Consumer Culture

Chemicals

5 beauty industry facts sure to cause wrinkles (from frowning!)

Dec 9, 2025

•

10 min read

5 beauty industry facts sure to cause wrinkles (from frowning!)

One year ago, I authored the first report of its kind about the beauty industry’s lack of transparency on sustainability issues. This week, I caught up with my report collaborator, Good On You’s Becca Willcox. She shares the facts that surprised her.

JD Shadel

Consumer Culture

What keeps “conscious consumers” up at night? Hundreds of you told us.

Nov 29, 2025

•

12 min read

What keeps “conscious consumers” up at night? Hundreds of you told us.

Readers from different generations, geographies and income brackets told us your biggest anxieties about fashion and consumer culture. We mapped them to seven big themes that speak to our moment.

JD Shadel

Essay

Fashion media is as unsustainable as fast fashion. It's only getting worse.

Nov 1, 2025

•

14 min read

Fashion media is as unsustainable as fast fashion. It's only getting worse.

It’s time mainstream fashion media faced a reckoning for its role in the climate crisis, labour exploitation, and making people feel bad about themselves. Here’s why we’re trying to build something entirely different from the ground up. Welcome to anxiety.eco.

JD Shadel