment Therapy, Goop, Psycom, Yahoo News, Pregnancy & Newborn, Eat This Not That, thirdAGE, and Remedy Health Media digital properties and has spanned insight pieces on psychedelic toad medicine to forecasting the future of work to why sustainability needs to become more sustainable.

Happy Pride! It’s been a month of rainbows and outdoor celebrations that seem a far stone’s throw away (pun intended) from the riots that inspired this month-long commemoration. Awareness of the Stonewall Riots and the trans women of color that spearheaded the movement has never been higher, but neither has the number of corporations jumping on the rainbow bandwagon to promote and perform their progressiveness. This little phenomenon, known as rainbow capitalism, comes with a big bag of complex pros and cons. Let’s dig in.

What is rainbow capitalism?

To put it bluntly, rainbow capitalism is the thing where, in June, companies start dropping rainbow colored paraphernalia for Pride month in order to capitalize on the social recognition of progressiveness and target the purchasing power of the LGBTQIA community and its allies. Or, as author and USC professor Karen Tongsen puts it, the “commodification of things related to LGBT culture, especially the concept of gay pride.” That means hopping on the pride bandwagon with multicolored marketing, and targeting the several trillion dollars of purchasing power that the LGBTQ+ demographic controls.

Is that bad?

Well, not necessarily… but it’s complicated.

The way in which companies might capitalize on performing support can fall short of providing any sort of meaningful change for the LGBTQ+ community, particularly along lines of intersectionality. However, for those of us who grew up in a time where visibility and acceptance of queer identities was minimal, the recognition of the queer experience can feel like a big deal.

The co-chairs of Creative Circle’s own LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group, PRISM, hold a more optimistic view of the corporate rainbow parade. “Anyone that wants to be an ally and wants to celebrate the community, I want to encourage that and not make them feel like [they] have to earn the right to have a rainbow,” explained Kateland Gough, Talent Sourcing Specialist and PRISM co-chair. “I don’t like that mindset, that’s very exclusive which is the opposite of what we’re trying to be which is very inclusive.”

David Spake, fellow PRISM co-chair and Business Analyst, echoed these sentiments stating, “Any showing up and any public facing support of Pride has value.” Spake elaborates: “I think it’s important to remember that in many instances corporate policy leads our nation in cultural change. It’s because corporations really embraced domestic partnership benefits that so many Americans were able to have that protection — before there were legal protections in place. That alone shows how many corporations stepped up for their LGBTQ+ employees, even when they didn’t have to.”

Normalizing LGBTQ+ identities has a massive impact on society and social structures, creating a safer place for young people to grow up and question their identity without the confusion and fear that was once commonplace. How could that be a bad thing?

Well, some find the exploitative nature of marketing during Pride brushes over the issues of the most vulnerable. While many companies have improved their DEI initiatives, healthcare plans, and non-discrimination policies, there are other places where flags are waved while employee struggles are kept in the dark.

In a personal essay, professor and social psychologist, Dr. Devon Price exposes the contradictions of their Jesuit University celebrating pride by highlighting LGBTQ+ authors in the library while denying trans inclusive healthcare:

“While my university bills itself as a tolerant place, it all too often feels to me like its tolerance is simply convenient for its branding. Blue and pink flags and feel-good teaching awards can offer a pleasant scrim to hide the often discriminatory policies lurking beneath. Throughout my time here, I’ve witnessed the school invoke its status as a religious institution in order to discriminate against transgender employees, deny birth control to those that need it, and even use it to block employees from unionizing. I’ve also seen the school position itself as open to all students of all faiths and identities at the exact same time.”

Queer community and resource website LGBTQ and All published an article by Billie Olsen that explores the harm of Rainbow Capitalism:

“By not acknowledging the roots of queer oppression or the history of Pride, there can be devastating consequences. For instance, rainbow capitalism ignores the core of Pride and the continual violence enacted against different intersections of the queer community,”

While companies can reap profits from rainbow swag, those dollars and attention could be going towards organizations that actually help LGBTQ+ youth, or AIDS resource centers. If everything becomes glitter and rainbows, then the work that needs to be done is lost from focus, while the more “acceptable” forms of queerness take center stage.

