Mia Lind was a 22-year-old college student when she posted a TikTok video explaining a daily practice she created called the “hot girl walk.”
The idea was born, Lind tells Inc., after she was sent home from the University of Southern California during the Covid-19 pandemic. One day, wanting to get out of her parents’ house, she decided to go on a long walk.
During that walk, Lind, now 27, thought back to a class she had taken on the science of happiness that emphasized the importance of “gratitude practice.” While listening to what she calls “really fun music,” she made mental lists of the things she was grateful for, the things she had achieved, her goals, and the things that made her feel confident.
“I always struggled with confidence growing up,” she says. “I would bomb every single job interview and internship interview I would go on because I couldn’t speak highly of my accomplishments.” But after instituting these walks as a regular practice, she noticed a difference in the way she presented herself.
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Lind posted her first video about the concept of a hot girl walk in January 2021. It blew up, reaching more than 3.6 million views and getting coverage in publications such as the New York Times and the Washington Post. “The reception was just unbelievable,” the creator and founder says.
Turning the ‘hot girl walk’ concept into a business
Lind quickly filed “Hot Girl Walk” for a trademark in April 2021, transforming her viral video from an idea to the beginnings of a business. She notes that she “had some idea of what it takes to protect intellectual property” as a business and communications student at USC. The trademark, which covers athletic apparel and the “physical fitness training of individuals and groups,” was registered in April 2023, according to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office records.
Lind then began hosting Hot Girl Walk events in Los Angeles. Within a few months, the free group walks became so popular that she expanded to New York and Miami. “I was flying all over,” she recalls. In early 2024, she brought on three Hot Girl Walk ambassadors to organize and host monthly walking events in each city. The program now has 31 ambassadors operating across 31 locations including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Washington D.C. as well as London and the Gold Coast.