“We Out Here”: Black Women,Well-Being,and #blackgirlsrun on Instagram

Abstract

This study explores the meanings that Black women associate with long-distance running and how these meanings informed their digital practice, specifically the content they distributed through #blackgirlsrun on Instagram. Drawing from 12 semi-structured phone interviews and participant observation data, this project exemplifies how Black women in the United States utilize social media to create knowledges and cultivate communities that center their health and well-being. The participants regarded long-distance running as an anchor practice, or an activity that simultaneously enriches multiple dimensions of one’s well-being and prompts additional healthy behaviors. The thematic analysis revealed that the participants distributed posts through #blackgirlsrun on Instagram to: (a) invite Black women Instagram users to identify as runners; (b) disrupt running stereotypes; and (c) facilitate generational well-being. The significance of these findings as they relate to Black women’s well-being and digital practice are also discussed.

Plain language summary

Black Women Runners, Well-being, and #blackgirlsrun on Instagram

A lot of existing research about Black women’s health focuses on their experiences with disease. This research takes a different perspective and looks at how Black women millenials use Instagram to show other Black women that they can also be runners and prioritize their health. The research found that the participants used long-distance running to improve multiple areas of their health at the same time.

Keywords

Black women health Instagram long-distance running well-being

Long-distance running is a leisure activity that includes running 5Ks, 10Ks, half marathons, and marathons (Chenault, 2019; Schultz, 2019; Wegner et al., 2015). The sport has been associated with a multitude of benefits, including reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, healthy weight maintenance, and improved psychological well-being (Kozlovskaia et al., 2019; Szabo & Ábrahám, 2013). These health benefits could be advantageous for a variety of populations including Black women; yet, long-distance running is largely considered a hobby for white, middle-to-upper class individuals in the United States (Chenault, 2019). Even still, Black women founded and maintained in-person and digital communities (e.g., hashtags, Facebook groups, Instagram pages) to challenge their erasure within long-distance running and simultaneously invite other Black women to participate in the sport. This follows a larger trend where people of African descent afford social media, such as Instagram, to construct new self-definitions that reject stereotypical depictions of Black life, which mainstream media outlets often perpetuate (Arthur, 2022; Childs, 2022; Moody-Ramirez et al., 2024).

The purpose of the current study is to explore the meanings millennial Black women runners associate with long-distance running and to understand how these meanings informed their digital practice, specifically their engagement with the Instagram hashtag, #blackgirlsrun. The study features aspects of netnography for data collection and a thematic analysis to examine the data (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2014; Fenton & Procter, 2019; Kozinets, 2020). This research draws from 12 semi-structured phone interviews with Black American women who were between the ages of 24 and 39 at the time of the interview and tagged at least one post with #blackgirlsrun on Instagram. Data collection also included participant observation of the broader digital network users.

This research is significant as it addresses the need for more scholarship that prioritizes Black women’s agency and holistic health perspectives to nuance research that largely conceptualizes Black women’s health based on disparities and biomedical frameworks (Barlow & Dill, 2018). The digital network itself, #blackgirlsrun on Instagram, warrants investigation because digital well-being networks often serve as gateways for Black women who endeavor to maintain their health despite external factors, such as structural racism and physician biases that detract from Black women’s well-being. Evans (2021) and Evans et al. (2017) asserted that Black women’s historic memoirs of inner peace can serve as guides for future generations of Black women who may rely on self-care to cope with and navigate oppressive systems. Digital well-being communities, such as #blackgirlsrun on Instagram, constitute digital repositories that can serve future generations of Black women in perpetuity. This research extends literature related to Black women’s digital practice (Bailey, 2021; Childs, 2022; Lawson, 2018; Steele, 2021) to underscore the importance of health and well-being contexts, which is an under researched area.

