The Beautywell Project

11/24/2025

Join us for our Beautywell Breakfast! This breakfast gathering is an opportunity to connect, learn, and engage with the community. Join us to connect and hear about our exciting initiatives, including Beautywell’s first documentary, to be filmed in the US, Africa, and Asia!

📅 Thursday, December 4, 9:00–10:00 AM
📍 The Beautywell Project, 1821 University Ave W, Suite 464-28, St. Paul

Please RSVP here: bit.ly/bwbreakfast (the link is also available in our bio).

We look forward to being in community with you! 💚

11/21/2025

🌟 Our Engage to the Max Fundraiser is live! Join our movement, whether through a donation, getting involved, or sharing this post, every contribution matters in collective action.

💚 Donate through the link in our bio

Special thanks to for creating a platform that allows supporters to discover and fund nonprofits led by and supporting communities.

11/20/2025

Give to the Max Day is here!

Skin-lightening is a global public health crisis that exposes communities, especially women and girls, to dangerous chemicals. Colorism, the driving force of this practice, pressures youth and adults to change their natural appearance.

At Beautywell, we fight back by:
✨ Raising awareness about health risks
✨ Supporting and educating youth
✨ Creating toxic-free environments
✨ Promoting beauty in ALL skin tones

Your gift today strengthens this work for many causes.
💛 Donate: givemn.org/story/Engage-To-The-Max
🎥 New campaign video now available!

Let’s create a world where every shade is valued. 💛

11/18/2025

Our sincere gratitude to the University of Minnesota Twin Cities School of Public Health for hosting us today and to everyone who attended. A special thanks to the students and public health professionals who were inspired to action and involvement. We saw a lively discussion in the comments, and are excited to see more youth-led initiatives in combating skin-lightening and colorism. We love to seeing and hearing the passion of interest of public health students on this issue!

If you missed it, the full talk will be available on the SPH YouTube channel soon.

11/17/2025

Tomorrow, our Founder and Executive Director, Amira Adawe, will be speaking at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities School of Public Health as part of their Justice and Public Health series. Join us for her talk, The Colorism-Public Health Crisis: Interrogating Toxic Skin Lightening Products as an Environmental Justice Issue.

This talk will explore how colorism has created a silent public health crisis, driving global health disparities through the unregulated skin lightening product market and chemical exposure. This talk will also examine how this critical social justice and environmental justice issue is being addressed through advocacy, community-based research, community healing, and policy work at The Beautywell Project, presenting actionable strategies for public health students and professionals to disrupt Eurocentric beauty norms, champion community-led health solutions, and ensure justice in the regulation of the global cosmetics industry.

The Justice in Public Health series is hosted by the SPH Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and welcomes local and national experts to lead discussion around a wide variety of topics that impact public health and advance health equity.

All are welcome. Click here to register: bit.ly/beautywellatsph

11/14/2025

Lamin Jaiteh, Registrar of Pesticides & Hazardous Chemicals for the National Environmental Agency of the Gambia, speaks about the scale of the skin lightening industry, methods for systemic change, and the importance of the changes made at for better global regulations.

11/12/2025

Semia Gharbi, environmental expert and 2025 winner from Tunisia, speaks about health and environmental impacts of skin lightening treatments, and the importance of preserving and taking pride in our cultural identities.

Minamata Convention on Mercury

11/11/2025

Reflecting on :

⚖️ Cooperating with governments and agencies on better policies and regulations to stop the illegal production and trade of mercury-laced skin-lightening products.

🚩 Advocating for international regulations through raising awareness of the scale of mercury exposure through skin-lightening treatments and productions.

🤝 Partnering with international agencies and organizations, sharing knowledge, research (community-based participatory data), resources as a community engagement and public health expert on chemical exposure from the skin-lightening products.

✊🏿 Raising awareness about the global systemic harm of colorism as the main culprit fueling the ~$8 million skin lightening industry, leading to mercury and other toxic chemicals exposure in communities across the world.

11/09/2025

Beautywell's Founder & Executive Director, Amira Adawe, was featured in this year's curtain raiser at . At this annual conference, 153 Parties, members of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, gather to address mercury pollution.

addressed challenges Parties face in implementing the Convention, such as trade control, waste management, and mercury use in cosmetics, including skin-lightening products, dental fillings, artisanal and small-scale gold mining, and industrial processes. It also addressed enhancing cooperation with other global agreements and international partners on pivotal topics, such as biodiversity, and the full and effective participation of Indigenous Peoples and local communities.

Every , Beautywell attends as the world's leading organization addressing mercury exposure and pollution through the skin-lightening industry. We bring attention to the dangers of this approximately $8 billion global industry, highlighting colorism as its perpetrator, and collaborate with international parties on implementing policies and trade regulations to prevent the production and trade that lead to in-home, occupational, and environmental mercury exposure and pollution, as well as to heal and educate impacted communities.

More information on the fifth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Minamata Convention (COP-6): https://minamataconvention.org/en/meetings/cop6 ...

11/08/2025

⚠️ Mercury pollution is a global health, social equity, and environmental justice issue.

📍 This past week, Beautywell was in Geneva, Switzerland for the Conference of the Parties (COP-6) to the Minamata Convention on Mercury, an international treaty signed by 153 parties to end mercury pollution worldwide.

🌎 Our presence here was crucial because mercury, a toxic heavy metal, is frequently found in the skin-lightening products still commonly used in many communities globally. Although the Minamata Convention banned mercury in cosmetics, there is still an unregulated ~$8 billion global industry of skin-lightening products, many of which are manufactured and traded illegally, leading to toxic mercury exposure in our communities. Dangers of mercury exposure include respiratory issues, kidney failure, and neurological damage.

🤝 We aim to continue our partnership with global communities to collectively address this issue, and we are advocating for collective global enforcement to end the illegal manufacturing and trade of skin-lightening products. We have also successfully raised awareness for the importance of addressing colorism, the root cause of skin-lightening product use, in reducing mercury exposure.

11/06/2025

💆🏾‍♀️ How does social media impact our mental health?

🌱 Asma Yusuf, Ziham Yasin, and Nadia Barre explore this question through their final project. These 3 young leaders from our Young Women’s Wellness and Leadership Initiative received mentorship on taking lead of their health and wellness, gained policy and advocacy skills, and learned how to create successful social media advocacy campaigns to address women’s health and well-being through the course of the 18-week program.

💚 In culmination of the knowledge and skills they gained, Asma, Ziham, and Nadia created a series of mental health advocacy videos addressing prevalent mental health issues affecting their generation and community.

🌟 We are so proud of their passion and creativity in putting together these inspiring videos that open important conversations about young women’s mental health.

💭 To the viewers, how has social media impacted your mental health? What practices have you adopted in the ways you engage with social media to nurture your mental health?

Writing and Direction: Asma Yusuf, Ziham Yasin, Nadia Barre
Production, Sound, and Editing: Ryan Stopera
Photography and Editing: Haadiya Numani