From The Editor: Hello Health

Hello Health!

Each year, we tell ourselves this will be the year: the year that we will make changes to our diet or exercise plans, that we will get right with our mental health, or that we will get on a good schedule with attending regular doctor’s appointments and refilling our medications. 

However, each year also presents new and unique challenges, be they COVID, mental health strains that come from fear and prejudice, or simply the hellscape that is late-stage capitalism making it nearly impossible to go to the doctor and get medication. And as soon as we try to make positive changes, we face negative messages from society: We’re still doing too little for our physical health, or our mental health still doesn’t line up with and look like the norm. 

So, what is the answer? What I’ve said so far might sound very bleak, and if your answer is, “Do nothing; it’s too hard,” honestly, that’s fair. But we care about you, and all that comes with that, and we want you here. So we’ve tried our best to do our part in supporting your mental and physical health journey, no matter what that looks like. 

In these pages—and in the very special insert tucked within this magazine, presented with collaboration from Envision:You—we offer resources to help you hold boundaries, seek gender-affirming mental healthcare, go on a health journey that has nothing to do with vilifying fatness, and find the help you need from folks who know how to provide care in the right way. 

We’re not promising that this magazine is going to solve all your problems, or take away all these terrible barriers to mental and physical healthcare, but if we can provide resources and add to the conversation in a positive way, that’s one step toward better health for all. So, while the world burns around us, let’s shake off the seasonal depression, replace it with the more manageable, regular depression, and get out there to show the world that all bodies are spring fashion bodies.