By: Myles Robinson I Published: January 29, 2026
Girl Gains Lifting Club, a national women empowerment fitness organization, was originally founded by Elisabeth Bradley, Jocelyn Martinez, and Karina Glaze. (CEO, COO, and CCO). After graduating from San Diego State University, where the first Girl Gains chapter was founded back in 2020; Elisabeth Bradley turned her passion project, of trying to bring more women towards gym culture, into her full-time mission of making sure women have a safe environment when it comes to working out in the gym, as well as to promote female weightlifting nationally, around college campuses.
Two years later, in 2022, Girl Gains Kean University was founded with the purpose of empowering women to live a healthy lifestyle by aiding them in their fitness journey. Girl Gains KU fosters a community focused on empowerment, gym, health, and fitness.
Now under the leadership of President Kimberly “Kim” Rosado and Vice President Shaileen Collado, Girl Gains KU aims towards making sure the gym or physical fitness center, which is often a space dominated more by a male presence, gives the women of Kean a safe, comfortable space to work out in, where they would usually might feel intimidated by being surrounded by men lifting in the gym.
“It’s really just a space for girls to connect and empower one another,” Rosado states, “a lot of girls who join or come to the sessions are kind of new to the gym, so we usually start out with some light weight lifting”. Classes range from Pilates and yoga classes, hikes, and the girls are even trying to incorporate some water aerobics classes, based on the benefits that come from working out in the water.
Kim Rosado, who is a junior at Kean University, has been working out consistently for 6 years. The Mercer County native comes from a background of fitness studies, Recreational Therapy for Occupational Therapy, and wants to one day work in the field of individual fitness, life coaching, as well as go into her respected field of Occupational Therapy.
The Girl Gains chapter at Kean University is made up of about 40 girls and aims to create a sense of security and insurance, as well as giving a very healthy, strong foundation for the first-time gym-going women of the chapter. To join, you must be female and must pay the once-a-semester $25 membership fee.
“We hold events that are more beginner-friendly [for those who are weary about starting out their fitness journey, for example] How to Start Your Lifting Journey, where girls can learn how to make a workout split, or [we do] form tutorials on how to do specific exercises in the gym so that way girls are learning the right way to lift and not hurt themselves”.
Members of the Girl Gains Club have also created a group chat with all the members where President Rosado and Vice President Shaileen Collado keep in contact with the members as well as prioritize “one on one’s” with the girls. Group chat conversations consist of how to stay consistent and motivated during hard workout week as well as dietary habits and plans, and how to keep up nutritionally and not just physically.
Additionally, outside the D’Angola Gym [Kean University Fitness Center], Girl Gains KU occasionally travels based on their events. The women’s empowerment fitness club has taken three pop-up trips to Nike New York, where they were hosted and given official Girl Gains x Nike collab merch. Giving the girls a chance to visit Nike headquarters shows them that no matter how small they may feel individually, there is always a greater or larger collective that they may be able to lean on.
More traveling includes even getting off campus, regulated Girl Gains Gym sessions that are due to the fact that the org has grown so massive to the point where they cannot fit everyone in the Kean Gym. President Kimberly Rosado and VP Shaileen Collado, who both individually love everything fitness and wellness, are currently looking for off-campus options/ opportunities that could lend towards a larger crowd when it comes to workout sessions, with girls who have paid for the gym membership.
Vice President Shaileen Collado, sophomore Pre-Physical Therapy major at Kean University who is from Perth Amboy, spoke about her origins with Girl Gains KU…
“I wasn’t too sure about Kean at first and I was kind of scared because I didn’t really know anyone that was going, until a little bit before the semester started I saw a post that said Girl Gains was coming to campus, and I thought ‘Oh this is going to be perfect for me; I can find girls [on campus] that are interested in the same thing as me’, so I became a member.”
Collado was open about how the Girl Gains club helped bring a sense of belonging to her when it came to being part of something bigger than herself. She spoke about how she still has friends and connections that she made when she first joined the club two years ago. Collado wants to encourage young ladies who were or are in a similar position to what she was in to join the club in the hopes it helps them find a better sense of community on campus the way it did for her.
“We always make sure to stay on top of our admissions, checking the Instagram page, as well as our own personal dm’s, [Instagram Direct Messaging] as we are known for running Girl Gains,” Collado said, “I know not everyone wants to be in a sorority, or even fully interested or specifically in the gym already, [however] as long as you focused on some type of nutrition or anything that has to do with doing better for yourself, Girl Gains is definitely the community to do that.”
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