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EP # 251 Go Within to Go Beyond: How WellFit Girls Transforms Young Lives Through Nature and Self-Discovery
Standing at the edge of adolescence, today's young women face unprecedented challenges. Social media pressures, unrealistic beauty standards, and constant connectivity have created a generation battling anxiety, self-doubt, and disconnection like never before. But in Southwest Florida, an extraordinary organization is offering a powerful alternative.
WellFit Girls, now celebrating its 10th year, is revolutionizing leadership development for girls ages 11-20 with a refreshingly different approach. Their philosophy—"go within to go beyond"—creates deliberate spaces where young women can disconnect from external noise and discover their authentic selves. As Executive Director Brooke Spencer and Marketing Director Natalie share in this conversation, leadership begins with understanding your own identity, values, and vision before you can effectively lead others.
What makes this program truly transformative is their culminating wilderness expeditions. After months of preparation, participants embark on challenging backpacking journeys—eight days in Montana's Pioneer Mountains for high schoolers and five days in Georgia for middle schoolers. Carrying only necessities on their backs, these young women discover capabilities they never knew they possessed. Without makeup, hair products, or technology, they're free to focus on what matters: supporting each other, overcoming obstacles, and connecting deeply with themselves and nature.
Many assume WellFit Girls serves only "troubled teens," but their philosophy holds that all girls face risks in today's culture. By creating diverse groups and teaching concrete skills like boundary setting, conflict resolution, and bold communication, they're preparing young women to navigate life's challenges with confidence and integrity. The impact extends far beyond individual participants—they're nurturing the next generation of leaders who will transform our communities, workplaces, and world.
Ready to support this vital mission? Visit wellfitgirls.org to learn more, donate to sponsor a girl's participation, or register a young woman in your life for an upcoming program. In a world telling girls who they should be, WellFit Girls is creating brave spaces for them to discover who they truly are.
WellFit Girls
Brooke Spencer
Natalie Bradley
6240 Shirley Street #204 Naples, FL 34109
239-438-1079
info@wellfitgirls.org
wellfitgirls.org
It's time to check out your neighbors on the Good Neighbor podcast, where we bring good vibes, great neighbors and local businesses in Southwest Florida together. Here's your host, Cabo Jim Schaller.
Speaker 2:Welcome, good Neighbors to episode number 241 of the Good Neighbor podcast. Today we have Good Neighbors Brooke and Natalie from WellFit Girls Welcome.
Speaker 3:Hi, hi, thanks for having us from WellFit Girls Welcome.
Speaker 2:Hi, hi. Yes, pleasure to have you guys on and share your story with our listeners. So let's jump in. And why don't you share a little bit about what you do over at WellFit Girls?
Speaker 3:Sure, I'm Natalie. I am the marketing director, so I help tell the story of WellFit Girls, from our mission and impact to our programs and events.
Speaker 4:Yeah, Hi, I'm Brooke Spencer. I'm the executive director for WellFit Girls. I've been a part of the organization since 2017. Started off as a volunteer and worked my way up to the executive director role relatively quickly, I just feel very strongly about this mission and really offering it to as many people as we can find.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. You got to follow your passion, and that's important. So why don't you? For those that aren't familiar with what you guys do, why don't you share a little bit about what you? You know what WellFit Girls is all about.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so this is actually our 10th year. We started in 2014,. Well really became a non-profit in 2015. So WellFit Girls is a non-profit that offers leadership programs for girls ages 11 to 20. And what makes us unique is our approach to leadership. So our tagline is go within to go beyond, because we believe that leadership starts with the self. So our curriculum is built around this idea that to become a confident and empowered leader, you first have to understand who you are, your identity, your values, your vision, your goals. And girls today are just bombarded with messages telling them who they should be. So at WellFit Girls we create this space where they can step away from those outside pressures and really focus on going inward, building that inner foundation first, and from there our programs offer opportunities to go beyond through experiential learning. So things like opportunities for bold communication, conflict resolution, teamwork we do fitness, boundary setting and understanding different perspectives from the other girls in the group, and really a lot of what we teach the girls may have never encountered before, so like being held accountable or exploring what it really means to be in integrity with their self.
Speaker 3:So to bring our program full circle, we present the ultimate challenge of an out-of-state hiking expedition that pushes girls physically, mentally, emotionally. It's a chance to step away from daily distractions and into nature where they can apply what they've learned in our programs and connect more deeply with themselves and others and discover just how capable they truly are. So we have two programs. Our signature program is for high school girls. It's called Summit Sisters and it's a five-month journey that ends with an eight day backpacking expedition in June. So, like we typically leave right after school ends for the summer, and this year we're trekking the pioneer mountains in Montana. And then we also offer a three week summer camp for middle school girls, which is really an introduction into the world of leadership. So it starts with two weeks here in Naples and then ends with a five-day expedition in Georgia.
Speaker 2:I love it, I love it. I love what you guys are doing. So let's talk about the inspiration, about what you know the founders. What was their goal when they created this and developed this?
Speaker 4:about what you know the founders what was their goal when they created this and developed this? Yeah, so we have two really great founders Jill Wheeler, who's an eco-psychotherapist. She was living in Naples at the time with two very young daughters and really saw a need for immersive leadership, outdoor, adventure, adventure therapy-based programming in the Southwest Florida area. So she came up with this idea. She created this 10-module curriculum that we use in our five-month signature program that really goes really in-depth into the concepts that Natalie shared. And then she met Colby Robertson, our other founder, who really brought the nonprofit to life. So she had a background being a Wink News reporter and in marketing and so then coming together really birthed this amazing program option for girls of, you know, all high school girls all around Collier and Lee County.
