When 15-year-old Roman Amosa isn’t at school or playing one of her several sports, she’s helping train 150 kids at the gym.
Roman Amosa and her mum Deeyana Amosa founded FitTeens, a free fitness programme for kids aged 12 to 18 across Auckland.
Over 95% of its members are Pasifika and a lot of them don’t play much sport.
Roman just won the Wellbeing Award at the 2024 GirlBoss Awards for her work as a lead instructor at FitTeens. Re: News spoke to the mum and daughter pair about how FitTeens came about and the impact it’s having on their community.
It all started with a diary entry during a Covid lockdown
Roman’s mum Deeyana has over 20 years of experience in the fitness industry and said she comes from a family of Manu Sāmoa rugby players and hockey players.
Roman herself plays many sports, including netball, athletics, sprints and cross country, but didn’t always feel pulled to the gym. Roman said her body changed after experiencing multiple Covid lockdowns in Auckland in 2021.
“I lost confidence in playing sports. I didn’t have the fitness to keep up in everything,” she said. “It was a massive change… It got to the point where there was no one for me to speak to. I would write in my diary how I felt sad.”
Deeyana said she had no idea what Roman was going through until she read her diary while cleaning her room and decided to help her. Once they came out of lockdown, she started training her daughter four to five days a week.
“We were committed to each other… So every morning, whether it was raining, thunderstorming. It didn’t matter. We were out on the road at five in the morning, running before school.”
When 2022 rolled around, Deeyana said Roman became a “force to be reckoned with”, getting recognised by netball rep teams and winning sports awards.
She wanted to enrol Roman into a fitness program to keep her progress going but she couldn’t find any suited for a 12-year-old. That’s when they decided to create FitTeens.
How FitTeens went from 10 kids to 150 in a year
Deeyana said FitTeens started off with Roman and 10 of her friends from netball.
They started out in November 2023 by running a four-week block course with three training sessions per week. Deeyana would hire out a gym space to train them in and charge the kids a fee to cover costs.
Roman said, “We thought starting FitTeens, this could break the barrier for those who are unsure what to do. For all the beginners wanting to learn how to train.”
Deeyana said their point of difference is the amount of games they incorporate into their training, along with the sense of camaraderie they build, to make the gym more enjoyable for kids.
FitTeens got 60 registrations for its next block course in January this year and the interest has continued to grow.
It now has around 150 members and operates in two Auckland locations.
They were surprised by the kids they attracted
“Our target market was just teens overall. But it just so happened that Pasifika kids were flowing through the doors,” Roman said.
Deeyana said Pasifika and Māori rangatahi feel comfortable coming to FitTeens because Roman runs the classes and they might see her as a relatable role model.
She thinks many of those kids are recent migrants whose parents may be busy trying to pay their bills and make a living, and aren’t able to prioritise their health and paying for the gym.
Deeyana also expected to attract teenagers who were already athletic but ended up drawing in those who were scared, had never been to the gym, didn’t play sports but wanted to try something new.
For many of those kids, FitTeens is their only source of exercise, she said.
In less than a year, FitTeens has run 10 four-week courses and has recently created a permanent Monday class for their regulars.
The programme got funding from Sport Auckland and Aktive which subsidises their costs and means kids only have to pay a $50 registration fee to train with FitTeens, Deeyana said.
FitTeens keeps Roman extra busy
On the weekdays that Roman is running a FitTeens course, she said she wakes up around 5am to do her own training with her mum before preparing her meals and heading to school.
After clocking off school at 3.20pm, she heads home to get changed and pack her things for FitTeens classes, which she runs from 4pm to 6pm.
She gets home around 7pm, has dinner and does her homework before sleeping around 9:30 pm.
Netball also takes up a big chunk of Roman’s time since she plays for school, club and rep teams and has games on weekends.
“Having FitTeens has taught me how to plan and manage my time properly. I usually go by the motto ‘if you fail to plan, you plan to fail’,” she said.
She said her favourite feedback she’s received is kids saying FitTeens is a space they feel safe and comfortable in, and one where they’ve made friends and gained confidence.
In the future, Roman said she wants to study business at university and apply those skills to expanding FitTeens.
“I see FitTeens to be one of the most sought-after youth programmes in New Zealand.”
