How a Pivot and Powerful Positioning Helped Grow A Fitness Empire

Fitness instructor Reena Parekh runs a thriving Instagram community of South Asian moms, offering fitness classes and speaking frankly about important topics that are stigmatized in her community, such as maternal mental health, inequity, and pelvic health. How did Reena build such a strong following? A few years ago, Reena realized that her entire feed was full of thin, white women. She knew that fitness leadership in Toronto was very white, despite the city’s diversity. There was a need for new faces in fitness leadership, and there was also a niche that deserved attention — new mothers. She started looking for other South Asian people in fitness and followed them on Instagram, eventually building her incredible base. “When I realized that my feed was looking the same over and over again, I realized that I was striving to also be that ideal. I’m never going to be that ideal, and that’s okay,” Reena explains. “My whole life has been about trying to fit in and assimilate. But the more I recognize how much my culture, my heritage, my belief system, and my lived experiences differentiate me, but also there’s so much power in sharing that? That’s what really drives me forward.”