On a sunny Wednesday afternoon in June, about 100 people gather at Mount Trashmore Park in Virginia Beach.
They are therapists and real estate agents, dentists and nurses. Some bring dogs on leashes wagging their tails, while others push strollers with children.
They are all women. Many of them used to be strangers.
Virginia Beach hairstylist Ashley O’Brien met Norfolk realtor Courtney Watkins two months ago during the VB Girls Walk Club’s first event. Now, they embrace as Watkins walks up to the group of girls chatting in the shade beneath the Mount Trashmore pavilion.
“Hey, how are you?” Watkins asks O’Brien.
O’Brien found herself as a friendship matchmaker for her clients before she ever thought about creating a walking club.
Many of them were military wives, she said, and didn’t yet have friends in the area. She recalls giving the Instagram handle of one client to another because O’Brien thought they could be friends.
The idea for VB Girls Walk Club came as O’Brien and her assistant, Melanie Bulaski, were out at sushi one night.
“I feel like just having this community just for girlhood, people are really craving that,” O’Brien said.
The pair filmed a video at the restaurant, inviting people to come out to the club’s first walk and posted it to TikTok, where it gained 17,400 views.
O’Brien thought only her clients would come. But when she showed up to the Mount Trashmore Pavilion the following Wednesday, there were about fifteen other girls.
She didn’t know a single one of them. They were all strangers who had seen the video.
Still, O’Brien said it was the most fun walk. The group of girls exchanged phone numbers, got to know each other and followed each other on social media.
From there, O’Brien kept posting and making videos about the walks. The videos gained tens of thousands of views on Instagram and TikTok.
Watkins, who came to the very first walk, said it’s now become a part of her routine. She works in real estate and even found a client at the walks, who she’s now showing homes to.
“When you get to your twenties, it’s so much harder to make friends,” Watkins said. “You don’t have high school or college or any of that to kind of keep you around a specific group. … So this was just an outlet for that.”
At first, the group started the walks by standing in a small circle and introducing themselves. Now, there are too many women to do that.
Brands in the area have contacted O’Brien to collaborate on events as the walking club’s Instagram and TikTok pages started gaining attention. Lululemon offered to stay open late, and a few fitness places in the area have reached out to teach classes.
O'Brien said she especially likes to go up to girls who show up by themselves and welcome new people.
The club has no restrictions, she says. There is no age requirement, and they welcome kids and pets.
“We just want everybody to come out and have a good time,” O’Brien said.
