Nearly 6 in 10 young women get health and wellness information from influencers

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July 13, 2026

Nearly 6 in 10 young women get health and wellness information from influencers

ByAaron Smith

Although health providers are the most common place Americans turn for information about their health, social media influencers and podcasts also play a major role

About this research

This Pew Research Center analysis looks at the experiences of young men and young women when it comes to getting health and wellness information from social media influencers and podcasts

Why did we do this?

Medical professionals are the most common information about their health from did this study to better understand who Americans might be hearing from when they get health and wellness information on social media

How did we do this?

This analysis is based on two surveys of U.S. adults. The first one surveyed 5,023 adults in June 2025, and the second surveyed 5,111 adults in October 2025. Both used the Center’s American Trends Panel

Here are the survey questions used for this analysis, the detailed responses and the survey methodology

Larger share of young women than young men get information from health and wellness influencers
% of U.S. adults who say they ever get health/wellness information from social media influencers or podcasts

Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted June 9-15, 2025.
PEW RESEARCH CENTER
Larger share of young women than young men get information from health and wellness influencers
% of U.S. adults who say they ever get health/wellness information from social media influencers or podcasts

Group	Men	Women	Chart group
Total	37	42	total
18-29	47	57	age
30-49	47	52	age
50+	25	29	age

Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted June 9-15, 2025.
PEW RESEARCH CENTER

This is especially true for young women: 57% of women ages 18 to 29 say they ever get health and wellness information from influencers. That is 10 percentage points higher than the share of young men, according to a fall 2025 Pew Research Center survey

Here are some other notable findings about the experiences young men and women have with health and wellness influencers

Topics young men and women hear about from health and wellness influencers

We asked about seven topics that people might hear about from health and wellness influencers. Half or more of both young men and young women say they hear about nearly all of these topics at least sometimes

Young women are far more likely than young men to often see beauty content from health and wellness influencers
% of health/wellness influencer consumers who say they often hear about the following topics from influencers

Note: “Health/wellness influencer consumers” refers to the 40% of U.S. adults who say they ever get health and wellness information from social media influencers or podcasts. Other response options are not shown. Bold text indicates statistically significant difference.
Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted June 9-15, 2025.
PEW RESEARCH CENTER
Young women are far more likely than young men to often see beauty content from health and wellness influencers
% of health/wellness influencer consumers who say they often hear about the following topics from influencers

Topic	Men 18-29	Women 18-29	DIFF
Beauty or personal appearance	18	51	33
Therapies outside of mainstream medicine	10	21	11
Mental health	36	43	7
Dietary supplements or cleanses	23	30	7
Weight loss	34	38	4
Mainstream medicine	15	17	2
Fitness	57	47	10

Note: “Health/wellness influencer consumers” refers to the 40% of U.S. adults who say they ever get health and wellness information from social media influencers or podcasts. Other response options are not shown. Bold text indicates statistically significant difference.
Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted June 9-15, 2025.
PEW RESEARCH CENTER

Young women are especially likely to say they often see influencer content about beauty and appearance. Among those who get health and wellness information from influencers, 51% of young women say they often hear about this topic. A much smaller share of young men (18%) often hear about it

Young women are also around twice as likely as young men to say they often see content about alternative medicine

However, comparable shares of young men and young women say they often hear aboutmental healthandweight loss from influencers. A third or more of both groups say they often hear about these topics. And around half or more of both young men and young women say they often see fitness content

Why young men and women get information from health and wellness influencers

Around half of young women who get health and wellness information from influencers (51%) say that wanting to make a change in their health or lifestyle is a major reason for doing so. By contrast, 37% of young men say this

Somewhat larger shares of young women than young men also say that hearing from people who share their background or beliefs (23% vs. 14%) or learning about things they don’t want to ask their doctor about (19% vs. 10%) are major reasons why they get information from these influencers

Note: Here are the survey questions used for this analysis, the detailed responses and the survey methodology

Topics

Aaron Smithis director of Data Labs at Pew Research Center