Why Diversity in Fitness is Empowering

Woman smiling at the gym.

Growing up as a Disabled Latina meant that while I balanced learning about my language, traditions and customs, I also learned how to care for my disabled body with either Vaporu or antibiotics. Keeping my mind and body healthy was top priority for myself and my family, but it was done through medications and surgeries. My doctors or family never mentioned the importance of exercise.


Being a typical Floridian child, I loved the water and swam any chance I could. My parents would joke that I was part fish because whenever they would take my sisters and I to the YMCA, I would refuse to get out until it was dark outside and I was shriveled like a raisin. But our swimming adventures were merely for entertainment and to kill time between hospital visits. My parents never told me to swim for exercise and health, they told me to swim for fun. This was common with my Latinx friends whose parents wouldn’t promote exercise with their kids, especially if their kids are first generation Americans the way my sisters and I are. What most people saw as “exercise,” my Latinx friends and I saw as just killing time as Mami cooked dinner and for us to stay out of trouble.

I found that prevailing perception in my family and in my community was that exercise is something that’s often expensive and a thing mainly white adults do in their free time. It was seen as a luxury and something culturally foreign.

For my parents, taking a break from work to exercise was rare and being raised by parents who never had a disabled child before, telling me to workout out when they didn’t know if I could was out of the question. But when I got into my early twenties and began college, I started to dabble in fitness. I would go to my university’s gym and try to work out on my own but failed many times. My university gym was pretty diverse but was mostly filled with privileged sorority people that hogged up any machine I was curious about. Eventually I gave up the gym and focused on finishing my degree I was at school for. It wasn’t until after graduating university and interning at a digital media Latinx company that I considered trying to work out again.

During this internship, my mentor, who is a fellow Latina would talk about her obsession with SoulCycle. Her love and passion for her fitness and the classes intrigued me as well as inspired me. I’d never seen someone from my community talk about fitness and exercise in a positive way, so I decided I’d try out SoulCycle. As I was choosing an instructor’s class to take, I noticed most of the instructors were white which made me feel intimidated. That is until I came across one of SoulCycle’s only Latina fitness instructors, Meg.

Feeling like I belong at the gym.

When I saw Meg was an instructor I felt the same feelings I did about my mentor. It was encouraging to see a Latina fitness instructor teach a class and gave me a sense of comfort knowing that I’d be okay taking a work out class I had never done before. Taking a workout class with an instructor who understood who I am and how my culture defined my relationship with fitness was refreshing. My first class with Meg was a little scary as it filled up with people who fit the “LA fitness” model, but as soon as Meg came in she cracked a joke and I knew I made a right choice with her. I continued to go to Meg’s classes and began a friendship with her and learned about how she felt as a Latina in the fitness world.

Meg shared that for her, growing up in a Mexican home in East LA, her father kept her active in sports such as volleyball to ensure his kids wouldn’t get caught up in gangs. She grew up playing sports and she credits that for shaping her as a woman and a Latina. Sports gave her a sense of community that felt very similar to Latinx culture that tends to be very community oriented.

When she began at SoulCycle she noticed how she stood out a bit being naturally more loud and sassy, but has used it to her advantage to help open people up. “I love being that representation of Latinas here. You know, a lot of people that come to SoulCycle tend to be white and maybe don’t interact with Latinos, especially Mexicans. But with me, hopefully they can see that we’re not how we’re being portrayed,” she says.

SoulCycle and many other fitness places do tend to be more white and with that, many people of color may feel intimidated to go there or feel like fitness isn’t for them. 

For SoulCycle in particular, they offer themed classes to get people to sign up like “Ariana Grande vs Mariah Carey” but nothing marketing to the Latinx demographic. Latinx make up the largest consumer market in the United States, and Latinas specifically are over-performing in sports related purchases versus their non-hispanic white female counterparts. Not including us would be a continued missed opportunity in the fitness world.

Going to Meg’s classes and talking with her gave me the motivation and courage to continue exercising for health and for fun.

But I also learned from Meg’s classes that while exercising can be fun, it’s also a good way to reflect on the stress in your life and as she puts it in her class “push through it, even if it’s uncomfortable.”

One thing that always made me comfortable in her class was having my accessibility needs met while working out. From day one, Meg was always very open and accommodating with my disability, which I believe has to do with her being a kindhearted person but from my perspective as a Latina, I also got the sense that she shared my values in putting community first. Meg is an example of the empowered Latinas we need to see represented in more places.

I’ve gotten negative reactions from family for my newfound love of Soulcycle. They don’t see it as “something we do” and with the hefty price tag, the culture-shock is real. I’ve tried other fitness classes and seeing my mentor have a great experience with Soulcycle in addition to having Meg be so accommodating has made working out less scary for me. My experience with a Latina fitness instructor tells me that the first steps to diversifying fitness and making everyone feel welcome and seen is to diversify the staff and the services. As a Disabled Latina, I’m grateful that there were at least a few people that I could identify with to help me recognize that exercise and fitness can, and should be, for everyone.

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Nathalie Molina Niño has never been one to shy away from breaking barriers, and now, she’s focusing her attention on a new mission: demystifying corporate boardrooms for women, especially Latinas. Molina Niño is the President of Known, an asset management and financial services firm, a veteran tech entrepreneur and builder capitalist, and a board member at the iconic lingerie Brand, Hanky Panky, and others.

