WELLNESS: From Pain to Strength

Section Editor Samantha Stanich

These days, wellness is an arbitrary concept. Gone are the days of only focusing on fad diets and thigh masters. Today, mental wellness is just as important as physical wellness. The wellness of our planet and daily lives, together, play into our mental wellbeing.

Kat Novoa, Jenna Strezlecki, Michelle Li, Alice Light and Bobbi Williams are all owners and founders of businesses on the wellness spectrum. They put their time, effort, sweat and tears into spaces where people can heal, feel safe and make a difference. Their businesses are very different but serve the same purpose: to provide health and wellness.

The businesses featured in the Wellness section are run by passionate women who serve their communities by offering goods and services that encourage health of the body, mind and planet. These leaders help their communities become healthier in an ever-changing world. The women of these businesses work to improve their clients’ mental and physical health in different ways. A gym owner gives her members physical advice to extend their lifespan and a carbon conscious entrepreneur gives business entities carbon footprint advice to extend the Earth’s lifespan. They are all vastly different yet all one — the goal behind every brick-and-mortar or remote company in this section is to improve the future.

With one exception, the businesses covered here all have a brick-and-mortar location, since their services are hands-on and require a meeting place. Babes of Wellness and Anthracite Fitness Factory are better equipped to give their clients confidence at the gym, compared with virtually, over Zoom. Clever Carbon, is the only remote business in this section — it’s a brand that teaches carbon consciousness, so partaking in an office building would seem to defeat those teachings. The company further reduces their carbon footprint by travelling less and teaching their findings online. Natural Resources can comfort new mothers far more effectively by providing a communal space that puts nearby new mothers in touch with each other.

In light of this, it’s easy to understand why the pandemic was so difficult for entrepreneurs who dealt with the added burden of physical spaces that went unused during lockdown. The threat of disease and heightened safety measures proved a challenge for health and fitness centers that, more often than not, require physical contact. Despite these challenges, this section seeks to explain why physical places of business are so crucial, why people need them, and why business owners stayed open for their patrons.

The women who created these physical and virtual spaces for their clients across the country share their stories of triumph and hard work in the wellness category. – Samantha Stanich

Cover Art by Sarah Emory. Brand Design by Meghan Hricak.

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