Life & Work with Samantha Mallett of Chicago

Today we’d like to introduce you to Samantha Mallett.

Hi Samantha, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Glow Collective Chicago was founded two years ago by Samantha Mallett. GCC originally began as a walking club (formerly known as Lemon Pepper Steppas) as a way to be active and regularly have meetups scheduled with my friends. After a few months, we hosted our first ever event collaboration with OrangeTheory Fitness and made the decision to expand our reach into more fitness events including aerial yoga, Pilates, Barre, golfing, etc. We’ve curated a beautiful, safe space for women of color in Chicago to connect through movement and joy.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Starting a wellness community was not easy, especially when you’re doing it on a budget. Our primary tool of promotion is social media (@glowcollectivechi on Instagram and TikTok) and it was difficult to gain traction at our events initially. During our first year, I coordinated a reformer Pilates event for International Women’s Day and I was devastated when I had to cancel it due to low ticket sales. However, I kept pushing because Glow Collective is something I wholeheartedly believe in and it’s a necessity for women in Chicago. I’m learning to go with the flow and to take the positive out of every growing pain.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Glow Collective Chicago is a walking and wellness community dedicated to empowering women of color and our allies through movement, connection and joy. We create inclusive spaces that promote physical, mental and emotional well-being—one step at a time.

There’s so many things that I’m proud of Glow Collective for and as corny as it is, the community we’ve built means the most to me. We started as 5 friends walking on the lakefront and now it’s thousands of Chicago women uniting and prioritizing our wellness goals together. Now we have regular attendees that I didn’t know priority to starting our wellness community and so many people have made lasting friendships from attending our events.

What sets us apart from others is that our Glow Collective Ambassador Team makes a genuine effort to make everyone feel included. Majority of our attendees come to our events solo, so we’ll strike up conversations with them, have ice breakers and socials to help them feel at ease. We’ve received positive feedback from it because some other wellness events are strictly the class and everyone goes home afterwards.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
I’m very fortunate to have had a childhood field with beautiful memories, so it’s difficult to narrow it down to one. One of my favorite childhood memories was playing the Michael Jackson Wii game with my family. My brother would always cheat and just shake the controller instead of doing the moves and I would try to go all out in my performance. We even got my grandma to join in on the dances and got a good laugh.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sweatpals.com/host/glowcollectivechi
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/glowcollectivechi
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@glowcollectivechi