The participants regarded long-distance running as an anchor practice. The current articulation of anchor practice is defined as an activity that concurrently enriches multiple dimensions of one’s holistic health and prompts the individual to engage in other healthy behaviors. Further, the women’s experiences with long-distance running shaped the content they distributed through #blackgirlsrun on Instagram. In other words, the participants’ anchor practice of long-distance running reflects Black women’s cultural agency and holistic health perspectives. Black women millennials subsequently harness the hashtag to distribute content that illustrates their agency and pursuit of holistic health. The thematic analysis indicated that the participants engaged with long-distance running and distributed content through #blackgirlsrun on Instagram to: (a) invite other Black women Instagram users to identify as runners; (b) disrupt running stereotypes; and (c) advocate for generational and collective well-being.

Black Women and Long-Distance Running

The number of women long-distance runners in the United States increased exponentially over the last few decades, and this is indicative of a larger cultural shift about who can identify as a runner (Chenault, 2019; Schultz, 2019; Wegner et al., 2015). However, not all women have been included in this shift toward more inclusive long-distance running. While scholars illuminated the implications of one’s gender identity within long-distance running (Schultz, 2019; Wegner et al., 2015), the implications of race and gender are less understood. Similar to other long-distance runners, Black women reported that they engaged with long-distance running for physiological benefits, such as weight loss (Chenault, 2019). However, Black women’s reasons for engaging with long-distance running is inextricably linked with the broader social and political landscape that impacts their health (Chenault, 2019). For example, Désir (2022), a Black woman runner who lived in a small town during Donald Trump’s tenure as President of the United States, turned to running as a refuge from the looming threat of white supremacist violence that felt more palpable during this period. Narratives like Désir’s (2022) underscore the importance of running for Black women who may rely on the sport to cope with life and social stressors.

Existing research indicated that Black women often hesitated to view themselves as runners due to their underrepresentation within the sport (Chenault, 2019; Wegner et al., 2016). When Black women are visible in mainstream running publications, these outlets tend to display narrow representations of Black women as either thin and light-skinned or fat and dark-skinned (Chenault, 2019). Thus, when Black women distribute social media discourses, they often challenge these perspectives. Black Girls Run! is a notable example of a running organization that challenges the narrow representations of Black women that mainstream running publications often display.

Founded in 2009 by Ashley Hicks and Toni Carey, Black Girls RUN! (BGR!) is a running community that aims to reduce weight-related health disparities among Black women (Melton, 2020). Black Girls RUN! has over 75 chapters across the United States, and the organization hosts running challenges and in-person running groups to support Black women runners (Black Girls RUN!, n.d.-b). The organization also has a notable social media presence with nearly 80,000 Instagram followers and over 230,000 followers on their Facebook page (Black Girls RUN!, n.d.-a, n.d.-c).

Previous research about BGR! focused on group membership within the in-person national organization and explored how the sport organization cultivated community among middle-class Black individuals (Harris & Roushanzamir, 2017; Smith-Tran, 2021; Wegner et al., 2016). While important, existing research does not provide adequate insight into the digital communities related to Black women runners or explore how a related digital network (i.e., #blackgirlsrun on Instagram) affords Black women social media users the space to construct collective meanings about well-being. Conversely, the current research seeks to understand how Black women’s experiences with running shapes the digital content they distribute through the Instagram hashtag, #blackgirlsrun.

Centering Black Women’s Health, Well-Being, and Self-Healing

Black women’s health is often narrated through the lenses of disparity, deficiency, and institutional racism (Barlow & Dill, 2018; Blount, 2018). Likewise, scholarship and public discourse about Black women’s health persistently underscores that Black women in the United States tend to experience poorer health outcomes compared to white Americans (Bacon et al., 2017; Y. Collins et al., 2014; Coogan et al., 2015; Cozier et al., 2009, 2018). While such research is important for raising awareness about Black women’s health outcomes, these perspectives tend to limit conceptualizations and explorations of Black women’s health to biomedical frameworks, which pivot on binary conceptions of health and reflect anti-Black medical knowledges (Hogarth, 2017) about Black (female) bodies. Less scholarly attention has been devoted to Black women’s agency and efforts to resist the social determinants that undergird their suffering.

Wellness discourses in the United States, such as those associated with long-distance running, construct white, middle and upper-class perspectives as the standard (Chenault, 2019). Despite this reality, Black women produce discourses that resist dominant health narratives that portray them as indifferent about their health and mainstream wellness discourses that minimize Black women’s participation (Berger, 2018; Cameron, 2019; Chenault, 2019). Long-distance running exemplifies one well-being practice that Black women engage with for individual and collective well-being.

