The Girlboss Wellness Scammers – Why Are We All So Obsessed?

Belle Gibson, played by Kaitlyn Dever in Apple Cider Vinegar, fits into another branch of the girlboss prototype. She’s beautiful, wholesome, driven, and charming. Her claims that she cured her own terminal brain cancer with holistic, natural treatments led to a book and a hugely successful podcast. Eventually, in 2015, her empire is revealed to be built on a lie – she never had cancer at all.

A few years ago, Netflix also brought us Bad Vegan, a documentary about Sarma Melngailis, a one-time celebrity vegan chef, who joined with (or was potentially scammed by) her husband to defraud her workers. Her restaurant closed in 2015.

Similarly, Disney Plus’s recently announced Scamanda follows the story of Amanda Riley, a Californian woman who, beginning in 2012, faked cancer for almost a decade and defrauded friends and family of around £80,000 for “treatment”.

One thing all of these women have in common? They all approach the art of the scam like true girlbosses. They all, in various ways, capitalised on their whiteness, their privilege and their beauty to rise to the top of their industries and to convince their followers and supporters of their integrity. Because it was admirable to be a girlboss, these women were able to use their personal wellness-related brands to become successful businesswomen – and, ultimately, to get tons and tons of money out of people who believed in them.

Courtesy of Netflix

Now that the era of the girlboss is out of fashion, these stories are doubly satisfying – not only do they give us a juicy scammer narrative, they also give us the chance to revel in the downfall of the girlboss, and, more specifically, a girlboss in the wellness space. In a way, they confirm something we all now kind of believe – that all girlbosses, particularly those who claim to be both “so well” and “so successful” are, effectively, peddling snake oil.

These days, we tend to be a little more judgemental of influencers who present a pristine picture of wellness online. We tend to be a little more wary of the bone broth-drinking, pilates-doing, shiny hair-having influencers who never seem to get tired or stressed. We tend to be a little more cautious about claims that eight glasses of water or eight hours of sleep will make you look and feel ten years younger. In short, we tend to be a little more suspicious of the wellness industry as a whole. So, it’s no wonder wellness scammer narratives are on the rise – after all, it’s gratifying to see cold, hard proof that what the wellness industry is trying to sell us is nonsense.