A lot of companies that support the rainbow “have a lot of conflicting actions beyond the month of June,” explains Creative Circle Associate HR Business Partner, Denise Romero. Specifically, with regards to corporate spending and PAC donations. “Money talks and it really matters where these companies are putting their money.”

For example, there are companies that will rainbow their logos, while donating millions of dollars to anti-gay politicians. According to this investigation by Popular Information, since 2019, over 20 companies with solid LGBTQ+ engagement and publicity, as well as immaculate scores in the HRC index, have donated millions to anti-LGBT+ politicians.

Of course, this doesn’t factor in that many of these companies (or rather their PAC funds) donated more money to pro-gay politicians. Companies are lobbying for their bottom line for their industry. Can they support the LGBTQ+ community while supporting policymakers that will likely vote against meaningful change?

Pride, Intersectionality & Performative Allyship

The most vulnerable members of the LGBTQ+ community are those with intersectional identities — namely, trans, Black, Indigenous, and other queer people of color. Gay liberation feels safe as long as it stays within the binary of the dominant culture. So while defending gay marriage is something corporations are willing to champion, police and prison reform might be a step too far.

Senior Vice President of Talent Delivery and Operations, Lauren Schellenbach, wrote an internal piece for Creative Circle centering on trans people of color and intersectionality in their discussion of Pride. “Pride seems safe for companies,” they explained. “Juneteenth is still controversial, and I do think about this intersectionality where we come together.”

Last year, at the height of BLM protests, some companies were showing solidarity and openly stating Black Lives Matter, after years of diversity pandering with no real systemic support (through actionable items like bias trainings, education, donations, and anti-discrimination policies). Experts acknowledge that gauging whether that support becomes action will take time. Will promises be fulfilled?

Not always, like in Ferguson where companies pledged to invest, but have taken that investment into the affluent (and predominantly white) part of town. Y-Vonne Hutchinson, chief executive and founder of diversity consulting firm ReadySet, told the Washington Post: “There’s a lot of performative allyship going around. Nobody’s asking for a CEO to take a knee. You take the knee after you change your policies.”

When all you see is a logo, or a pledge, or a party, it’s hard to know what’s a pandering performance, and what’s a real conscious undertaking of what can actually help.

Do something. Like what?

A non-discrimination policy is the bare minimum. Transgender inclusive healthcare is even better. Employers are stepping up and offering benefits in record numbers according to HRC’s annual report and making sure those rainbow profits get to organizations that support at-risk LGBTQ+ communities from unhoused youth to those fighting HIV/AIDS.

“The one thing I would feel is more important throughout all of this is education,” said Romero. “There’s a lot of ignorance out there regardless of what side you’re on. Educate yourself and those around you. Hopefully that will one day come full circle. As many wins as we have, we still have a long road ahead. It’s amazing that kids can see that there are a lot of people that support Pride. Our youth has such a high suicide rate and at the end of the day we have a long way to go with that.”

Insurance that includes IVF treatment and adoption would also go a long way not just for LGBTQ+ partners, but straight partners who may have a hard time conceiving. Bringing a child into the world is already expensive. The steps some families have to take to get there add another burden, according to Romero.

Romero also shared with me that “Creative Circle is probably the first company I’ve worked for that I’ve felt really comfortable being out.” Queer leadership and fellow out employees help create a safe culture. Lauren Schellenbach’s visibility as an SVP is huge. But beyond that, open conversations, training and education initiatives play a big part in creating a culture on inclusivity.

Questioning all our binary biases — from assuming pronouns and identification, opposite sex partnership, and focusing on a baby’s gender — can all add up and push the conversation toward inclusion and help us all understand our own actual preferences rather than what’s expected.

“I’m always ambivalent at this point about participating in Pride events because they seem more like parties, and I’m old so I don’t go to the parties.” Schellenbach half joked. They continued exploring the complexity of this celebration: “I wish there was more ritual around celebrating your community and your history. I think there is more of that now, but I also think if we really want to celebrate, we probably should be protesting. And if we’re protesting, we should find the intersectionality. That’s where it is. It’s with our community of folks who are POC and even more marginalized because of the number of things that are going on for them. I think that’s where everyone can do a better job. Don’t just put a progressive flag on your logo, but actually do something.”

