From Our Founder: How #GGAI got its start
Have you ever wondered how #GIRLGETAFTERIT got started? Nope - it definitely wasn’t from a T-shirt. Our Founder Cassidy Wendell unofficially started this women’s wellness community back in 2017 after going through an extreme period of disconnect from losing her dad. Turns out, others were craving connection and community, too.
Read more about her story below and learn just how #GGAI actually became a thing.
Let me paint you a picture. It’s 2014, I had just graduated from college, landed the “job of my dreams”, lost a little extra weight, and was living my best life. Then, boom - my dad had a stroke, and my life changed forever.
My dad was in the ICU for 3 months before he ultimately passed away from stroke complications. During that time, I basically blacked out. I don’t remember much, I was running off of adrenaline and grief, and felt like nothing really mattered, yet everything actually did.
my dad and I on the day I graduated college <3
At 22 years old, losing a parent sucks. There’s this level of emotion that’s almost unexplainable. One day, it’s the only thing you can think about. The next, it’s like it never happened and you find yourself running away from the most monumental moment in your life.
That’s what I found myself doing most of the time - running away.
I was running away from my emotions, from my friends, my family, and my home. Why? Because I was hoping to find answers, to find happiness, and to escape the reality that disrupted my life. All in all, I felt isolated and disconnected from everyone and everything that used to make me, me.
That’s until I dove all in.
In the fall of 2015, I discovered blogging as a way to release my stress and emotions that had been building up over the last year. After sharing my story, strangers on the internet and Instagram started telling me how much they resonated with what I was going through. Check out my wellness blog here.
In 2016, I started down a new career path. I passed my personal training exam and received my health coaching certification because I wanted to help people prevent problems rather than react to them. The phrase “Girl, get after it” was actually something I said to my personal training clients. Then, I used the hashtag #girlgetafterit on all of my wellness-related Instagram posts. I kid you not, that’s the true origin.
Then finally, in 2017, I hosted my very first “sweatworking” event in my hometown of Bozeman, Montana in order to simply meet new people. The event sold out at 50 registered attendees. Turns out, other women were searching for the same thing I was - to connect with a like-minded wellness community of women who just get it. At the event, I made stickers with (you guessed it) #GIRLGETAFTERIT on them as a little takeaway for our guests. by the end, every single sticker was gone.
#GIRLGETAFTERIT was developing right before my eyes, and I didn’t even know it.
I mean, how cute are we?? circa 2017 - the very first sweatwroking event
After that, I realized two things. One, I needed more stickers. And two, women were craving community — just like me.
So, about those stickers - I made more. Lots more, and gave them out to everyone I could. Then, I decided to make a sweatshirt on a Bonfire campaign (it’s actually still on the internet here, lol) and received more than enough backers to print. There was definitely something there…
And, about that community - I ended up creating a local group called the Bozeman Squad where I wanted to host monthly sweatworking events as a way to try something new, meet new people, and have some serious fun while doing it.
Soon, all of my friends joined. Then, their friends joined. Even strangers were coming to these events because “they heard about it on the internet.” Three years later, we have over 1,000 members in the Bozeman Squad and sweatworking communities in 5 cities across the state of Montana - with future plans to expand across the nation :)
After realizing this was totally a thing, I trademarked our brand in 2018 and designed our website the next year. I started designing shirts, sweatshirts, and hats that give back, and learned a LOT about what not to do in the process. After feeling like I finally figured it out, I made #GGAI its own entity earlier this year and have biggg plans for the future of this community.
And that’s how #GIRLGETAFTERIT was born. It’s not just a hashtag or a t-shirt, it’s much, much more than that.
Thanks for being here.
xx, Cass
Learn more about our Founder here.
a few of our scenes from our sweatworking events over the years
