In a society that frequently expects women to navigate career milestones, motherhood, and personal hardships entirely on their own, finding a true “village” can feel like an impossible luxury. For transplants and lifelong residents of the DMV area alike, the isolation of the post-pandemic landscape only amplified this need for genuine human connection. Enter Rooted in Women’s Wellness Inc.—a dynamic, substance-driven organization founded in the fall of 2024 to dismantle the exclusionary, aesthetic-obsessed culture of modern wellness. Built on the core pillars of sisterhood, community, impact, and legacy, Rooted is shifting the paradigm from superficial self-care to grassroots community building. We sat down with the founder, Fatima Oliver to discuss the organization’s origin story, how they are actively fighting wellness gatekeeping and their inspiring mission to uplift Black- and minority-women-owned businesses across the region.

Q: What was your inspiration behind starting Rooted in Women’s Wellness Inc.?

A: Honestly, I didn’t start Rooted because I just wanted to host events. I was looking for community. I’m a transplant from Philadelphia, and I moved to the DMV area right before the pandemic, so I never had a strong “village” here. While I had a great professional networking community for career advancement, it was during my pregnancies and postpartum journey—a couple of years after COVID—that I had the realization: Oh, I don’t actually have a personal community.

I started looking for a group of people I could build with, raise kids with, or just look to for escapism. But at that time, wellness and social clubs were incredibly hobby-specific—it was tennis-only, golf-only, or moms-only. It felt very one-dimensional. As women, we aren’t a monolith. We need spaces where we can be all the things that we are.

I saw that gap and decided to fill it. What started as a personal search became a mission to create spaces where women feel seen, supported, and connected.

Q: What year did Rooted officially launch?

A: Fall of 2024.

Q: And is that when you hosted your very first event?

A: Yes! Our first event was actually a surprise launch. I told every colleague and acquaintance I knew, “We’re having a hike at Great Falls. Bring some women, I’ll have refreshments and light snacks.” It was essentially a voting empowerment rally to get the girls involved and talk about voting for Kamala Harris.

During the hike, I announced Rooted. I told them the Instagram handle and launched the company in real time to a bunch of women—many of whom I didn’t even know yet. A lot of those women who met me on the trail that day are still a massive part of the organization today and have grown right alongside me.

Q: I know your organization focuses heavily on foundational values. Can you talk about your core pillars and why they are so vital to women’s wellness?

A: Rooted is much bigger than events. Events are just the outcome, but the product is bringing women together. We are an organization of substance built on four distinct pillars: Sisterhood and Connection, Community, Impact, and Legacy.

1. Sisterhood and Connection

Every single Rooted activity includes a “Sister Circle”—a designated moment where we come together and take the mask off. It is incredibly important to have a space where you can be entirely vulnerable.

2. Community

We actively tie in minority- and Black woman-owned businesses into everything we do. We leverage our network to amplify them. From local nail salons to aerial yoga studios, if it’s a Black woman-owned business in the DMV, we’ve likely partnered, hosted, or worked with them.

3. Impact

Everything we do is tied to a bigger purpose. We operate on a quarterly initiative structure to give back:

• Q1 (“Products, Period”): A menstrual products drive throughout March. We collect pads and tampons and donate them to organizations like Bread of the City and the Michelle Obama Southeast Center in DC.
• Q2 (“Mom’s Mental Wealth”): We focus on maternal mental health, collecting diapers and items for a community baby shower.
• Q3 (Back-to-School Drive): We partner with local golf courses for an evening golf event to gather school supplies.
• Q4 (“Gift of Giving”): Our annual holiday drive for canned goods and food donations.

We also do impromptu GoFundMe initiatives. For example, during federal job cuts, we opened anonymous applications where women could nominate friends who were laid off. We raised monetary donations to quietly and supportively help them through times of trouble without putting them on the spot.

4. Legacy

Rooted isn’t just for today. The story I always tell to illustrate our legacy involves two 18-year-old girls arriving at college as roommates. Everyone at school says, “Oh, you guys must be sisters,” and they reply, “Yeah, we are.” But the reality is they aren’t biologically related—their moms simply met at a Rooted event when the girls were one year old.

