There are a lot of amazing ladies out there paving the way for a better tomorrow. They inspire us, they give us hope, and they galvanize us to make changes of our own. This week we are highlighting some of the amazing ladies of our day. Next up? Whitney Simmons.
Whitney Simmons is a YouTube fitness blogger and influencer who went from being unemployed to using her platform of more than a million subscribers to spread positivity.
Whitney is 25 and now is a mega-influencer on social media. But a few years ago when she graduated from Utah State University, she was struggling. She had been a cheerleader for her first year but was dropped as a sophomore, which made her super depressed and put a huge weight on her mental health. She used fitness throughout college as a way to transition out of cheerleading and as a form of therapy. She graduated and moved to Salt Lake City, working at a beauty company in a job that made her miserable. She was doing what so many millennials do, holding onto a job that didn’t make her happy while hoping that her big break would come along. The only thing that was making her happy was her regular fitness routine.
She started to document her fitness journey. She shared her progress on Instagram and slowly turned to YouTube. She was still working at her full time job while posting regular videos, and sharing her story made her feel so much happier. When she passed the 100k subscriber mark, she realized that she might be able to turn YouTube into a career. She quit her job in 2016 and turned to YouTube full time.
Fast forward to 2019 and Whitney has more than a million followers on YouTube and more than two million on Instagram. She posts workout tips, product hauls, healthy eating ideas, fashion inspirations, you name it. She’s also a Gymshark athlete and a Reward Style influencer. She does occasional product endorsements, but is very particular to only choose companies she can fully support and believe in. She finds it very important to be honest with her followers and only advertise products she would actually use.
Simmons is also a huge proponent of spreading positivity. Her motto on her Instagram is “It’s a beautiful day to be alive,” which she even has printed on shirts in her clothing line. She discusses her relationship with fitness very openly, encouraging women that it’s not “unladylike” to lift weights. Disordered eating can be a big problem in the fitness community, but Simmons never advises it, instead discussing the importance of treating yourself and focusing on health instead. She even admits that she hasn’t weighed herself in over a year.
She’s also very open about her struggle with psoriasis, an auto-immune disorder that cause patches, roughness or redness on the skin. While she used to edit it out when she first started posting, now she leaves her normal skin in her photos as she’s accepted it. She finds that being honest about her body helps inspire her followers to accept themselves and to empower themselves through fitness.
“Do what you love,” Simmons said on her Instagram stories. “There’s so many ways ‘to do fitness.’ If you find what you love and works best for you, you’ll stick to it. And also… have patience. It’s a journey, but it’s worth it.”
Whitney Simmons takes charge of her workout routine as a way to cope with her depression. She’s turned that outlet into a brand with millions of followers, always promoting positivity, whether it’s through her social media or her clothing line. Pretty amazing? We think so.