That something, can range from the points mentioned above to deeper systemic intervention in real communities, like San Francisco. For example, they explained, companies based in Silicon Valley could be doing more to preserve local queer and BIPOC communities that have been priced out of their homes. “Are they going into the community and going into places where people live, and saying ‘I’m going to preserve this area so it doesn’t break down into ridiculous prices, not just for LGBTQ+, but also BIPOC [residents]?” They also ask, “Why are you not giving back to the community in a way so our queer brothers and sisters don’t feel they have to move to Portland?”

As Canadian reporter Aimee Langer puts it in the CBC opinion section, rainbow capitalism is pandering, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t help the big picture. “You can be frustrated about irresponsible and disingenuous pandering, but still acknowledge the inevitability of capitalist participation,” Langer wrote in an article published earlier this month. “Real change necessitates that companies do their pandering in good faith. This means consequential engagement, support, and policies not just during Pride Month, but year-round.”

Some action items Langer suggests include demanding inclusive workplace politics, hiring LGBTQ+ individuals at all levels of management, running community events, creating partnerships and mentorship initiatives, and creating internships and capital grant programs available to LGBTQ+ youth and entrepreneurs.

Spake and Gough shared that through PRISM, they have now established a pipeline for queer voices to be heard at every level of management that is recognized by the company. They’re even asked to approve of externally facing Pride-related graphics. It’s a process of building something and building on that ethos of education. “Every speck of dust adds up,” said Spake. “There are so many different ways to get involved. I think you just need to see what works for yours a person or a company,” added Gough.

So, where’s the line?

Well, there isn’t one. As much as we may want to point fingers at “bad guys” and celebrate “good guys,” the reality is much more complicated. There are things some companies are getting right. There are things some companies are getting wrong. Capitalism requires money to take the lead decision making in order for companies to turn a profit and thrive. Our humanity requires we hold people accountable for what they do. Democracy encourages us to make the policies and donations and education that happens behind closed doors more transparent to the public.

So perhaps the takeaway here is that we keep the celebration going beyond the month of June by encouraging education through an intersectional lens and taking a look at how deep corporate support goes. I don’t need every company to wave a flag, but if they’re offering comprehensive healthcare and having the tough conversations, that’s a step in the right direction, and it helps us all.

Celebrating Pride in all its colorful glory has become a fashionable topic in the land of marketing.

Pride — once shunned — is now popularly supported by both public institutions and private corporations and is a widespread celebration for individuals and families from vast backgrounds and contexts. And this is a fabulous thing, reflecting the incredible leaps and bounds that have been made in the last few decades in terms of social, political, and cultural transformation that has normalized the conversation around gay rights.

Long gone are the days when advertisers only targeted the LGBTQ+ community with coyly worded campaigns. In today’s world, queering the marketing ecosystem has become big business, with rainbows emblazoned on everything from credit cards to fast food to clothing and electronics. But is this actually a win for the LGBTQ+ community or another empty marketing ploy? How many of these companies support the LGBTQ+ community — both inside and outside their company’s walls — all year round?

Welcome to the new Pride Month — a mix of well-meaning corporate intention but also prime pinkwashing season.

A mash-up of “pink” and “whitewashing,” the term describes a marketing ploy by corporations to cash in on and capitalize on the queer community — especially during prominent LGBTQ+ times like Pride month, when queer visibility is at its apex.

The popularity of shows like Queer Eye for the Straight Guy helped prominent marketers come out of the closet from Amazon to Barclays Bank to Forever 21 and even Israel, which sought to brand itself as the gay mecca of the Middle East (to the tune of much backlash). Some considered even the Obama administration to have adopted pinkwashing to distract the public from its more controversial policies.

As was the case with Israel, many perceived these companies’ foray into the rainbow-dappled Pride world as a vehicle to distract from their controversies. For example, Amazon continues to face a host of criticism ranging from tax avoidance to poor labor relations and working conditions.