Like many corporate boards, Hanky Panky hadn’t publicly disclosed its board composition until recently. After the brand survived the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, Molina Niño decided it was time for more women, specifically more Latinas, to know what it means to be on corporate boards.

Coincidentally, the decision to finally be more vocal about this topic aligned with the start of Hispanic Heritage Month, which served as the perfect kick-off to the work.

"Something that rarely gets talked about and I think almost gets kept opaque by design is boards,” she explains in a recent Instagram announcement. “[This Latinx Heritage Month], that’s what I’ll be talking about.” Her goal? To equip more Latinas with the knowledge they need to navigate onto for-profit boards, where they can thrive and build multi-generational wealth.

For-profit corporate boards often feel like an exclusive club. And in many ways, they are, especially for Latinas, who hold the smallest percentage of board seats in Fortune 500 companies compared to other racial groups. According to the latest report from Latino Board Monitor, while Latinos hold 4.1% of these board seats (compared to 82.5% held by white people), only 1% go to Latinas. Molina Niño, a first-generation American of Ecuadorian and Colombian descent, is part of this boardroom minority.

When asked about her experience as a Latina board member during a recent Zoom interview, she said, “It’s been lonely. There’s not a lot of Latinas on boards.” She went on to explain that even serving on boards of Latina-founded businesses gets lonely because, “A lot of the times, people who serve on their boards represent their investors and, as a result, [...] you still don’t see a lot of Latinas on those boards.”

This lack of representation drives Molina Niño’s determination to increase Latina presence in corporate boardrooms. By sharing her insights, she hopes to give Latinas a roadmap to claim their seats at the table. “If you don’t know where to go, it’s impossible to figure out how to get there,” she says.

The Road to the Boardroom

Getting onto a for-profit corporate board isn’t an overnight achievement, but it’s not an unattainable dream either. People often think you need to be a CEO or have a certain type of background, but that’s one of the biggest myths about boards in Molina Niño’s experience. What they’re really looking for is expertise — whether that’s in finance, marketing, sustainability, or even technology. If you have that expertise, you’re already an asset. It’s simply a matter of which road you should take.

Understanding what boards are and how they operate is key to unlocking opportunities. For-profit boards serve as the governing body for companies, overseeing direction and financial stability, and guiding CEOs and executives in decision-making. But Molina Niño emphasizes that not all for-profit boards are created equal.

“There are two kinds [of for-profit boards] [...]. There’s the publicly traded business board and then, on the privately held side, there are, I would argue, two types of boards [...] the traditional business board and the venture-backed business board,” explains Molina Niño. Traditional businesses are often family-owned or long-established and may only form boards to meet requirements, like securing financing or transitioning through an ESOP. Venture-backed boards, on the other hand, are typically filled by investors who hold major stakes in the company.

According to Molina Niño, understanding the difference between them is how you can create a successful strategy. With publicly traded business boards, the whole world is privy to them, so, “The way that you get in there is a little bit more transparent. Sometimes those publicly traded companies will hire a recruiter to help them find new board members,” explains Molina Niño. For private companies, on the other hand, there’s no legal requirement to make announcements. As a result, most people don’t know anything about them or their inner workings.

“Usually what happens in traditional businesses that don’t have venture-capital investments is that the Founders, Executives, or the board members, if one existed already, they usually go to their friends,” and people they deem experienced to fill board seats. In other words, it’s the founder’s decision, and that’s an entirely different approach than hiring recruiters. When it comes to venture-backed business boards, the seats on the board are filled by whichever investor writes the biggest check.

This is why an understanding of the different types of boards and acknowledgment of their own strengths is what will help Latinas define a sound strategy. Whether that’s working with a recruiter, networking and connecting with founders to build trust, or making the biggest investment.

The Path for Latinas

For Molina Niño, the key to getting more Latinas into corporate boardrooms is education. Knowing what a board looks like and how it functions is how you can position yourself to get on it. In openly talking about this, without the mystique it’s usually shrouded in, Molina Niño is providing women, especially Latinas, with invaluable insights. “If we had Latinas understanding what are the three types of for-profit boards I think that, on their own, they would be able to figure out what their best chance is and adjust their careers to make themselves more competitive,” states Molina Niño.

When asked about the impact of increased Latina representation in boardrooms, Molina Niño flips the narrative. “Boards don’t help Latinas by offering them seats; Latinas help businesses thrive by being on their boards,” she says. “The whole point of sitting on a board is that you have experience and expertise, and as Latinas, you also have some cultural experience that everyone wants. [...] At the end of the day, we [Latinas] have to realize that we have a ton to offer and we have to be selective about where we put that expertise,” she explains.

As demand for access to the Latina consumer rises, Molina Niño predicts that more Latinas will find themselves recruited into boardrooms. But she’s not content to sit back and wait for that moment. By openly sharing her journey and insights, she’s making sure other Latinas know their worth and have the tools to claim their place at the table. “I realized that quietly being on boards that helped me personally is not helping other Latinas. [...] I was lucky enough to have friends who could advise me and share their experiences, so that’s why I’m doing this,” she stated.

With Hispanic Heritage Month as the backdrop, Nathalie Molina Niño’s mission is clear: “My goal is just to give Latinas enough information so they can make a plan for how to eventually get on a board that they’re paid to be on and that will eventually help them build generational wealth.”

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