Scholars underscored the need to define Black women’s health in terms of holistic health and well-being, an approach that emphasizes the significance of self-healing (Barlow & Dill, 2018; Blount, 2018; Maparyan, 2018). Well-being, or holistic health, refers to a state of balance between essential domains of health, including emotional, mental, physical, spiritual, and collective (Barlow & Dill, 2018). A self-healing approach to Black women’s health acknowledges that controlling images detract from Black women’s collective well-being (P. H. Collins, 2002; Jones et al., 2015). P. H. Collins (2002) asserted that controlling images refer to stereotypical discourses that position Black women’s domination as normal, natural, and inevitable.

For example, the Strong Black Woman (SBW) stereotype is a controlling image that perpetuates the notion that Black women should be stoic and unduly strong without needing care or rest (Beauboeuf-Lafontant, 2009; Black & Peacock, 2011; Davis, 2015, 2021; Jones et al., 2015; Stanton et al., 2017). While the SBW ideal may inspire Black women to be resilient, this stereotype also hinders disclosure, vulnerability, and catharsis (Davis, 2015). A well-being approach to Black women’s health with attention to self-healing can precipitate new lines of inquiry and innovative avenues for Black women’s liberation. Well-being and self-healing approaches to Black women’s health also necessitate that researchers decenter reproductive health and experiences with chronic illnesses (Barlow & Dill, 2018; Maparyan, 2018). Well-being and self-healing underscore the importance of practices like running. Building on Barlow and Dill’s (2018) conceptualization of holistic health and well-being, it is apparent that well-being practices are activities that individuals and communities engage with to enrich one or more dimensions of health.

An emphasis on well-being and a self-healing approach mandates that researchers explore cases where Black women intentionally prioritize their health and resist damaging images like the SBW that would discourage self-care (Abrams et al., 2019; Beauboeuf-Lafontant, 2009; Stanton et al., 2017; Woods-Giscombé, 2010). As Blount (2018) asserted, “Black women cannot avoid racism or sexism any more than we can escape stress, but we don’t have to be passive victims. Taking action and speaking up can give us a sense of empowerment, control, and healing (p. 258).” The Black women long-distance runners in this study are “taking action” and “speaking up” through their Instagram accounts. Based on the above literature review, this study explores the following research questions:

RQ1: How do the participants describe their experiences with long-distance running?

RQ2: How, if at all, do the participants connect long-distance running and well-being?

RQ3: How, if at all, does the content the participants distribute through #blackgirlsrun on Instagram reflect their experiences with long-distance running?

Method

Digital ethnographic methods are most appropriate for understanding the meanings millennial Black women long-distance runners associated with running and how these ideas shaped the content they distributed through #blackgirlsrun on Instagram. Netnography, which is similar to digital ethnography and online ethnography, combines interviews, social network analysis, and participant observation (Caliandro, 2017; Kozinets, 2020). Hashtags are essential to netnography because these markers allow users to self-file their content and co-construct a common imaginary with other individuals through digital platforms (Caliandro, 2017). The prioritization of the participant’s first-person perspective and the supposition that hashtags like #blackgirlsrun constitute a digital network for the participants indicates that netnography was an appropriate method for this study. Semi-structured interviews allowed a crafting of the general structure of the interview to allow space for the participant to guide the conversation and respond more fully to open-ended questions (Drever, 1995; Longhurst, 2003). Given the flexibility of semi-structured interviews, this approach aligned with the goals of the study.

Recruitment and Sampling

Before beginning the research activities for this project, the principal investigator applied for and received an exemption through the Institutional Review Board at a research university. Once IRB approval was received, the researcher relied on purposive sampling to identify potential participants. Purposive sampling is a sampling method that prompts scholars to recruit participants and collect data based on the purpose of the research (Ames et al., 2019; Palinkas et al., 2015). Thus, participants were recruited, and data was collected with attention to the research questions. Leveraging the hashtag as a recruitment tool, the researcher browsed #blackgirlsrun and sent potential participants direct messages requesting that they consent to a phone interview. This research focuses on the hashtag, rather than the Black Girls Run! Instagram account or Facebook page, to capture a variety of perspectives and to avoid centering an authority’s viewpoints (i.e., the national organization).

