New mobile app energizes the 'dawn' of a female fitness community

Dawn, a new and upcoming mobile app, seeks to make the fitness landscape on college campuses more accessible, social and vibrant for young women.

“No more feeling scattered trying to find what equipment is at your gym, what workout to do, or who your gym buddy can be. Join Dawn today. Let’s become stronger women, together,” the app's motto reads.

Virginia Wooten, founder of Dawn and a graduate from Wake Forest University, said that the idea for the app came to her after she started Athenas, an all-female weightlifting club at Wake Forest. In just two years, 12 percent of Wake Forest’s student population was involved with the organization in some capacity, she said.

After receiving swarms of positive feedback from members within and outside of the club, she said she felt inspired to take the idea for an all women’s weightlifting club and run with it. 

She presented the concept to the Entrepreneurship Center at her university and was awarded grant funding for the idea along with outside aid to help make her vision become a reality, she said. 

“Dawn is the female fitness app for women on college campuses. Our goal is to help women interested in fitness find their community in the gym, and beyond,” The app says.

On the app, you will find detailed descriptions of the equipment available at your university's fitness centers as well as instructional videos informing how to use the different equipment. The main goal of this feature is to inspire confidence within young women to explore new machines or workouts in a safe manner, Wooten said.

On Sept. 23, the app was launched at UNC. 

Taylor Romeo, a sophomore at UNC studying business and environmental science, said that an app that informs people, young women especially, on the equipment available at different facilities would be extremely beneficial.

“Yeah, I definitely think it would have been helpful, there's so many unanswered questions going in there; it's a bunch of people who look like they really know what they're doing,” she said. “So being able to have that would have been really nice.”

A sophomore at UNC studying biology and medical anthropology, Mira Gowda said that when she first came to UNC as a first-year, she felt intimidated by the large fitness facilities on campus. Already having to navigate being a new student at a big school, she said an app such as Dawn would have made things much easier. 

“I think it would help me feel more comfortable using all the machines earlier on in my time here. And it would have been nice to have a community here, I would say, earlier on,” Gowda said.

The app offers a social feed where individuals can interact with other young women at their own or other universities through posts, comments and virtual interactions. This social aspect also enables individuals to seek out gym companions and foster vibrant communities that support one another on their fitness journeys, Wooten said.

Today, the Dawn app is available for free on the app store and has been launched at East Carolina University, Winston Salem State University, Wake Forest University and UNC, but Wooten said she intends to implement Dawn on a much larger scale. 

“I want this to be nationwide, being able to have as many universities and colleges accessible on the app there. I want it to be not just in college,” Wooten said. “So we're starting small right now with the hopes of being big.”

Through Dawn, young women can foster a safe, social and vibrant community based on a shared love for fitness and maintaining their own personal health.