i'm building the women's sports health media i wish existed

Hello and welcome!

It’s so good to finally say that out loud. I’ve been procrastinating on unleashing this first post for so, so, so long, making up for the mini imposter monster eating at my thoughts by re-editing (for the 30th time) the most perfectly perfect about page, curating the perfect imagery, planning the perfect socials content, and then—as my 10 month old hits yet another sleep regression—realized perfection is no longer a standard a sleep deprived, newly-diagnosed ADHD first-time mama can handle, and out there and raw is better than any over-polished boomer style blog anyway.

So with that being said… we’re officially official and live!

Launching during the same month as National Girls and Women in Sports Day feels very on brand because women’s sport and training are having their biggest moment ever, with women’s sports health positioned to influence the trajectory of the women’s sports industry in 2026. More women are lifting, marathon-ing, run-clubbing, triathlon-ing through all seasons of life than ever before.

I’ve been off social media for the last 15 months whilst navigating my own health, pregnancy and postpartum seasons. After reactivating my accounts, I’m shook at just how big the women's health and fitness scene has skyrocketed, making the urgency of this space even more apparent.

Being sporty is the it girl identity right now, with run clubs being the new night club, gym girls in their strength era and women's sports viewership breaking records. Our For You Page is full of training vlogs, race day fits and athlete day-in-the-life posts, creating a whole new wave of athletic culture—the athlete girl.

With that rise, women are more active and more invested in their health and performance than ever, but there's still no go-to space when you have a question. No trusted place that feels like it was made for us, that speaks our language, and that we can turn to when something feels off or we just want to know how to train and fuel better. Which is kind of wild when you think about it.

We're searching, scrolling and hoping for the best on Reddit, TikTok, Instagram and Podcasts. Not because those are great sources, but because there's really not much else. The research is finally being done and the funding is finally getting there, but most of it is still locked behind journal paywalls, shared only at academic conferences, or stuck in systems built for professional teams rather than the millions of women training every day without a sports medicine doctor on speed dial.

The information exists somewhere, it's just not getting to the people who need it in any kind of usable way.

I grew up as "the athlete girl," that's literally where this name comes from—but losing my sport the way I did changed everything. It's the reason I went into sports medicine and it's the reason I'm still in this space over a decade later.

After retiring from gymnastics I didn't stop being an athlete, I just had to figure out how to be one in a completely different body and a completely different chapter. Since then I’ve navigated disordered eating, bone stress injuries, orthopedic surgeries, myocarditis, POTS, fertility planning, pregnancy, postpartum, adult-diagnosed ADHD, and learning how to come back to sport over and over in versions of my life I never planned for.

Every time I went looking for information that was credible, yet relatable, and felt like it was written for someone who actually lives like me, and every time I found academic papers I didn't have time to decode or internet advice I couldn't trust, but nothing inbetween. The same gap that ended my gymnastics career kept showing up in different forms in every chapter, this place I needed to go to just didn't exist.

I am the gap, and I lived it before I could name it. And after 2+ years of market research and social listening it's still wide open, so we stopped waiting for someone else to build it.

My story isn't unusual. It's the runner who gets a bone stress injury because she had no idea how under-fueling and/or over training was affecting her bone health, or the lifter who brushes off hormonal red flags because there's no one in her corner flagging them, or the new mum trying to get back to exercise with little guidance and a GP who doesn't really know sport.

The sporty girl era is real and it matters, but culture on its own doesn't keep women healthy. Without credible, yet relatable, places women can actually go to for answers, we're just scaling participation on top of a system that was never built for us.

We built this to be the go-to that doesn't exist yet—the place where women's sports health science gets communicated in a way that makes sense and in a format that meets the girls where we're at.

athletegirl is home for every active woman, whether you're a professional athlete, just signed up for your first qualifier, in your run club era, getting into lifting, building a Hyrox base, or just trying to feel stronger and healthier day to day.

The content is evidence-based and created off the back of real conversations we're having about health, injuries and life. We'll also have content covering gear and style that reflect how we actually train and show up because the sporty-girl aesthetic is part of the culture and we are very much here for it.

And all of it built around the real lives of athlete girls, from chaotic weeks, terrible sleep, travel, setbacks, the days where you'd rather do literally anything other than train to health stuff that comes out of nowhere.

The next generation of sports media can't just cover women's sport, it has to protect women in sport, without wellness nonsense, recycled misinformation or gatekeeping science. Just credible and actually useful content for women who care about their training and health whether they have a team behind them or not.

More than anything, we want to connect with you and create the notes you're craving (from knee pain to best running gear), so drop us a line to say hello and share any ideas in the comments, and we'll get right on it.

If you made it this far you're already one of us. Welcome to athletegirl 💅

— Connie (xx, athletegirl)