About

Belle IQ offers intelligent perspectives on beauty, health, and well-being in culture and society. Beauty is a subject which is under-researched and largely atheroetical, yet it affects many of our lives in substantive ways. We think about it, cultivate it, admire it, celebrate it, love it, fear it and mock it. This blog aims to facilitate our understanding of beauty by taking a critical, intelligent  — and fun and humorous — approach to the subject.

Jennifer McWhirter is a PhD student in Health Studies at the University of Waterloo, a published writer and researcher, and a former fashion model. She has research interests in the nexus between beauty and health, health communication in the media and its effects, the social determinants of health, and visual sociology. Her work has appeared in academic journals, national newspapers, and on national television and radio programs.

Danielle Meder, fashion illustrator and blogger, created the lovely illustration for Belle IQ that you see at the top right.