Some people start working out for themselves, but Tashana Charles didn't seriously venture into the gym until her boyfriend encouraged her to work on her body. They broke up, and soon after Charles shed the expectations her ex placed on her body, she realised that she liked going to the gym for herself — and she wanted other women to feel the same way. "When COVID hit last March, that made me want to start doing more social media and have a public platform to help people," Charles told POPSUGAR. "[So] I decided to finally put myself out there."
Now juggling her burgeoning influencer career along with her psychology studies, Charles uses exercise to de-stress when things get hectic. "When I'm going through finals or anything, I'll just go to the gym and lift, and I just feel better," she said. But as she's working out and posting more, Charles is learning that it takes more for a Black woman to make it onto the trending page — and she's raising that issue to her subscribers. "When I started doing YouTube, I noticed when I would type in ab workout or booty workout, it was always the same faces over and over" Charles explained. "I was like, 'Why do I have to go to page five to see one Black girl?'"
As she works to land on that first page of results, Charles encourages people who are hesitant to start their exercise journey to discard the belief that you have to fit a certain mold. "Fitness is such a huge domain, that it doesn't just have to be working out at the gym," she said. "You can do yoga or hiking or pole dance classes. I think people need to realise that they can do something that's fun. And once you find that, you'll be good."