Illustration by Drew Shannon
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It started with a meme: “Ladies; you don’t need an expensive gym or a personal trainer. All you need is a Hot Girl Walk!”
It was spring 2020, and the meme was quickly relayed through my neighbourhood friend group. In pandemic isolation, we paced our floors, antsy and anxiety-ridden: children without playmates, husbands without hobbies, dogs without routines: we were all stir-crazy. Amidst these feelings of restlessness and unease, Hot Girl Walkers was born.
We are a casual group. Nothing more complex than an ongoing text thread with a humorous photo. Our superpower is our proximity to each other and to green space. All but one of the walkers has a dog, so the group serves multiple purposes. Often I receive a message as one of us heads out with their dog, “going out with Maddie for a loop” or their child, “walking around the lake with Isla.” It’s like a call to all the other women on our street, our equivalent of a bat signal: Tie your shoes laces. Get moving. Move bodies. Boost moods. Talk therapy. Strategize for life.
Collectively, we solve many of the world’s problems: we have a lawyer for legal issues, a chemist for science needs, a policy expert for governance issues, a master seamstress for all costumes great and small, an infectious disease expert to remind everyone when their vaccinations are due and to wash their hands. Beside professional opinions, we advise on all things related to, but not limited to: kids sports, marital strains, dog training, city planning, education choices, health (perimenopause in particular) and pop culture. We have never heard a podcast we couldn’t dissect.
As mothers to tweens and teens, we are a (marginally) on-trend bunch. We listen to the kids and share their advice. We were informed early by one teen daughter that ankle socks were “super cringe” and that crew socks are the way to go (we don’t ask why, we just follow). We are lucky to have such sartorial advice in our realm. We’re informed by the hormonal and moody tween boys that “nobody says 6-7 anymore.” Think of the social gaffes we have averted!
These Gen Z friends gained online fame – and haters – for their hours-long Toronto walks
The HGW group is going on six years now, and it has lived through a lot. We have celebrated births and we have mourned deaths. We have celebrated milestone birthdays. We have seen each other through scary doctors’ appointments and home renovations, serious family illnesses and aging parents, career advancements and the training of all those COVID-19 dogs.
I have never had a group of women in my life this constant and steady. After years of fraught teenage girl drama that melded into my turbulent 20s and then the competing demands of career and young kids in my 30s, it is a surprise to have this group of women in my 40s. Just when I need it most. Just when the space between children’s needs and aging parents’ needs is so thin, it is a wonder and a relief to have a group of women who will lace up their shoes in all weather and walk.
Without consciously working at it, we have become part of something larger. We have naturally met each other’s needs. The power of community is nothing new and yet it seems like a surprise when it is actualized. There are countless stories of communities showing up for each other in times of need. During hurricanes, wildfires, earthquakes, it is the neighbours who are the first responders.
Hot Girls’ Walking needs are not so dire.
In the grand scheme of things, the act of meeting up with neighbours to walk seems small. Some days though, it feels like an act of resistance. A radical act. A joyful act against so much mad chaos in the world, political and personal. Our revolutionary act is to check in with each other and keep tabs on community happenings. Taking a break and reconnecting with friends is a small action with big consequences. We are fixing our world all while getting our steps in.
Alexis Palmer-Fluevog lives in Vancouver.