HEALTH: Our Anti-Racism Pledge: A Commitment to Diversity, Inclusion, & Equity

June 12, 2020

To our readers—

The time for change is long overdue. The systematic racism that oppresses Black lives is unacceptable and there is no neutrality in the fight against it. We join that fight now. What follows is our Anti-Racism Pledge—a detailed promise to all who visit Verywell, so they may see themselves in the voices and content we share.

This is just the beginning of an ongoing commitment—one that will be continually updated with tactical progress and new initiatives. Our team views this work as the first step to support, protect, and empower Black lives.

As a health website that reaches more than 30 million readers per month, we have the power and responsibility to create positive change. That starts with covering topic areas we have ignored, empowering voices we have neglected, representing those we have overlooked, exposing truths we have avoided, and challenging standards we have always just accepted. Actions matter more than words right now. Impact matters more than intention always.

Here is our team's pledge and commitment to diversity, inclusion, and equity:

	•	We will recruit and amplify Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) contributors across Verywell. We have too few people of color (POC) sharing their voices on our sites. We will work with more BIPOC health writers, Review Board members, expert sources, illustrators, and photographers, to create and enhance our content—not just on isolated topics of race, but across our brands' coverage. By the end of 2020, we pledge that at least 25% of our new content will be created with BIPOC contributors.

	•	We will work with diversity and sensitivity editors to expand representation within our content. We will also consult with medical professionals and subject-matter experts to ensure our content addresses the health disparities that exist in our country. We will create a process to review and correct content featuring unconscious bias, harmful language, and other matters that may further marginalize certain groups of people. By the end of 2020, we pledge to review content that accounts for 50% of our traffic, to ensure it is inclusive in its language and content.

	•	We will commit to greater representation in our visual assets. This includes our original assets such as illustrations, photography, and videos, as well as those sourced by stock photography resources. By the end of 2020, we pledge that a minimum of 25% of our traffic will contain visual assets inclusive of BIPOC.

	•	We will prioritize the diversity of our in-house team and commit to continued education. While we have a number of Black reviewers and freelancers, we currently have no Black editorial staff members and that will change. Here are our open positions.

	•	We will not feature products, brands, writers, experts, influencers, or other sources with a known history of racism. If we have unknowingly done so, we'll work to immediately correct our mistakes.

We approach this commitment as an ongoing process built on a foundation of empathy. We promise to listen, learn, and help you care for your physical and mental health. In order to best do so, our team is dedicated to educating ourselves on anti-racism and recognizing the racial inequalities that impact the core content we create. We will work hard to cover how these injustices impact health conditions, fitness choices, nutrition access, parenting, education, mental health, and more.

We invite you to hold us accountable and trust we are doing the same within our team. Please share feedback about how we can continue to improve and grow, with the aim of working together, not creating shame that may cause more division. We want to hear how you feel you are, or are not, represented in what you see across the Verywell brands. Please email us at feedback@verywell.com.

We make these changes today and we will remain committed to them tomorrow and every day that follows. Thank you for being a part of the Verywell community and joining us in our efforts to do better.

Sincerely,
The Verywell Editorial Team