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GoodGlow’s Editorial Guidelines

sam wood is GoodGlow's Chief EditorWritten by
Editorial Guidelines

Core Principles

Science over Clickbait

It seems like every day, there is a new skincare gimmick promising to be the “magic solution.” While these recent trends and products can be “fun,” we have found that they are largely a distraction from preventing the root cause of acne and other skin issues. That is why we created GoodGlow. We are deep into the science behind skincare and will leave the clickbait articles to the influencers. The blogs on this site may have a catchy heading every now and then, but we promise the content will consistently deliver and be backed by peer-reviewed research.

Prioritize Readers Wellbeing

Any content created by the GoodGlow team is not meant to substitute for medical advice or treatment. Consider it a starting point to begin your own research or discussions with a qualified medical professional. Everything we publish is designed to benefit our readers and community. GoodGlow is the guidebook our team wishes we had in our teenage years and early twenties.

It’s no secret that many companies try to pay for special placements, endorsements, and recommendations. We do not support this. The GoodGlow team never shows preferential treatment to a product or brand because they pay us. Although we monetize our blog through ads and select affiliate placements, our content team independently researches every product we write about. Once a product has been reviewed and a post published, our partnerships team will look to see if there is an ability to monetize an article. However, we want to be clear that we do not offer pay-to-play deals, and all of our content is genuine and authentic. If we recommend a product, we have thoroughly researched it and believe in it!

Curation based on Self-experimentation

At GoodGlow, we practice what we preach. Our most significant source of inspiration is what we are personally experimenting with. Reviews on Amazon are not enough for us to base our articles on. We need to try out both the processes and products we are discussing. The first few dozen blog articles were diary entries detailing different nutrition experiments I was trying to clear my acne. Know that our team is not just sitting behind a desk but that we are constantly trying out the tactics and products discussed in our content.

Writer Requirements, Fact-Checking Process & Medical Citations

GoodGlow is a health resource, and we take it seriously. Thousands of readers daily rely on us to provide information for real medical issues. Because of this, we have an obligation to rigorously verify every claim, suggestion, and opinion we publish. 

As GoodGlow began to grow from a simple blog to the acne resource engine it is today, I realized I needed to recruit other knowledgeable professionals and medically certified skincare experts to help provide the expertise I lacked. The team is currently nine people strong. We have a diverse talent background, including dermatologists, estheticians, nutritionists, personal trainers, pharmacists, and medical researchers with a passion for skincare and science.  

Despite the team’s robust credentials, we never rely on gut instinct or opinion. We fact-check everything we publish.

Fact-checking doesn’t mean taking a Reddit post or Twitter comment at face value. It means studying peer-reviewed research and breaking it down into plain English that anyone can understand and then make an informed decision based on their personal health factors. 

We do not pull research from trendy blogs. Our team routinely conducts article research through Pub Med, NCBI, AAD, CDC, and other verified peer-reviewed databases to ensure we provide our readers with accurate, actionable information.

Commitment To Diversity & Inclusion

GoodGlow pledges to create a welcoming and inclusive space for all individuals, regardless of age, race, gender, religion, body type, ability, or sexual orientation.

Whether you are a casual reader or a “super fan,” we want you to feel welcomed, supported, and accepted whenever you visit GoodGlow.

When I started this blog, I had no idea that the readership would turn into what it has today.

Since day 1, it was always a top priority to make everyone feel welcome and help point them in the right direction to improve their skin. However, I never took concrete steps to outline the actions taken to make sure underrepresented individuals who visit GoodGlow feel welcome and properly communicate GoodGlow’s stance. That stops today. Below is a series of initiatives our team has undertaken to make diversity and inclusion a core part of our business and mission.

  1. Last year, we committed to having at least 50% of our content and technical work come from individuals in underrepresented communities and demographics. We were successful in this endeavor and have the same goal for 2023.
  2. Last year reviewed every single image and graphic on the website to make sure at least 30% of all photos (featuring humans) showcase diverse individuals.
  3. We also committed in Q4 of 2022 to ensure that at least 50% of all new imagery on the site features diverse individuals. So far, we have been successful in this endeavor.
  4. Additionally, we have committed in 2023 to producing at least ten articles promoting black-founded or owned skincare brands.

Today, we are pleased to have a diverse, knowledgeable, and kind team researching and creating content for GoodGlow. The team currently spans five different countries, and their backgrounds are a testament to their knowledge and passion for improving the health of others.