Participants

The sample is based on the impressions of 12 Black women located in the United States who were over age 18 and who tagged at least one post with the #blackgirlsrun hashtag on Instagram. After 12 interviews, the data reached theoretical saturation, meaning latter interviews revealed no new insights (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Hennink & Kaiser, 2022). The participants identified as millennials who were born between 19811996, and all participants were between the ages of 24 and 39 at the time of the interview. All participants except one earned an annual income over $35,000 a year, and most participants earned between $35,000 and $75,000. Five participants associated #blackgirlsrun on Instagram with the national organization. Seven participants were unfamiliar with BGR! and remarked that they used the hashtag because they were black girls who run. Each participant has a pseudonym.

Interviews

Phone interviews for this project took place between March 2020 and July 2020. The researcher transcribed and analyzed the interviews thematically (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2014). March 2020 also marked the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic response in the United States. Several participants noted that they had more time and flexibility for the phone interview because they were newly working from home, or in some cases, were recently laid off from their jobs.

Participant Observation

This research is partially based on participant observation data from #blackgirlsrun on Instagram. The participant observation data included public Instagram posts from the study participants and public social media posts from #blackgirlsrun users on Instagram who did not participate in the interviews. The researcher followed the hashtag, took screenshots of relevant posts, and created a data repository based on purposive sampling and the research questions (Ames et al., 2019). This research regards #blackgirlsrun as constitutive of a digital well-being network. Hashtags are significant because Internet users rely on hashtags to mark communal ideas and shared experiences that may otherwise dissolve in a sea of other digital texts if they were not organized and grouped through the hashtag (Jackson et al., 2020). In the case of #blackgirlsrun, the hashtag had over 325,000 posts at the time of this writing and features a variety of Black women sharing images related to long-distance running and well-being.

Thematic Analysis

Thematic analysis helped to identify salient patterns within the interview data. A thematic analysis was appropriate for this study because the research needed salient perspectives within the data to conceptualize the participants’ ideas about running related to their use of the hashtag (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2014). Participants’ public Instagram posts that were tagged with #blackgirlsrun were important for the analysis because participant observation is an integral component of netnography (Fenton & Procter, 2019; Kozinets, 2015, 2020). The researcher visited the participants’ Instagram profiles weekly and followed the hashtag #blackgirlsrun to observe the digital network. Finally, the researcher triangulated (Denzin, 2015) the semi-structured interview data with the participants’ public #blackgirlsrun Instagram posts and posts from users across the broader digital network.

Findings

The participants regarded running as an anchor practice, which they credited for helping them prioritize their holistic health. The benefits the participants reaped from running shaped the content they distributed through #blackgirlsrun. The thematic analysis revealed that the participants’ running experiences and their digital practice were inextricably linked. Hence, the participants engaged with long-distance running and distributed content through #blackgirlsrun on Instagram to: (a) invite other Black women Instagram users to identify as runners; (b) disrupt running stereotypes; and (c) facilitate generational and collective well-being. An articulation of an anchor practice is important before outlining the connections between the participants’ experiences with running and their digital practice.

Running as an Anchor for Well-Being

Although long-distance running is a physical activity and a form of exercise, all the participants noted that they were motivated to run for reasons distinct from physiology. The participants viewed running as an anchor practice, or an activity, such as long-distance running, that helps an individual commit to maintaining multiple dimensions of their health concurrently. Eight participants indicated that running enriched their emotional and mental state. For example, Alyssa indicated that she was able to think more clearly when she was running consistently. She stated that,

I have more patience with people. I have more like, I take more time to think of alternatives or like I have more ideas when I’m running more. . .my mind is running better and clearer. I’m just happier in general. But like, because it’s not. . .like it’s something that is subtle that happens over a long period of time. But I just noticed it because when I’m not running, I’m less clear, I’m more agitated, like, it’s just a correlation that happens where it’s like, oh, the thing that I was doing is running consistently, and now I’m feeling clearer. I’m feeling like I have more ideas. I’m feeling better. I feel like I have more energy. (Alyssa, April 10, 2020)

Alyssa connected running consistently with having “more ideas” and “feeling better.” Other participants mentioned that running helped them relieve stress and make difficult decisions. This suggests that while some people are drawn to running because of the perceived physical benefits (i.e., weight loss), some individuals continue with long-distance running because this one anchor practice benefits them in multiple areas of their lives.

