Project details
Romanians have a complicated relationship with mental health and self-care. We're skeptical of wellness culture, action-oriented, and responsive to practical help framed as everyday support, not emotional appeals. That cultural reality shaped every copy decision in this project.
The work had four layers: translating the UI without losing the brand, adapting the tone without losing the warmth, concepting a Romanian launch campaign, and documenting the localization decisions systematically enough that another writer could continue the work consistently.
The cultural problem
Headspace's English copy assumes intimacy with the user from the first screen. Romanian has a formal/informal split ("dvs." versus "tu") that English doesn't. That's not a translation decision, it's a relationship decision. I made it early and kept it consistent: Headspace Romania talks to you like a friend, not a wellness professional.
Three tension points drove the work:
Tone register - Romanian UI strings regularly ran 20–30% longer than the English source. Some needed structural rewrites, not just trimming.
Cultural resonance - "Mindfulness" has no clean Romanian equivalent. The closest options either sound clinical or imported. I kept the English term where context made it self-explanatory, and rewrote around it where it didn't.
Brand voice vs local expectations - Headspace's gentle, slightly spiritual tone can read as vague or evasive to a Romanian audience that prefers directness. I adjusted warmth levels without losing the brand.