Association with LGBTQ+ diversity and inclusion messaging may genuinely reflect these companies’ desire to move past former controversies and embrace a more open and inclusive future. But it can be hard to shake the suspicion that some of these businesses may be indulging in a bit of pinkwashing to blur the edges of some historically thorny reputational damage.

Pink sparkle is pretty to look at as it softs through the air, but as consumers become increasingly knowledgeable (and cynical), companies need to do more than just rainbow their logo for June and find ways to support LGBTQ+ rights year-round — authentically.

Some companies have gone beyond rainbow-hued social media posts by making their health insurance trans-inclusive, like Coca-Cola and Hyatt. And the first major hotel chain to offer domestic partnership benefits to queer couples? Hyatt. Taking action to foster a safe, egalitarian, and inclusive workplace goes a long way to creating a more inclusive society. If you’re truly walking the walk, then go paint a rainbow on it.

So, what is the role of private businesses in supporting these efforts in terms of sponsorship or emblazoning rainbows on socks and creating Pride-inspired ad campaigns?

A Pride-inspired ad campaign won’t count for much unless it’s accompanied by a robust set of inclusive internal policies that support diversity and a continuing promise to strive to do better. Recent years have evidenced how marketing campaigns advertising diversity and inclusion may harm a brand’s reputation if not perceived as authentic by the public and backed up by real action.

Want to engage authentically? Here are some assessments to consider:

1. What is your motivation?

It can be easy to get swept up in Pride-fever, but before you roll out the rainbow tchotchkes and merchandise, take a step back to assess why you want to engage and what your company wants to achieve by doing so. Start there.

2. Are you making a real contribution to an LGBTQ+ cause?

The LGBTQ+ community has long been marginalized and underserved. Is your company providing genuine support to the community or just another rainbow flag on a float? It’s vital that corporations show up year-round and contribute — not just during Pride month in June when it’s popular and PC to do so. Want to be an excellent corporate ally? Put your financial support behind issues that are vital to the community all twelve months of the year.

3. Is your company’s position consistent year-round?

Consistency is essential to successful corporate responsibility. Want to engage with the LGBTQ+ community meaningfully? Show up consistently. Here’s a good example of a bad misstep: Adidas, who for several years has shown its support for gay rights by releasing a cornucopia of rainbow-hued goods, was also a major sponsor for the 2018 World Cup, which took place in Russia, a country with an abysmal record for LGBTQ+ rights. The contradiction laid bare a fundamental disconnect between the brand’s messaging and its actions — and made Adidas’ rainbow merchandise look more like a money-making ploy than an authentic measure of support.

4. Is your company fostering a genuinely inclusive and diverse work environment and work culture?

Corporate support for the LGBTQ+ community needs to start from within. Research points to wage discrepancies between straight workers and their LGBTQ+ colleagues, while other data shows that as many as six in ten LGBTQ+ workers feel uncomfortable at work, with three in ten experiencing homophobic behavior. Before a corporation can authentically support gay rights, they need to come to terms with what may be happening in their workplace first. Some points to consider:

a. Are there strong anti-harassment policies in place that are enforced?
b. Is there anti-bias training?
c. Are there equal opportunities for LGBTQ+ workers?
d. Is there an LGBTQ+ pay gap?
e. Are there ERGs or other similar groups for LGBTQ+ workers and allies?

Pride-related diversity and inclusivity initiatives can be a win-win. By championing LGBTQ+ employees, partners, and customers, brands will see a true return with respect to brand loyalty, employee retention, and overall brand visibility. But this will only be the case if these efforts are authentic, evergreen, and sustained. If the rainbow only leads to a pot of gold, save it for the leprechauns.

About the author.
An award-winning creator and digital health, wellness, and lifestyle content strategist—Karina writes, produces, and edits compelling content across multiple platforms—including articles, video, interactive tools, and documentary film. Her work has been featured on MSN Lifestyle, Apartment Therapy, Goop, Psycom, Yahoo News, Pregnancy & Newborn, Eat This Not That, thirdAGE, and Remedy Health Media digital properties and has spanned insight pieces on psychedelic toad medicine to forecasting the future of work to why sustainability needs to become more sustainable.