Because their moms didn’t have family out here, they built a village together. The girls grew up attending every annual “Mommy and Me” event, creating core memories together. That long-lasting, generational impact is the ultimate legacy of Rooted.

Q: How does your organization work to strip away gatekeeping and make self-care feel genuinely accessible to every woman, regardless of where they are on their journey?

A: I am so glad you asked, because we learned very early on that wellness is heavily gatekept. Last summer, we asked our community what they wanted, and the answer was unanimous: Pilates, Pilates, Pilates.

But when we started outsourcing instructors, we realized how inaccessible it is in terms of cost and location. Because we host exclusive, women-only events, we have to rent out entire facilities, and the pricing quotes we received for instructors alone were unrealistic.

So, we decided to be the change. I went out, studied, trained, and became certified in Barre (a fitness workout similar to Pilates that incorporates a ballet barre or mat). By teaching it myself, we can offer classes to our community at a fraction of the cost—now we are just paying for the venue. Another member of our Board of Directors became Sound Bath certified, so we can offer nervous-system-calming sound healing experiences too.

We provide a safe, comfortable space where women can learn to move their bodies around peers who look like them, without feeling ostracized, griftered, or priced out.

Q: What is a specific success story or moment of validation that stands out to you, where you knew you were making a tangible impact?

A: Two specific moments immediately come to mind.

The first was from our Gift of Giving scholarship. A woman anonymously applied on behalf of her girlfriend who had four children and had been laid off from a government job. Months after we quietly sent the funds, the recipient sent us a beautiful note. She admitted that she had battled a lot of pride because she had never been laid off before, but wrote: “The money you raised got me through the winter. It got my heat back on.” Knowing our community kept a family warm during their darkest hour was incredibly emotional. It shows that even women who are used to doing it all themselves need a safe way to receive help.

The second moment happened during our Products, Period drive. We were walking into the Michelle Obama Center in Southeast DC with wagons overflowing with donated pads and tampons. A woman and her teenage daughter stopped us and literally whispered, “Can we please have some of those products?” They followed me to the front desk and said they would wait as long as it took for the staff to check them in because they were in desperate need. Women so often put themselves last, and seeing our donations meet an immediate, real-time need for a mother and daughter right in front of us was the ultimate confirmation of our “Why.”

Here is the updated final section of the Q&A article, seamlessly incorporating the new transcript data regarding the future plans and growth of Rooted.

Q: I absolutely love that story. For my final question: what is next for Rooted in Women’s Wellness? What are your future plans for growth, upcoming events, or expanding your impact to reach even more women in the community?

A: Absolutely. What’s next is intentional growth. We want to make sure we are actively reaching back and pouring into the next generation. Last semester, we brought on our first intern from Howard University, Laniers, who just graduated and was amazing. Moving forward, we want to scale that initiative—giving college students real-time access to see how a nonprofit operates, letting them sit in board meetings, and teaching them organizational and operational structure.

In terms of expanding our community impact, our immediate focus is the upcoming Q3 back-to-school drive in August. We want to move away from guesswork and lean on the experts. We are looking to partner directly with the county or even the State of Maryland. School districts have strict, specific requirements now—like requiring clear backpacks—so we want to make sure we are listening to what the schools actually need and filling those exact gaps.

We are also challenging our community to keep pushing deeper. We want them to attend our events not just for the aesthetics or the “Instagram of it all,” but to genuinely make friends, give back, and release the things they’ve been holding onto.

On the programming side, one of our board members is currently finalizing her Pilates certification! So yes, we will officially be kicking off those highly requested Pilates events very soon.

Ultimately, we are going to keep hunting for Black- and minority-owned businesses to amplify. We’ve seen such an incredible influx of brilliant entrepreneurs lately, from independent clothing brands to custom matcha carts. It’s a beautiful thing to witness, and we want to find ways to collaborate with all of them.

To learn more about Rooted in Women’s Wellness curated wellness experiences across the DMV, follow the organization on Instagram @rootedinwomenswellnessinc