Although there have been many strides made in the functional wellness space, women are oftentimes excluded from the conversation.

Enter Lauren Bosworth, who is powerfully moving the needle in the women’s health and wellness space.

With a passion for functional medicine, holistic wellness practices, and biohacking, Bosworth founded Love Wellness after experiencing chronic health issues that she couldn’t fix with traditional drugstore offerings.

After seeing legacy women’s health brands fail her, she saw the opportunity to build a total body care brand for women by creating a range of supplements, multivitamins, and personal care products driven by body positivity, clean ingredients, and expert formulations.

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In her role as CEO, Bosworth leads product innovation, education, and community. Her previous experience in television and media helped to lay the foundation for building the community of users Love Wellness serves today.

We sat down with Bosworth to discuss how is she changing the narrative around self-care culture, and empowering others to feel supported, welcomed, and safe during their wellness journeys.

What inspired you to create Love Wellness? How is your brand filling a critical gap in the market?

Love Wellness was born out of my own personal health journey. In 2015, I was suffering from severe vitamin deficiencies and found myself constantly in the personal care aisle at the pharmacy trying to cure the recurring infections I was getting. I realized that everything in that aisle was missing the mark from a messaging, marketing, and ingredient perspective. The legacy brands on the shelves made me feel ashamed of myself; they were marketed as safe and effective, when their ingredient profiles revealed otherwise. At that moment, I realized I had the power to do something about it. Our brand is filling a space that has ultimately been ignored in the wellness world for too long. Women have not had access to products that contain ingredients that actually support their bodies, nor products with messaging that makes them feel good about themselves. We’re giving women access to wellness products that do both.

The market is really capitalizing on holistic wellness right now, which can make it difficult to stand out. How does Love Wellness differentiate itself from other wellness brands in the space?

Simply put, we are a brand that prioritizes what women want: clean products that actually work, education and community paired alongside those products, and a wellness message that shares that we are not alone. It also helps that we were one of the first personal care brands to provide a holistic approach to wellness in a modern, beautifully packaged way (we launched in October 2016) so we have had a 5-year head-start in the creation of this category. There are very few brands that are actively checking all the boxes we do, and it’s why we have been able to win nationwide distribution in multiple categories at Target and Ulta Beauty.

While your brand is primarily focused on holistic wellness, it intrinsically taps into women's empowerment and body positivity. In what ways does Love Wellness bridge the gap between physical health, mental wealth, and overall wellbeing?

Primarily, we bridge the gap between physical, mental, and overall health through our goal of education. We encourage women to learn about their bodies, how everything is connected, and provide them with educational resources to do something about whatever issues they may be facing through both our products and our online community, The Love Club. The Love Club is a place where women can log on and connect with our wellness advisory board and one another. By learning about your body, you’re able to start taking control of your overall well-being.

Although holistic wellness is a buzzword right now, Western medicine continues to be at the forefront of the conversation. How does your brand aim to further legitimize alternatives to Western Medicine?

We work with a team of doctors, food scientists, nutritionists, and naturopaths when creating and educating about our products and health in general. By working at the intersection of the Western Medicine world with our incredible team of doctors and naturopaths, we’re able to provide incredible perspectives and education for our community. There is value in learning and implementing many approaches to wellness. Our Western Way is not the only way, though it’s incredibly valuable in many instances.

Your brand messaging speaks to "making natural solutions for natural problems.” How is Love Wellness removing the stigma that oftentimes comes with all-natural products?

All-natural products can sometimes be seen as too “woo-woo” in the world of wellness and health and aren’t seen as actually helpful. We’ve worked with a board of OB/GYNs, naturopaths, food scientists, and dietitians to find the best ingredients that have been shown to help support women's health. Ultimately, the products we’ve created have been integral to my own personal health journey, and with over 47,000 reviews, we’ve proven that natural solutions can be deeply effective in the lives of other women.

Women’s health is oftentimes seen as taboo in a male-dominated world. How is Love Wellness striving to make these conversations more mainstream?

Our most recent brand campaign was called “Let’s Talk Bodies”. This campaign was centered around changing the lack of conversation around stigmatized health issues. By focusing on taboo topics like sex, vaginal health, and gut health, we are encouraging positive, meaningful, and inclusive conversations.

In addition to our campaign launching on social media, our website, and connected TV, we also took over advertising in multiple subway stations in New York City. We find that when you educate instead of shame or manipulate through marketing, stigma quickly falls away from the personal care issues we target. We communicate with women how women want to be communicated with-in an authentic, straightforward, and safe way. This is a part of our brand DNA and why we have been so successful in a crowded category.

Love is at the core of your brand’s DNA and is even in the name. What role does self-love play in your brand’s mission statement?

Self-love is in the fiber (literally!) of Love Wellness. Our tagline is “love yourself well” which has a double meaning. We believe in not only loving yourself in the traditional sense, but also loving yourself physically well. We’re committed to the belief that by owning your personal health and wellness, you are acting on deep self-love. Taking care of your body and health is self-love. Having conversations to support and encourage other women is an act of self-love. We want our community to love every piece of themselves and love themselves truly well.

In light of Women’s History Month, how is your brand further democratizing the health and wellness space to be more inclusive towards women?

Our community is at the center of everything we do. We are shedding light on health issues, often ignored within mainstream health conversations. By bringing education about women’s health to the forefront of conversation, we’re making the wellness space more inclusive and open. Consumer brands that aren’t building communities that educate and empower are missing the mark.

Your brand is for women and by women. How does your women-led team help inform the work you do?

We each have personal stories and a personal mission with the brand. As women, we all have a unique perspective on health and have felt the shame that can come with legacy brands and taboo conversations. The work we do empowers us to in turn empower our Love Wellness community and drives us to continue to formulate innovative products that have women’s health in mind. We are constantly having open conversations about education, topics of women’s health, and how we can further impact the wellness space.

Our Love Wellness wellness advisory board is made up of women in the health, medical, and wellness fields who are not only experts in their respective categories, but are passionate about the work they do. Through their expert knowledge, they help to empower and educate our Love Wellness community around taking ownership of their health.