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American writer and influencer (born 1987) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Casey Johnston (born February 6, 1987)[3] is an American writer, editor, and fitness influencer. She has written the fitness advice column "Ask a Swole Woman" since 2016 and a newsletter about weightlifting, She's a Beast, since 2021.
Casey Johnston | |
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Born | Gloversville, New York, U.S. | February 6, 1987
Other names | "Swole Woman" |
Education | Columbia University (BS) |
Occupations |
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Years active | 2009–present |
Instagram information | |
Page | |
Years active | 2016–present |
Followers | 36,277 (July 20, 2023) |
Website | www |
Johnston grew up in the city of Gloversville in upstate New York.[4] She played field hockey and lacrosse at the Emma Willard School in Troy, New York, and went to Columbia University in New York City, where she graduated with a bachelor's degree in applied physics from the university's engineering school in 2010.[4][5]
Johnston worked as a writer and editor for Ars Technica after beginning her career there as an intern in June 2009.[6] She was an editor for the product review website Wirecutter from 2014 to 2018.[2] In December 2014, a tweet by Johnston went viral when, after a male follower told her to "read the full article" about a story she had linked, she replied: "I wrote the article".[7][8] While working for the website The Outline in 2018, she wrote an article criticizing the MacBook Pro's new butterfly keyboard design.[9][10]
Johnston became interested in weightlifting after seeing Reddit posts by a beginner female weightlifter.[11][12] She had put on some weight while in college, and begun running and dieting with a focus on her body image, behaviors which increasingly strained her over seven years.[11][12] She began strength training in 2014, using Mark Rippetoe's book Starting Strength, and as she got stronger and felt better she soon "couldn't stop talking about" the virtues of weightlifting.[11][12]
In July 2016, Johnston started writing a fitness advice column, "Ask a Swole Woman", for the website The Hairpin, at the request of Hairpin editor Silvia Killingsworth, one of many people to whom she had enthusiastically talked about weightlifting.[11][12] GQ described her tone as "that of an enthusiastic amateur with an eye for bullshit".[11] After The Hairpin shut down in 2018, the column moved to the magazine Self and then Vice, which dismissed her during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2021.[11][12] She then launched a weightlifting newsletter, She's a Beast—which "Ask a Swole Woman" became part of—on Substack (later on Ghost).[12][13][14] As of 2023[update], She's a Beast has about 25,000 free or paid subscribers, and Johnston has over 34,000 Instagram followers.[2][11]
An ebook published by Johnston in December 2021, Liftoff: Couch to Barbell, describes a twelve-week regimen for weightlifting beginners.[11][12] It is intended to make weightlifting more accessible for women or men who may not consider themselves typical weightlifters, and those who, in her words, feel that "their body [is] never hot enough, always in too much pain".[5][11] Over 11,000 copies have sold digitally.[14]
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