Additionally, anchor practices, as defined and articulated in the current research, necessitate that individuals engage with other healthy behaviors that may not be directly related to the respective activity, such as eating a proper diet and abstaining from drinking alcohol as a runner. Kimmie described having to be more aware of her lifestyle choices to accommodate the intensity of her training schedule. She stated that,

I had to make better decisions for myself. Before I started running, I would drink a lot. I would eat wrong. I would sleep in late. I would, like, do the bare minimum at the gym. But because running is so intensive and because it’s so, I mean laborious to your body, so like, I cannot. If I’m deep in the training for race, I can’t drink because I’m not trying to be out here dehydrated and throwing up, and I can’t run (Kimmie, March 31, 2020).

Kimmie posited that running was a practice that kept her anchored and committed to other healthy behaviors, such as eating properly, staying hydrated, and limiting alcohol consumption. Because running is so “laborious,” Kimmie had to adhere to healthier eating habits and reduce her alcohol consumption to complete her training. Other participants echoed similar sentiments and pointed to running as one activity that prompted them to take better care of themselves—holistically. The participants generally ran between 5- and 20 miles per week even when they were not training for races, and they frequently cited the need to engage in healthy behaviors to be in optimal shape to complete their training. Although running is a physical activity, the participants were able to rely on this one activity to anchor, support, and incentivize other healthy lifestyle choices to improve their overall well-being.

Inviting Black Women to Identify as Runners

All participants stated that they had hesitated to identify as runners, and these trepidations often informed the content they distributed through the hashtag. This finding aligns with existing research as Wegner et al. (2016) indicated that some individuals who engage in long-distance running still hesitate to identify as runners. Many of the participants in the current study completed dozens of marathons and half marathons, yet they still struggled with their running identities.

To illustrate this point, Mariah posited, “I have been battling with that [identifying as a runner] even though I’ve run marathons. It probably wasn’t until I got to, probably my fourth or fifth half marathon that I was like, you know what, I’m a runner (Mariah, March 27, 2020).” She indicated that she was still “battling” with her running identity even though she later mentioned that she had run 14 half marathons and several marathons at this point. She later mentioned that she struggled with confidence because she did not run at a certain pace. Five participants echoed these sentiments and stated that they struggled with their running identity because they did not run at a particular pace. Kimmie stated,

There’s this thing called imposter syndrome where runners who run don’t feel like runners, and I think it’s because we compare ourselves to other runners and other paces. So, for me. . .even though I’ve been sponsored by Under Armor and even though I’ve done all these things, calling myself a runner sometimes is still hard for me to do because in my mind, I haven’t reached the pinnacle of a pace that I think a runner should run (Kimmie, March 31, 2020).

Kimmie had been running for about 8 years, and she admitted that pace was a major deterrent from her embracing her identity as a runner. The interviewer often probed and asked the participants to describe their ideal pace and to explicate at what point they would embrace their running identities, and the responses varied. Some participants stated that they would feel more confident if they could run a six-minute mile, and others mentioned that they would feel more comfortable embracing their running identities if they were elite runners.

Thus, many of the women stated that they distributed posts through #blackgirlsrun to undermine the notion that runners must be fast or strive for a particular pace. Several participants mentioned that they tagged posts with #blackgirlsrun to demonstrate that they were not fast runners in hopes that it would encourage other Black women to recognize that pace should not prevent them from identifying as runners. For example, Alyssa stated that,

It’s more about visibility. . .you don’t have to be great at it [running] in order to enjoy it. And to me, it’s like putting that out there. When I do run, I try to post my pace, so people can be like, oh, she’s out there, and she’s running, and she’s not running a 10-minute mile, and she’s having fun. So maybe I can get out there and do that too. Because I know that I get comfort in seeing other people that are slower out there. And so, my goal is just to be like, don’t worry, we’re out here, and we’re doing it, so you can come do it too (Alyssa, April 10, 2020).

