Becca Hensley and I met decades ago when I was launching American Spa, but we really bonded around the time I co-founded Organic Spa, back in 2007. We were in Switzerland at the Beau-Rivage Palace Hotel, which had just debuted its Cinq Mondes spa. We shared really good Champagne, and she gave me melatonin because I couldn’t sleep. Along the way, we realized we had both always been poets, writers, and artists who love to travel. We were kindred spirits with a history rooted in spa.
Becca remembers discovering a book on how to make your own masks, which she did—at age ten. She carried that book to college and spread eggs, honey, diatomaceous earth on her face. She was inspired by the women in her family, all great beauties, as well as a crazy ex-pat grandfather who was an amateur herbalist and did funky fasts. Becca started writing for spa magazines because it was an umbrella for all the things she enjoyed or wanted to learn about—from food to fashion to spiritualism to wine.
For more than three decades, Becca has been a journalist who has published in Gourmet, Travel & Leisure, Self, American Way, South China Morning Post, Chicago Tribune, and elsewhere. She has also published more than 500 poems, a number of short stories, and three novels. She lives in Austin and used to teach at the Austin Jung Society and the art museum in Austin—mostly poetry and creative jump-start classes. She’s married with three kids and loves dogs and cats. She’s a Scorpio who believes in magic and past lives and is a seeker of profound inner wellness. Becca believes that a good story has the power to change lives.
Please join me in welcoming Becca Hensley as the new Editor at Large for Insider’s Guide to Spas.
Mary Bemis
Mary Bemis is Founder & Editorial Director of InsidersGuidetoSpas.com. She is a pioneering spa journalist, most recently honored as one of the "Top 30 Influential Voices Transforming Wellness." She is an inaugural recipient of Folio's Top Women in Media Award, and was honored by ISPA with its distinguished ISPA Dedicated Contributor Award. In 1997, she launched American Spa magazine, and in 2007, Mary co-founded Organic Spa magazine. A pioneer in the sustainable spa and beauty worlds, Mary is co-curator of Cosmoprof North America's Discover Green Pavilion. She is a Global Wellness Day Advisor, and a co-founder of the Washington Spa Alliance.
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