By Julia Train
Jacklyn Romano, widely known as jacklyn.fit on Instagram, has made a career through her passion for helping others, fitness and women empowerment.
Romano won Best of the Press multiple times, won SOJO 104.9’s Favorite Personal Trainer in South Jersey Contest and has been featured in magazines like Health.com, The Daily Dot, and most recently, Philadelphia Magazine.
Born and raised in Sea Isle City, the 26-year-old fitness influencer has been working on her personal brand since she was 19 when she became a certified personal trainer.
At that age she was a freshman at Rowan University, majoring in business management, and decided to create a fitness account on Instagram.
In order to avoid her former high school classmates making fun of her, she decided to keep her page private until she started taking clients that year.
“I only had a couple of friends and my family on there and I would just post my workouts, snacks and tips,” Romano said.
One of Romano’s first clients was someone who had seen her in the gym at school. She wound up purchasing one of her online programs and lost 50 pounds.
“Her photos were so amazing. I posted them and they were getting so many shares. I took my page off of private and… from that, it really really blew up,” she said.
In 2019, Romano graduated from Rowan. Up until then she had been working a full-time desk job, but as she became busier with clients, she couldn’t keep up.
So she decided to quit and focus on her blossoming business, which led to opening a fitness studio for personal training sessions.
In March 2020, she was set to open her gym, which is geared more toward women – although men do book sessions sometimes – with a primarily pink theme.
Instead of having her clients come in person, she would bring her laptop to the building and host workout classes over Zoom, which could be done at home without equipment.
“Every day or every night I would go over to my studio and I would do these workout classes on Zoom for those people because we were unable to meet out in the real world. So that’s kind of how the studio started and stayed afloat so I was still able to pay my rent.”
Three years later, Romano owns two businesses – a fitness studio and a bikini company – which allow her to fulfill her passions of women empowerment and helping others.
She’s grown her brand exponentially and has worked with Lululemon, Free People and Soul Cycle in Philadelphia.
On Aug. 17, Romano attended the magazine’s first Influencer Awards and won 2023 Health and Wellness Influencer of the Year. The awards show was livestreamed and allowed the influencers’ followers to vote.
About two weeks later, the winners got together for a photo shoot for Philadelphia Magazine’s November issue, which also featured 150 of the Most Influential Philadelphians.
Romano enjoyed seeing professionals appreciate and notice influencers because they tend to receive unjust criticism, even though the platform can be used to spread positivity.
“The best part about my job is seeing people reach their goals and feel good. No matter who you are [or] what you look like, anyone can have the confidence to feel beautiful every day,” she said.
