So you may have seen the hefty amount of #girlgains related posts across my social media and wondered what on earth I am going on about. If you’re not already part of the #girlgains movement, then this blog post is for you. I hope that by the end of it you have a firm grasp of #girlgains and everything it encompasses.
So, in a sentence #girlgains is ‘a movement which aims to unite women and inspire them to become fitter, healthier and happier‘.
How did it come about? Let me tell you. #girlgains started as a hashtag which was created by myself and my two best friends Tally and Vic. We are three girls who met through instagram. (Yep, through social media, how very 21st century!). We have an incredible friendship, one that is positive and uplifting. We support each other and we all share a love for everything health, fitness and nutrition. We value our friendship and we wanted to create a way to allow other women to connect with us and each other, to form these connections and support networks themselves. As a result, we created the hashtag #girlgains and encouraged other girls to use it on their social media posts.
This soon took off and we hit over 50,000 posts. At this point we decided to extend the #girlgains movement beyond a hashtag and into a fully fledged community. We created the @thegirlgains instagram page where we share meal ideas, workouts, inspiring stories and personal anecdotes. Soon followed the Facebook page and twitter. From here we launched the first #girlgains events which intended to bring the community together in real life. We now host on average 1-2 events per month if not more. These range from small intimate gathering of girls to larger get togethers with over 100 attendees. We lead workouts, we give talks, we chat, we eat, we bond. We have worked with huge brands such as Reebok, Wheyhey, VitaCoco, Misfit and Active in Style on these. The main focus of the events is to allow girls with similar interests to make new friends and leave feeling positive, uplifted and inspired.
Besides events, we have launched the #girlgains porridge in collaboration with the porridge cafe, the #girlgains leggings in collaboration with Posto9Activa and the #girlgains smoothie in collaboration with Supernatural. All of these products have been a resounding success. However our biggest achievements with the movement are seeing girls become inspired to love themselves and to form genuine friendships with one another.
The main focuses of #girlgains are not only fitness and nutrition, we discuss a variety of different ‘gains’ that women can make. Sure they can gain strength, health and fitness; but they can also gain happiness, positivity, self love, confidence and ambition. We want to make women feel good about every aspect of their lives, we want to change their mindsets and we want to inspire them to better themselves every single day. Not only this, but we want to encourage them to support other women to do the same. At our core, we are a community.
The girls behind #girlgains have three very different stories. Tally has transformed from being overweight to being healthy, fit and balanced. Vic has had a remarkable recovery from an eating disorder and is now a successful bikini bodybuilder. I am just an average girl who has never been to the extremes of being overweight or underweight, but I have been unhealthy, inactive and uneducated. I am now fit, healthy, strong and most importantly I am happy. We come from different backgrounds and we have knowledge, experiences and advice to share. We have three differing approaches to fitness and nutrition, meaning that we can provide a holistic perspective of health and cater to all women.
So, how can you get involved in the movement? Here are the basics:
> Head over and follow our social media accounts: instagram, twitter and Facebook.
> Use the #girlgains hashtag on your social media posts.
> Scroll through the #girlgains hashtag to find other women with similar interests. Maybe even start a conversation with them!
> Look out for upcoming #girlgains events. Come along, meet us and make friends! (I warn you though, they sell out within minutes!)
> In everyday life, adopt the #girlgains mindset. Be friendly, be open and be positive. Smile at strangers. Give compliments. Encourage women and support them 🙂
> Tell your friends!
We are a movement created by women, for women, to empower women. We want to make a positive change in world clouded with negativity.
Join us!
