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 typically those who shout the loudest, strip their content material of nuance, and push the newest sizzling tackle a trending subject that develop the most important audiences.
Verily has at all times taken a special path. Our neighborhood has grown through the years largely by individuals discovering us through Google search, and in addition by phrase of mouth and in-person encounters. When individuals learn our work, they need to share it with others. It’s a sluggish, natural, human-to-human type of progress.
I educated 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 instructed me that ladies weren’t concerned about content material that made them be ok with themselves and others, and in addition that simply wasn’t the way you earn a living within the journal enterprise. Apparently, you earn a living by making girls really feel insecure, then bombarding them with the “solutions” to their insecurities and perceived issues within the type of fixed commercials. Whereas I used to be coaching for my Masters, the supermodel Elle Macpherson instructed me in an interview that she thought I used to be too good to be a journalist, and my supervisor instructed 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 possibly can see why I ended that yr feeling considerably disillusioned and not sure of which steps to take subsequent in my profession.
A yr later I heard about Verily, a brand new girls’s journal that I may really feel actually proud to jot down for. I used to be so grateful that different girls felt the way in which that I did concerning the media and had been working to vary the dialog for girls. Having labored on the employees of Verily journal for simply over 4 years (from 2014-2017 and in 2023-2024) all instructed now, I can safely say that there’s a starvation for media that makes girls really feel seen, not offered to; that builds up moderately than that tears down’ that embraces the wrinkles, sweat, and pores of residing, respiratory 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 workforce has heard many times 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 lady’s sense of self-worth gained’t promote? That half a minimum of I’ve seen play out.
However for this reason Verily exists, in opposition to the chances 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 government or wherever in between, now we have a invaluable contribution to make to society, and we’re worthy of relaxation, neighborhood, and considerate dialog.
Once I assume again to 2011, the yr I completed my journalism MA and Verily’s founding workforce 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 deal with. This yr, 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 current months. Which means not solely are girls evaluating themselves with filtered and Photoshopped variations of actual girls, however we’re additionally starting to check 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 lady 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 achieve past our pages and web site and grow to be a cultural motion in girls’s media, combating the objectification of ladies at each stage of society. This objective is now extra reachable than ever, and we’re excited to ask you now to affix us on this mission, in a particular new means.
Asserting Verily’s brand-new membership program!
We’re delighted to announce the launch of Verily membership, a brand new chapter for Verily that can allow us to maintain doing this work whereas going deeper into neighborhood and dialog with you, our readers. Merely decide the tier you’d like to affix to take pleasure in staying in nearer contact with us with common member Q&As, workshops, roundtables, and extra. Don’t fear—our stunning print journal isn’t going wherever, in truth it’s now one of many perks of being a member, and your assist will assist us to maintain creating and distributing this culture-changing media.
As a Verily member, your assist permits us to:
- Put the tales of on a regular basis girls, so typically crowded out by an over-focus on movie star tradition, again within the highlight
- Promote the message that ladies usually are not objects by means of our stunning print and on-line media
- Create area for vital 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 all over the place 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, relations, these in our communities and friendship teams, by means of content material that nurtures wholesome connection moderately 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 growing old, 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 dropping contact with the truth of our humanity.
In a world the place filters, noise, and unattainable beliefs are harming younger girls’s self-worth and confidence, you may assist us to vary 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 delightful media that empowers girls to be who they really are.
As a member, you’ll have entry to unique insider occasions and content material that can 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 neighborhood and making a cultural impression. Collectively, we are able to construct a extra optimistic media tradition, one which lifts up as an alternative of tears down, evokes as an alternative of pressures, and tells girls: you aren’t a method to an finish, you invaluable as you might be.
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 (Artistic Director) & the Verily workforce
P.S. Discover our membership choices right here and tell us if in case you have any questions. We are able to’t wait to see you inside!
