Internet Self-Care Day – August 21, 2026

History of Internet Self-Care Day

When we talk about our bubble bath rituals and ‘me time,’ we frequently overlook that self-care has ancient roots and radical history. The term ‘self-care’ was formed or created in the 1950s. It was initially intended to express how institutionalized people could develop a feeling of self-worth via actions of care and preservation. In the 1960s, thanks to civil rights activists, primarily The Black Panther Party, the phrase went from the medical community to the general public. Self-care became famous as a way to combat activist fatigue.

In a 2018 “AFROPUNK” interview, civil rights activist Angela Davis remarked: “For a long time, activists did not necessarily think it mattered to take care of themselves in terms of what they eat, mental self-care, cultural self-care, spiritual self-care.” For example, the famous Ten-Point Program by the Panthers, outlined by cofounders Huey Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966, included self-defense as a fundamental component. Consequently, medical racism had gained a greater focus by the time the Ten-Point Program was revised in 1972.

The Black Panther Party’s image as violent warriors arose from a need to protect the health of Black people. The activist Audre Lorde accentuated the interconnection of self-care and civil rights in her book “A Burst of Light: and Other Essays,” which has since become a philosophy for the Black female identity. Today, the self-care market is worth an estimated $10 billion, accounting for a substantial share of the beauty industry.