This same notion was reflected in many of the participants’ Instagram posts. Many of the images included screenshots from fitness apps that showed the participants’ pace. Without speaking with the participants, one could assume that the participants posted their pace to perform or “show off” their speed. However, after speaking with the participants in the interviews, it was clear that many of them considered themselves to be slower runners and saw their “slow” pace as an opportunity to connect and communicate with other Black women runners that they can also identify as long-distance runners even if they were not running at elite paces.

Disrupting Running Stereotypes

All participants in the current study referenced the stereotype that long-distance running was a sport for white people, and they often cited running stereotypes as part of their motivation for posting content under #blackgirlsrun on Instagram. The assumption that running is a white hobby aligns with Chenault’s (2019) commentary about running stereotypes. Participants drew connections between the white and thin long-distance runner stereotype and the limited number of Black women long-distance runners. Thus, the participants utilized the hashtag to distribute images of Black women runners to intervene in the stereotypical and exclusionary framing (Cameron, 2019) that mainstream publications often circulate.

Three participants delineated between the types of running that dominant discourses construct as appropriate for Black individuals versus those that would be appropriate for white people. Aligning with Chenault (2019), the participants often referenced stereotypes that “Africans” were sprinters based on the Olympics and other mainstream sporting events, and white people were long-distance runners. Jordan speculated that running stereotypes discouraged Black athletes from participating in long-distance running versus sprinting. She stated that,

Black people have been encouraged that long-distance is not our thing. We are sprinters, and that’s what we dominate. That’s what we do. Like my father was a sprinter as well, and like, you look at the Olympics. You look at short distances, like you can’t find a white person anywhere!… I think like Black people and Black athletes, they just, they think it’s not for them (Jordan, August 4, 2020).

Jordan’s sentiments illustrated her awareness of dominant discourses that often limit Black people’s representation in health and well-being contexts. The participant noted that dominant discourses tend to essentialize Black runners as sprinters and portray people of African descent as less capable of long-distance running.

While all the participants referenced the need for more diverse representations of long-distance runners, they also indicated a desire to disrupt these stereotypes for Black women. Three of the women previously worked with brands like Under Armor and produced sponsored content that they distributed through #blackgirlsrun. Even still, the participants seemed less concerned with increasing their visibility to appeal to mainstream audiences and were more focused on letting other Black women know that “we out here.” Notably, the participants sought to broaden narrow representations of runners for and among Black women, and this goal animated their engagement with #blackgirlsrun on Instagram.

Facilitate Generational and Collective Well-Being

Finally, the participants identified running as a productive context for facilitating intergenerational well-being. Seven out of 12 participants indicated that they hoped to inspire younger generations of Black runners and underlined the importance of representation. The participants highlighted dominant discourses that portray the prototypical runner as someone who is white, upper to middle class, and thin as barriers for prospective Black women runners. They also emphasized that discourses among African Americans may discourage younger generations from participating in running because “running is for white people.” The participants viewed Black women runners and their related social media posts as opportunities to intervene in this process and encourage younger Black women and girls to pursue running. For example, Destiny reasoned that if younger generations saw other runners that “look like them,” this may help them “broaden their horizons” and inspire them to also become runners. Destiny, like many other participants, noted that running was an individual activity. However, most participants acknowledged that sharing the benefits they reaped from running through social media could inspire younger generations of Black women and girls to maintain their health through running.

Additionally, the participants voiced concerns about intergenerational well-being through a recounting of family health histories and remembering loved ones who died from, what the participants understood as, ailments that could be addressed or averted with lifestyle changes (e.g., diabetes and cardiovascular disease). For example, Sydney recounted that her grandfather died prematurely; therefore, she was determined to avoid a similar fate and maintained her health through running. She stated,

So, it’s [running] definitely a huge part of like, how I remain in shape, like how I remain like a strong person with a strong cardiovascular and heart system. Heart disease and diabetes are like very, very deep in my family. My dad lost his dad. It didnt feel like he was like, super young. But like now that I’m in my 30s, my dad was 37 when his dad died. I mean, you still need your parents. I think that’s another reason why I’m like, I’m always gonna, like run or walk too. It’s so important to like, keep yourself healthy (Sydney, July 20, 2020).

