2018 will be the biggest year for 'wellness' yet

Lupita Nyong’o on the <em>Vogue</em> January 2018 cover. (Photo: Mikael Jansson for <em>Vogue</em> magazine)
Lupita Nyong’o on the Vogue January 2018 cover. (Photo: Mikael Jansson for Vogue magazine)

On Vogue’s January 2018 cover, “Wellness” is the biggest word.

Alongside headline teasers like “Sexual Healing: Coming Out at 37,” the cover pays homage to the self-care moment. “You Be You: Feel-Good, Look-Good Fashion,” reads one headline. “Secrets to a Happier and Healthier 2018” is another. Yes, January is the traditional month of resolutions to improve yourself, but there is something decidedly more holistic here than what we’re used to — this isn’t weight loss and exercise; this is wellness. With Lupita Nyong’o on the cover in tree pose atop a paddleboard, it seems wellness might be coming fully into its own. And is there a stronger harbinger of that than Vogue to tout the movement?

On some level, wellness has already transitioned from something hokey to decidedly mainstream. (Take Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, for example.) But with a Vogue cover in full wellness mode, it seems to officially be fashionable to care about your inside as well as your outside. The cover story on Nyong’o, for one, skips the requisite “celebrities are just like us, she’s even eating a burger!” anecdote and opens with Nyong’o at a pole-dancing exercise class. Celebrities are still aspirational, but with the rise of wellness, we want to work out like Lupita.

Lupita Nyong’o finding wellness on an exercise ball in the January <em>Vogue</em>.
Lupita Nyong’o finding wellness on an exercise ball in the January Vogue.

According to MindBodyGreen, the wellness movement will only continue to increase next year. It’s predicting 2018 trends like “planetary healing” (which ranges from buying plants to fighting against climate change), “gut health” (next year we’ll finally all learn what probiotics are), and “femtech” (Uber, but for vaginas). With the embrace of prominent brands like Vogue, wellness is becoming far less of a niche and, dare we say, far more mainstream.

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