Girls On The Go: The Liverpool women’s community helping to create friendships and empowerment

Girls On The Go is a community of women with a passion for all things health and wellbeing. Their aim is simple: To translate this passion into fun events to bring women together. GOTG started out as a running event and flourished into a wellness and socialising group, so it’s open to everyone.

Whilst making new friends at uni comes easy to some, it can be difficult for others, especially moving into the second semester after everyone seems pretty settled. GOTG organise events that give women the chance to socialise and push themselves to become better versions of themselves.

We caught up with them to learn more about the community!

How did Girls On The Go begin?

“Girls on the go began as a beginner-friendly girl running group because we found that lots of beginner-friendly running groups start at 5km and that can be quite daunting to new runners, so we wanted to make it more accessible to those who have never run before and wanted to run with a friend.

“We then started to realise that lots of the girls who came to our runs mentioned struggling to make new friends and feeling isolated so we decided to start doing girl-only events for those who didn’t want to run.

“No one talks about how hard it is to make friends as an adult and how isolating it can be, so we wanted to provide safe and welcoming spaces for women to meet new people and get creative.”

What has been your highlight so far?

“I think the highlight so far has been seeing how many new friendships have been made. We’ve had girls from this group tell us how our group has completely changed their lives and they don’t feel so lonely anymore and that is honestly so heartwarming to hear. We’ve had girls who met through our events, go on to have their own friends-mas and a group of girls who met at our events decided to get a house together!

“We also had a group of other 25 girls from our community, run the Santa dash together and they helped raise over £5000 for a local charity called Refugee Women Connect. We think it’s so important to help give back to the community and support local women’s and children’s charities so being able to raise that much through our group was amazing!”

What have you got coming up in 2024?

“We will be continuing our weekly beginner-friendly runs on Saturdays and Sundays and we are looking to organise weekly girl-only fitness classes including yoga, pilates, and strength training.

“For the next few months, we’ve got vision board making, bracelet making, wine glass painting, a few galentines events, exhibitions etc!

“We are also very excited to start expanding into cities outside of Liverpool so we can help as many girls as possible across the UK combat loneliness and make new friends.”

What advice would you give to someone unsure about coming to an event?

“I would say that most girls come to our events by themselves and have all come for the same reason – to make friends. Everyone is welcoming and supportive and just wants to have fun. We have girls of all ages coming along from 18 to 65 and everyone is in the same boat.

“Making friends at any age is really difficult but the girls should be really proud of themselves for putting themselves out there. We try and have various types of events so there’s an event suitable for everyone!

“We are also always here if they want to chat they can message us on Instagram or on WhatsApp if they are nervous or have any questions, and we are always up for meeting them one-on-one before they come to events so we can make them feel at ease.”

Girls on the Go’s weekly runs will be starting back up on 6th January, and their wine glass painting event is taking place on 23rd January. Head over to their Instagram or their website to find out more about their events and how to join.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• University of Liverpool moves up four places in The Times Good University Guide

•10 types of people you will meet in your first month at University of Liverpool

•How Sport Liverpool’s Movember campaign has helped beat the November blues