For Sydney, her grandfather’s premature death was a reference point for why it was important for her to maintain her health through running. Sydney situated her health within a generational context by drawing connections between her age and her father’s age at the time of her grandfather’s death. This intergenerational view aligns with holistic health and self-healing approaches, which regard health as multidimensional and includes a collective dimension (Barlow & Dill, 2018; Berger, 2021; Mitchem, 2007). Sydney’s emphasis on her family’s health aligned with research indicating that Black women often conceptualize their health generationally and collectively (Berger, 2021; Mitchem, 2007), which disrupts neoliberal perspectives that would position long-distance running as a sport that simply encourages healthism, or the idea that health is an individual responsibility (Crawford, 1980). Participating in running is emblematic of Black women operating outside of prescribed understandings of how they should maintain their health while simultaneously reimagining health for future generations of Black women.

Discussion

The current research bridged literature about Black women’s health with scholarship related to Black digital practice. Existing research about Black digital practice examined how Black Internet users harness information and communication technologies for social justice and pleasure (Brock, 2020; Jackson et al., 2020; Jackson & Foucault Welles, 2016), while research related to Black digital practice and health is scant. Digital well-being networks like #blackgirlsrun on Instagram exemplify Black women’s agency in terms of health and their capacity to create and maintain information channels to enrich their individual and collective well-being. Further, these digital networks constitute repositories of Black women’s health knowledges and transcend temporal limitations since information posted to the Internet can potentially be accessed indefinitely. The posts, images, text, and videos that the participants distributed through #blackgirlsrun on Instagram may inspire younger generations to engage with long-distance running.

Notably, many of the participants echoed concerns about running that had little to do with their race and gender. Previous literature suggested that Black women struggled to embrace their running identities because their race did not align with racial stereotypes about long-distance runners (Chenault, 2019; Wegner et al., 2015). However, the participants most often hesitated to identify as runners because of their slower running paces, not because they were Black women participating in a “white sport.” The participants’ awareness that the stereotypical long-distance runner was white and thin seemed to be more of an afterthought, unless the participants were referring to the idea that Black individuals outside of the running community did not associate Black people with long-distance running. The participants’ hesitation to identify as runners had more to do with their own personal perspective on pace and elite running status than their identity as Black women. This reinforces the notion that although the participants in this study are Black women, they are still runners, and thus struggle with the same insecurities that other runners encounter, such as struggling to reach elite running paces.

It is also important to note that all the women earned at least a bachelor’s degree, and six out of 12 women had earned a master’s degree or an advanced degree. Eleven out of 12 participants were middle-to-upper class. This indicated that despite diverging from the racial identity of the stereotypical long-distance runner, this research supported the literature that suggested that running is an expensive hobby that is mostly accessible to middle- and upper-class individuals (Chenault, 2019). Even still, the liberatory possibilities of well-being practices in tandem with Black women’s digital practice warrants further attention.

Conclusion

This study investigated Black women millennials’ experiences with running and considered these experiences in relation to the content they tagged with #blackgirlsrun on Instagram. The Black women in this study relied on running to maintain multiple dimensions of their holistic health simultaneously. The thematic analysis indicated that the participants used #blackgirlsrun to encourage other Black women to identify as runners regardless of their running paces. Further, the participants used the hashtag to challenge running stereotypes and to facilitate intergenerational well-being. This study serves as one example of Black women exercising agency over their health and co-creating meaning with other runners through Instagram.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dr. Lucinda Austin and Dr. Patricia Parker for their support and feedback on this research. The author also thanks the anonymous reviewers for their feedback.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Shanice Jones Cameron

Author Biography

Shanice Jones Cameron (Ph.D., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her research focuses on Black women’s health, well-being, and sport discourses that are distributed through social and digital media.

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