Pew Research: Young Women Turn to Influencers for Health Info

More than half of young women in America are getting health information from social media influencers — not because they want to, but increasingly because the alternatives are harder to reach, harder to trust, or harder to afford. That is a health care access story disguised as a social media story.

Fifty-seven percent of women ages 18 to 29 say they turn to influencers for health and wellness information, according to a fall 2025 Pew Research Center survey. That is 10 percentage points higher than their male peers. And the reasons they give matter. Fifty-one percent of these young women say they go to influencers because they want to make a change in their health or lifestyle — they are motivated and looking for guidance. Nineteen percent say they turn to influencers to learn about things they don't want to ask their doctor. That number tells a quieter story about shame, stigma, and gaps in care.

The topics they encounter run the full spectrum — fitness, mental health, weight loss, beauty, and alternative medicine. Young women are roughly twice as likely as young men to regularly see influencer content about alternative medicine. At a moment when the current administration has undermined the CDC, gutted public health funding, and allowed misinformation to circulate in official channels, the question of where young women get reliable health guidance is not a digital wellness trend. It is a public health reality.

Medical providers remain the most common source of health information overall. But for millions of young women, the path to that provider is blocked by cost, coverage, or time. Influencers fill the gap.

Leading Ladies Vote is fighting for health care access that meets women where they are — with accurate information, affordable care, and the dignity every woman deserves. Our vote is how we get there.

🔗 Read the full Pew Research report: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/07/13/nearly-6-in-10-young-women-get-health-and-wellness-information-from-influencers/