We will continue to update this page to highlight changes to our editorial process and diversity & inclusion policy as GoodGlow grows and evolves.

Although we work hard daily to promote diversity and inclusion, more is needed. We will never be able to do enough. Please let us know if you see something on our site that could be more inclusive to underrepresented individuals. Our editorial team will try their best to accommodate recommendations geared towards promoting diversity and inclusivity.

Product Reviews & Affiliate Disclaimer

As stated above, we try to separate writers from our monetization team. Our team writes articles regardless of whether or not we believe we will make money off the post. Once posts are written, reviewed, and published, our partnerships team analyzes the article to see if there is potential to monetize through affiliate links or advertisements.

The money we make off affiliate sales allows us to fund more research, buy products to test, and hire medical doctors to consult for research-heavy articles. If you are interested in learning more, please read our full write-up on GoodGlow’s product review criteria.

Feedback

GoodGlow is nothing without its community. What started as a group chat with a few friends and family members has transformed into a vital resource that tens of thousands of people utilize every month. I attribute GoodGlow’s success mainly to its reader base. We are fortunate to have a passionate, engaged community that does not hesitate to offer suggestions, advice, and regular feedback. That has been and will continue to be our north star. Please let us know if you have any questions, suggestions, or feedback for GoodGlow. We read every single message and sincerely appreciate you taking the time to help us improve.

Originally Published: January 20, 2023

Need more help? Ask our team!

I’ve helped over 2,500 people clear their acne naturally. If you cannot easily find an answer to your question on the website, please reach out to me by email ([email protected]) or send me a message on Instagram or Twitter. I will reply within 24 hours.

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sam wood is GoodGlow's Chief Editor
Analyzed by Sam Wood
Hi I’m Sam Wood. I’m the chief editor, lead acne expert, and health coach behind GoodGlow. I’m also an author of one of the top selling acne books on Amazon, a husband, father of two, and a pretty good cook!

I’m so glad you found GoodGlow and hope the information I have spent the last 10 years cultivating will help you clear your skin and improve your overall health.

I began experiencing acne breakotus as a sophomore in high school, but unlike most of my friends, my acne actually got worse as I got into my 20s. I exercised regularly, ate healthy (or so I thought) and spent hundreds of dollars a month on high end skincare products and supplements to help clear my skin. Despite these measures my acne breakouts and scarring only got worse as the years wore on.

This greatly wore on my self confidence and mental health. Simple things like taking pictures or going out with a large group made me feel self conscious. So I avoided these situations whenever I could help it.

As a last ditch effort I decided to try an extremely restrictive diet recommended by a close friend with an autoimmune disease. After following this diet for about two months my skin started to clear for the first time in over 8 years. The good news is that this restrictive diet is not actually necessary for 99% of people to permanently clear their skin, and over the course of a few months I was able to add back about 90% of my “normal diet”.

After clearing my skin I spent the next 4 years self experimenting on myself with different diets, supplements, skincare products to try and find a pattern for what was triggering my acne breakouts. I even tried different meditation, ice baths, and accupuncture to try and isolate the root cause of the breakouts.

In the end I realized that an extremely restrictive diet was not necessary for clear skin. The most important thing to do is to avoid inflammatory foods in your diet. Some common examples of this are fried foods, alcohol, sugar, and dairy.

Most impoirtantly I stopped reading trendy websites for skincare advice and began reading medical journals authored by dermatologists and nutritionists. Although the information in the articles was great the information was not easily understandable to most readers (including me). I spent hours dissecting individual posts and looking up terms I did not understand. Over the next 6 months I gradually began to understand these journals and started self experiemting some of the research on myself.

After experiencing quite a bit of success personally, I started sharing my research on forums and with close friends struggling with acne. When I shared the research it was in easy to understand, plain English. Everyone I talked to loved what I had to say and kept asking more and more questions. So I decided to start a blog so I could just send someone a link when they asked a question instead of rewriting something I had sent 100 times before 😅

While the same directional principles apply to everyone, acne is very personal and should be treated on an individual basis. That’s ultimately why I created GoodGlow. To help everyone reverse engineer the root cause of their acne and clear their skin permanently.

To date I’ve helped over 2,500 people clear their skin using a natural, holistic approach. If you are unable to find an answer to your question in any of the articles my team has written please reach out and I will do my best to guide you to the proper information and resources so you can make a thoughtful, informed decision. Read more of Sam's articles.