Speaker 2:Very nice. So why do you think programs like WellFit Girls are especially important for today's generation of girls?
Speaker 3:younger, it's so different and they just deal with constant pressure to fit in, measure up, be enough. You know, these filters and algorithms that are just make them question their confidence and the pressure from social media alone, like, is exacerbating this noise and these pressures are leading to a rise in anxiety and self-doubt and disconnection during some of the most formative years of their lives. So WellFit Girls just creates this space to unplug and reflect and connect with other girls their age face-to-face and realize their own strength and their own unique and potential, beyond these unrealistic outside influences.
Speaker 4:And just to add on to that, it gives them a little bit of space to process through things that they don't have any time or space or brainpower to process through because they are so distracted and connected and constantly doing something.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Well, and talk about the distraction you guys mentioned hiking outdoors, getting away from things and getting actually being outside and enjoying nature. What makes that such a powerful part of the program?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So being out in nature like that just strips away all of the distraction and puts girls in an environment where they can challenge themselves not just physically but like mentally too over days, because we do eight days in our high school program where the girls are just carrying the necessities on their backs. There's no room for makeup or hair supplies or technology, nothing you just have to carry, especially like what you need there. So it just mirrors life struggles. We feel like it's tough, it takes teamwork. It brings unexpected beauty and growth in this challenge.
Speaker 2:I love that concept. I love the idea Get away from the distractions and focus on yourself internally. So what are some of the misconceptions that we can maybe clear up for our listeners today surrounding WellFit Girls?
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's interesting because I think that we're not a super niche organization.
Speaker 4:We are very committed to holistically supporting the whole girl's life. So there have been times where we will go and meet with teachers and meet with counselors and meet with parents and you know, we really, we really like to be a part of the whole girl's life, to uplift her in every way. So one of our biggest misconceptions is that we are a therapy program or for troubled girls or for, you know, like what society deems at risk. Our philosophy is that all girls are at risk and so we serve all girls. It does not matter what life struggle they might be going through, or even if they're struggling at all. But unfortunately, we do see so many girls working through issues like depression, anxiety, disordered eating or exercise. You know, have been through traumas or have been diagnosed with something and are, you know, medicated in some way, and so, yeah, one of our biggest misconceptions is that we're like for a specific type of girl, but we're committed to providing leadership skills and physical, mental and emotional well-being for all girls.
Speaker 3:Yeah, very good. I feel like we have a couple more misconceptions as well, especially like our name well fit. A lot of people connect us with being just a fitness program, and we're so much more than a fitness program. So the name well fit isn't necessarily fitness. It's well fit for life, for challenges, and yes, our program is challenging, but it's also supportive and empowering and intentionally designed to meet girls where they are and at the same time, we wouldn't offer this challenging expedition at the end of our programs and not offer tools to help girls prepare for it. So that's where the fitness comes in to prepare for those expeditions, but also to be a challenging aspect, and the journey to the mountain, literally and metaphorically is is what we're preparing them for.
Speaker 2:So, so along those lines is there? Is there one thing you wish people understood more about the important importance of, you know, investing in the girls and guiding them along this journey?
Speaker 3:I mean. They are the future of our community and our, our world. They're the next generation. You know like reduced confidence impacts a girl's potential and girls who feel less confident are less likely to take on leadership roles or to even pursue opportunities like new opportunities for themselves. So, by investing in them, or actually investing in everyone's future teachers and doctors and lawyers, activists, mothers you know, because girls who believe in themselves, have confidence in their identity to take ownership of their lives and grow into women who lead and support, who speak up, who create change in their homes, schools, communities and in the world.
Speaker 2:Very good, Very good. So how can people in the community get involved? You know, learn a little bit more about well-fit girls or support what you guys are doing yeah.
Speaker 4:So there's a lot of ways to get involved or support. We want you to visit our website. It's wellfitgirlsorg. We are actually launching a brand new website in the next few weeks here to a month. Nat Natalie's been working very hard on that. We also would love for you to donate. You're welcome to fund the girl through one of our programs. Because we do these outdoor adventure components with our programs. The cost per girl is relatively high, but the reason for that is really that we want to focus on high quality, long-term impact instead of, you know, just kind of like a handout. So funding a girl is really, really helpful and supportive to us.
Speaker 4:Follow us on social media and share, you know, anything that you really connect with. Both of our handles are at wellfitgirls for instagram, facebook and we also have linkedin. Um, if you're a parent, consider signing your daughter up. We have middle school and high school programs and we do also have webinars that explain our programs more in depth. So you know, reach out, sign up, and we'd love to to meet with you. And, lastly, just if you're a community leader in some way, we'd love to collaborate. So you know, if you find something in this podcast that you've heard that you really are interested about learning more. Reach out to us. We'd be happy to meet with you.
Speaker 2:Very good, very good. Any last words for our listeners today today.
Speaker 3:No, we just hope that our message, like speaks to to someone and it's, it's getting across like what we do.
Speaker 2:I love what you guys are doing. Thank you for being such good neighbors and supporting the girls in our community, and we hope to see you out there soon.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much.