Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Syd Young. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Syd, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
I was an athlete my whole life, and I played Division 1 tennis in college. There, I was treated far differently than my counterparts because of the size of my body. Instead of talking about our team’s 4 trips to the NCAAs, or our win records; teammates, coaches and athletic directors talked about the way my uniform fit me, or how much better of a tennis player I would be if I just lost a few (a lot of) pounds.
After college, I went straight into grad school to get my Doctorate of Physical Therapy. To obtain a doctorate, we all needed to do research. They asked that the cohort participate in eachother’s research, but because one of the exclusion criteria was a BMI above 30, I could never participate in any of the research.
I started working right after grad school, and there found that the queer community and Spanish-speakers were getting significantly worse care. Doctors were claiming that they spoke Spanish to avoid getting an interpreter, and PTs were not educating themselves on gender-affirming surgeries that would affect the care they were giving to their queer clients.
Given all of this, after I completed my residency and fellowship training, I started OutWellness to create a safe space for marginalized folks to receive exceptional care. I want women to come into this space and not comment on their bodies. I want people in bigger bodies to come into this space and address health and wellness goals without assuming they want to lose weight. I want queer folks to come into this space and have their names and pronouns respected, and be with providers who understand the procedures associated with their gender-affirming care. I want Spanish-speakers to come in and get quality care, regardless of the language that they speak.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
We are a queer health and wellness center dedicated to creating a safe space for marginalized people (women, people of color, queer people) to address health and wellness goals. We offer physical therapy, personal training, massage, acupuncture, gym membership, group classes and workshops.
We are known for our gender-affirming care. We offer pre- and post-op care for gender-affirming surgeries, and we offer weekly no-cost trans masc and trans femme workouts to intentionally create a safe space centered around trans people. This feels especially important living in a state that tries to erase the trans identity more and more every year.
We are creating a holistic wellness space that is centered around creating a safe space for people who otherwise would not feel comfortable, or maybe even wouldn’t seek care. We have practitioners with knowledge in all different areas of health and wellness, and plan to continue to grow!
I am absolutely the most proud of the community that we have built and continue to build at OutWellness. I would consider every single one of them my Chosen Family, and it brings me such joy that we have a space that allows everyone to connect and build community together.
We have lots of offerings, and we are proud to work on a sliding scale, and offer packages that reduce the price per session. We want our services to feel accessible as possible, and we also offer a $50/month gym membership that gives you access to all of our workshops and group classes.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
There are so many qualities I wish I could share with everyone, but there are a few that feel especially important.
The first one is surrounding myself with people who believe in me and the brand, and who genuinely care about the success of the business. For me, this was my dad, who gave me the courage to quit my salaried job to start OutWellness, and has been a sounding board and support system for any big decisions I make (and most small ones).
The next quality is my intention around creating community. People show up for community, people respond to community, and people come back for community. A great example of this is that when we moved into a larger space, our entire community came out to paint, build, tear down, and fix literally anything we needed. Our buildout of 1900 square feet was done in 6 weeks, in large part due to the way our community showed up.
The last quality that I think is so important is the ability to be ok with not knowing everything. I am a healthcare worker, I didn’t learn how to run a business. So, I seek out help with finances and business growth, and I learn from people that I know and trust. I had (and sometimes have) a lot of embarrassment around the lack of knowledge that I have, since I’m running a business. Luckily, I have great people around me who teach me and assure me that I don’t have to know or do everything in order to run a successful business.
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
It feels really important to me that I chose this question, because my parents have been my biggest supporters for my entire life. They showed up to 8am tennis matches in the freezing cold (and the scorching heat), they helped me move 3 times in 5 years without question, and they respect and appreciate my queer identity, even when they don’t understand it.
It feels important to talk about my parents for a few reasons. First, they are truly my biggest supporters. It is impossible to talk about the success of OutWellness without talking about my parents’ support. We had an open mic night to raise money for local queer nonprofits, and my dad came and told queer dad jokes. People came up to us after and said how thankful they were to have a father figure at the event, since their parents weren’t supportive of their gender or sexuality. I know that I am privileged, and I think it’s important to share how great my family is.
I think this is also important because they modeled to me what true support looks like, and I now have a Chosen Family who supports me in the same way.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.outwellnessatx.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/outwellnessatx
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/syd-young-pt-dpt-faaompt/
Image Credits
Jeremy Wood
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