Julia Craven

Washington

Journalist at Freelance

Senior Writer and Editor at Better Life Lab

🖤 bad bitch with a big brain 🌿 founder + creative director of healthy futures ✍🏽 writer, editor, thinker, creator

Articles

Let’s Talk About Why I Love My Oura Ring

1 week ago | healthyfutures.blog | Julia Craven

Editor’s Note: Hi, I was sick last week, so I didn’t publish!I wrote a story for FiveThirtyEight a few years ago about my disordered relationship with fitness and health optimization. I was an anxious young woman chasing “the perfect body” through constant ring-closing and an obsessive need to scroll through my health data. So, naturally, I was skeptical when Oura sent me a ring as PR back in 2022 after I wrote that story.
How Emma Dupree Turned Her Backyard Into a Community Apothecary

1 week ago | healthyfutures.blog | Julia Craven

Oversized round sunglasses adorn her face, a wooden crucifix hangs from her neck, and her yellow shirt dress dances in the wind as Emma Dupree walks the documentarian through her garden, sharing stories of her loved ones, community, and how her knowledge of herbalism helped heal them.
It Takes a Village: How Caring About Black Women Can Transform Maternal Care

2 weeks ago | healthyfutures.blog | Julia Craven

Editor’s Note: I hit send before I was finished finessing this piece! I have now added the footnotes. the finalized URL slug, and the last copy edits. I am very sorry about the early send, and for popping up in your inbox back to back like this. I’m committed to clear writing, and I wanted to send the true finalized version once it was done.
What A Week Of Wellness Really Looks Like

3 weeks ago | healthyfutures.blog | Julia Craven

Saturday, May 10, 2:00 PMI’m getting my last lift in before I take a week off. Deload weeks are crucial to maintaining the gains and overall physical well-being. A standard deload week doesn’t mean you’re sedentary for seven days. Instead, it looks like choosing a walk and yoga, or some low-intensity bodyweight circuits over heavy strength training or other high-intensity work.
Confessions Of A Burnt-Out Journalist

4 weeks ago | healthyfutures.blog | Julia Craven

February 19, 2025, mid-morning, sitting at my kitchen counterI wish I could think without the fog. Inside my head is dense, muddied, unclear. The work I’ve spent a third of my life doing professionally, and pretty much all of my life, doesn’t feel right anymore. Putting pen to paper, telling stories, getting something, anything, out doesn’t feel possible, and I don’t know how to articulate this to anyone. I don’t know how to ask for help or admit I need it. So I lie. I say I’m fine. I am not.
What’s Helping Me Feel Good As A Woman In Her 30s

1 month ago | healthyfutures.blog | Julia Craven

Someone recently asked me how I, a health and wellness creative, integrate the wellness techniques I research into my daily life. I mentioned a few of the trends I’ve fallen victim to—does anyone else remember green tea metabolism boosting pills?!—but I didn’t share much about what I do now, outside of long walks and taking creatine. Then it hit me that I haven’t shared my current methods anywhere. My protocols involve feeling as good as possible as often as possible.
How Do 'Sinners' Heal? Ryan Coogler Has An Idea.

1 month ago | healthyfutures.blog | Julia Craven

The inaugural edition of Field Notes is on me. Next week, it’s behind the paywall. Enjoy!April 1, 2023, Late Afternoon, Living RoomI saw the text at 4:30 p.m. It’s a warm spring Saturday. I’ve been lying in the same spot, curled into the fetal position on the couch, mourning what I believed to be an amicable, loving split between two people who spent the bulk of their 20s together.
You Can Now Support Healthy Futures

1 month ago | healthyfutures.blog | Julia Craven

During my decade-long professional career in journalism, I have produced work that I am so proud of. I’ve helped real people get their needs, their voices, and their stories heard by millions. I’ve honored that my reporting has been featured in books, academic papers, and the resource pages of professional organizations.
How Doulas Support Black Mothers and Fight Health Care Disparities

2 months ago | newamerica.org | Julia Craven

After a traumatic experience during her first pregnancy, Tonya Abari wasn’t sure she wanted to have children again. But when she found out she was pregnant, Abari was determined for this time to be different. She sought out Tanzye Hill, a Nashville-based doula she’d befriended in the interim, to help build a Black care team that would respect her.
I’m Taking A Break

2 months ago | healthyfutures.blog | Julia Craven

Hi Futurists!Healthy Futures is on hiatus for the month of April. This was a last-minute decision based on how burnt out I am. I didn’t really want to stop. I’m ecstatic about what I’ve got in the queue for y’all. But I’ve decided to practice what I preach so heavily: putting self-care first so I can show up in the best way possible for my community—which includes all ~3,000 of you! All regularly scheduled posts will resume next month.