Time for a little policy talk, and a quick clarification: The Food and Drug Administration is as powerful as Congress makes it. So the headline is a little misleading (as most headlines are). It's not the FDA's fault, per se, that it can't protect you from your personal care products—the agency is as powerful as the laws it enforces. The bad news is, those laws don't make them very powerful at all, leaving lots of room for enterprising businesses to use any and every ingredient under the sun in their products. And do they ever!
At the same time, as consumers, there's an implicit trust that when you buy a personal care product—be it shampoo, mascara, baby wash, or shaving cream—that it has been vetted for safety by some publicly accountable health agency. And we're here to tell you that's not the case.
Last month, three Congresspeople introduced a landmark bill—the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010—which, if it were passed into law, would change all this. You can show your support for the bill by writing to your members of Congress. (How to do that, here.) In the meantime, there are some things you should know...
This is a series inspired by No More Dirty Looks: The Truth About Your Beauty Products and the Ultimate Guide to Safe and Clean Cosmetics, a book by GOOD's features editor Siobhan O'Connor and her co-author Alexandra Spunt.
Read more on their blog
Illustrations by Brianna Harden
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"Now I'm intrigued." 
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Problematic homework question
A student’s brilliant homework answer outsmarted her teacher's ridiculously sexist question
From an early age, children absorb societal norms—including gender stereotypes. But one sharp 8-year-old from Birmingham, England, challenged a sexist homework question designed to reinforce outdated ideas.
An English teacher created a word puzzle with clues containing “UR.” One prompt read “Hospital Lady,” expecting students to answer “nurse.”
While most did, Yasmine wrote “surgeon”—a perfectly valid answer. Her father, Robert Sutcliffe, shared the incident on X (formerly Twitter), revealing the teacher had scribbled “or nurse” beside Yasmine’s response, revealing the biased expectation.
For Yasmine, the answer was obvious: both her parents are surgeons. Her perspective proves how representation shapes ambition. If children only see women as nurses, they internalize limits. But when they witness diversity—like female surgeons—they envision broader possibilities.
As Rebecca Brand noted in The Guardian: “Their developing minds are that little bit more unquestioning about what they see and hear on their screens. What message are we giving those impressionable minds about women? And how might we be cutting the ambitions of little girls short before they've even had the chance to develop properly?”
X users praised Yasmine while critiquing the question. Such subtle conditioning reinforces stereotypes early. Research confirms this: a study found children as young as four associate jobs with gender, with girls choosing “feminine” roles (e.g., nursing) and boys opting for “masculine” ones (e.g., engineering).
Even preschoolers avoided careers misaligned with their gender, proving sexist conditioning begins startlingly young.
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The problem spans globally. Data from 50 countries reveals that by age 15, girls disproportionately abandon math and science, while boys avoid caregiving fields like teaching and nursing. This segregation perpetuates stereotypes—women are underrepresented in STEM, and men in caregiving roles—creating a cycle that limits both genders.
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This article originally appeared last year.