The Jordyn Woods you see on Instagram has highlighted and contoured cheekbones, glossed lips, and gym-toned curves. She wears barely-there dresses, bikinis, sometimes lingerie, and she lives with (and often babysits for) her beauty mogul best friend, Kylie Jenner. But growing up, the self-proclaimed tomboy rolled deep with a gang of guy friends, and while she dabbled in sports, it wasn’t until last year that the 20-year-old model and Life of Kylie star decided to take her health and fitness seriously.

“I was going through a lot of emotional drama in losing my dad,” Woods tells me over the phone from the Los Angeles launch of her first solo project; a wear-anywhere, anytime athletic line called Secndnture (pronounced Second Nature). “I really turned to working out and that became my therapy.”

Woods’ therapeutic gym sessions, often shared with her 6 million followers, generated a new level of interest from fans, who wanted to know everything about her new fitness plan, including what she wore to work out. Like anyone who has lived through a punishing gym session, Woods simply wanted clothes that made her feel good—cute but also functional. As most women with T&A if you will, can attest to, the gym isn't necessarily a comfortable place. Woods needed clothes that would really hold her down, aka no unexpectedly see-through bottoms or bras that failed to mitigate bounce. She noticed a dearth of athletic wear that met her criteria—size inclusive, affordable, quality pieces that she and her A-list friends would want to live in--at the gym, on Instagram, and beyond. With the success of past fashion collaborations with Addionelle and BooHoo under her belt, Woods channeled her frustration with the activewear landscape into designing her own line.

Secndnture’s 24-piece debut collection reflects Woods’ athletic, body positive personal style—equal parts sporty and sexy. “Now in this generation, it is totally acceptable to wear sweatpants or track pants to the club,” Woods explains. Obviously anyone over 30 would disagree, but since the kids are calling the shots, this is the new normal. “That's the thing I love about activewear; you can put it on in the morning and then go through your whole day and not feel like you're out of place.” 

One standout piece, a pair of leggings with a built-in waist trainer, was inspired by the core-cinching sweat bands that Woods had struggled to layer comfortably during workouts. “Sometimes it didn’t look right with the pants I was wearing so I wanted to kill two birds with one stone and create a legging with that built in,” she says. The game-changing combo didn’t yet exist. Another standout? Color-blocked windbreaker tracksuits lined for fall weather and designed to go from a morning errand run to an evening out.

Sizes go from XS to 2X, a range that’s slowly becoming an industry standard thanks to brands like Secndnture. Woods, the model, built a career on her now famous curves, but she didn’t always feel comfortable in her own skin. As a kid, she remembers struggling to find clothes at the mall. “I wanted to dress like everyone else and go to Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch, but I knew that there weren't going to be any clothes that fit,” she says. “I was a tomboy partially by choice, but it was also because I didn't like getting dressed.” With dismal options in stores, Woods resigned herself to hiding her body in big shirts stolen (nee:"borrowed") from her dad and brother.

It wasn’t until several years later that she began to experiment with clothes and find her confidence, in part through modeling. For Woods, a career in front of the camera meant learning to adapt and live outside of her comfort zone. On set, she takes everything in stride. “When you book a job you're not going to love all the clothes—you might not like how you look, but that comes with the territory.” It’s this flexible, no-fear attitude that has propelled Woods from model, to reality TV sensation to designer.

Woods considers herself somewhat of an accidental advocate for self-love—she never set out to empower others—but her innate authenticity and refusal to conform to traditional fashion industry body standards has solidified her status as a bona fide body positive icon. “It's amazing that people can get confidence and be inspired by me just being myself. I think people like that I don't care what people have to say,” she effuses, genuinely in awe. “I never thought that I would be able to wear a crop top and now I walk around in a sports bra.”

While she’s come a long way in her fitness journey, when Woods first started to broadcast her healthy new lifestyle, day-one fans felt betrayed. “People said, ‘oh you're not body positive anymore,’ or ‘I used to like you, but now you're trying to be something else.’" Quite the contrary, Woods explains. “I think body positivity is wanting to be the best version of you and taking care of yourself. So no, when I was working out, it's not to look a different way. It's not because I'm unhappy. It’s for my mind. It's interesting that people think that if you start working out or wanting to be more health conscious that you're not loving yourself.”

With Secndnture’s success, Woods is determined to spread her self-improvement, self-love message. And the movement is already growing, with the brand’s Instagram followers climbing over 100,000 in a few short days. Still, Woods stays humbled and focused. Her unflappable positivity might sound effortless, but happiness is a conscious choice for Woods. “If you take 30 minutes a day to do something to make your life better, it makes a huge difference. You don't have to go and do some crazy workout,” she breaks down the math. “Just get outside, walk for 30 minutes, read a book, draw. Do something that you really love to do.”