A Newry fitness influencer says an “insane hormone disaster” was the catalyst for creating an inclusive online community that has since attracted thousands of members.
Maeve Madden launched her fitness and wellness platform, Queens Don’t Quit (QDQ), in 2020. It offers a wide range of daily live and on-demand classes designed to “meet people where they’re at” and make movement accessible to as many people as possible.
Maeve’s career has long been rooted in physical performance. A competitive Irish dancer in her youth, she secured a place in Michael Flatley’s Lord of the Dance before moving into modelling and later working as a personal trainer in London.
However, in 2018 she was diagnosed with a fibroid, a non-cancerous growth “the size of a cantaloupe” on her uterus, which triggered significant weight gain and a loss of confidence.
The experience, she says, forced her to reassess her relationship with her body and her industry, ultimately inspiring the creation of a community where women could share their challenges and feel supported.
“I had been posting and uploading fitness and workout videos to Instagram for a while by that stage and had grown a bit of a following,” Maeve recalls.
“So whenever all of that was going on with my hormones, I did get some trolls commenting on how fat I looked and criticising what I was doing.
“And I was absolutely devastated, so much so that I just came off socials for about a year. I did not create any content and I just felt awful.
“But after a while I gradually started getting back into doing little bits and pieces and eventually I started doing fitness events.”
As Maeve began to regain her confidence and take on projects, her growing profile attracted commercial interest.
One of the first significant approaches came from the haircare brand Batiste, which asked her to create a workout segment for the Ministry of Sound Games, a social fitness event that combines high-intensity workouts with the atmosphere of a nightclub.
“I agreed to do it, but I had got really bored of doing the same old workouts all the time and when I was younger I really loved a good workout DVD, so I thought I would do something similar where the workouts could be set to good tunes and we could make it a really fun time.
“So we did that, then we got asked to do some more events and then lockdown happened, so I started doing the workouts on a live stream. Loads of people joined and boom, Queens Don’t Quit was born.”
Maeve Madden launched her fitness and wellness platform, Queens Don’t Quit (QDQ), in 2020.
Since then, QDQ has gained a reputation for its empowering, community-focused approach to fitness and as a result now has more than 40,000 members, or ‘queens’, worldwide.
“I never thought it would be such a huge community,” Maeve admits.
“I always knew that it was going to be really positive and welcoming because I hate the idea of anyone being left out.
“It does not matter what shape or size you are, everybody can work out and everybody should work out.”
What Maeve believes sets Queens Don’t Quit apart is its emphasis on relatability. Rather than promoting transformation challenges or idealised aesthetics, the platform is built around the idea of real women supporting one another through everyday fitness and life hurdles.
The focus, she says, is on cultivating confidence, consistency and a genuinely inclusive space rather than chasing perfection.
“Fitness is not just about one type of person or one type of look. That is not why we do it, we do not exercise to look a certain way.
“That is why I always stress that Queens Don’t Quit is not a six-week shred or 12-week programme. It is a continuum, it is something that people will be able to do and sustain for the rest of their life.
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Thousands of fitness fans and wellness enthusiasts enjoy two-days of high-energy workouts, inspirational talks, expert-led discussions, cooking demos and so much more from over 150 international and Irish experts. Pic: Marc O’Sullivan (Marc O’Sullivan)
“Because working out is essential. It is as important as what you eat and how you sleep. Exercising is an essential part of your life and everybody should be doing it.”
It is this emphasis on authenticity and encouragement that Maeve plans to bring to WellFest when she headlines the event next year.
The festival, billed as Ireland and Europe’s largest outdoor fitness and wellness gathering, is expanding to Belfast for the first time with a new weekend edition scheduled for Ormeau Park in September 2026.
Maeve says she is particularly excited to connect with Northern Irish audiences on home ground.
“I have been involved with WellFest for a really long time and every year I have done it the amount of people that come along to my workout sessions has just kept getting bigger and bigger, so to be headlining it, especially in Belfast, feels really special,” she enthuses.
“It means a lot to be doing it at home and there is such amazing talent in Belfast. I think it is going to be such a fun weekend.
“And what is really lovely about the Queens Don’t Quit community is that we have a lot of people who do it on their own and when they come to events like WellFest they get to meet the people they see online or that they are chatting to through the app.
“I always say if I am there you have a friend. You are never going to be left on your own and all of our members are so lovely, so friendly and they are always welcoming people in. That is what we are all about.”
Looking ahead, Maeve says her focus is simply to keep building QDQ in a way that feels honest and sustainable, both for her and for the women who follow her. She wants the platform to continue reflecting real life rather than filtered perfection.
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Thousands of festival goers took part in a live ‘HIIT’ workout with Joe Wicks last year. (Marc O’Sullivan)
“As long as I am doing this, I want to show up exactly as I am,” she says.
“No one is perfect and I think the more open we are about that, the easier it is for other women to feel comfortable in their own skin. If I can keep helping people feel a little stronger and a little more seen, then I am doing my job.”
Tickets for WellFest NI are on sale now via WellFestNI.com. For more information on Maeve or Queens Don’t Quit visit queensdontquit.com.