Meet the group of adult women finding joy, happiness through Double Dutch

'40+ Double Dutch Club': Central Florida women find self care and friendship through jump roping group

A group of women in Central Florida are taking self-care back to their childhood with an adult jump roping club -- proving you're never too old to be a kid again!

When you’re a kid, all you seem to do is play. When you’re an adult, all you seem to do is work. It can drain your mental health and sense of self well-being.

Women especially feel they have to be all things to all people.

It is something Chicago resident Pamela Robinson knows this all too well.

"I was going through a really challenging time," Robinson said. "My 20-year marriage was ending, and I was a stay at home mom. Then my kids were grown and out of the house. I needed to find a happy place."

That was in 2016, and when she was a kid, her happy place was outside doing Double Dutch. So, she asked a friend to go outside and jump with her to relieve some stress and help her depression.

It worked!

Soon, dozens of women would join them to jump rope – and it involved into something so much more. The woman would meet, jump, and escape their worries and roles as wives, mothers, and caregivers.

For Robinson, her love for Double Dutch has become a movement of self-empowerment among women, and turned into a club – the 40+Double Dutch Club – with chapters formed across the globe.

The rules are simple: no worries, no stress and no men. Everyone also has to be over 40 to avoid drama, Robinson said. The group is all about joy, friendship, and support.

"It’s like we’re forgetting about husbands, we forget about children and adulting, and just being a kid all over again," said Linda Latson, who heads the subchapter of 40 Plus Double Dutch in Orlando, Florida.

All of the women wear their ages on the back of their shirts. Linda's reads 51, whereas others are in their 80s.

"I wear 63 proudly," said Cathy Pierce. After her husband died seven years ago, she felt lost, until she joined the group and connected with the women.

"I just kept being in mourning all the time and when I found these ladies, oh my god, what a sisterhood," Pierce said.

This global group has become so popular, they’ve been the subject of a documentary. It’s a sisterhood that cheers for each other, laughs with each other and supports each other unconditionally.

They say youth is wasted on the young, but these women are proving youth isn’t gone because you grow up, it’s found because you grow smarter and realize your childhood is always somewhere inside of you – just waiting to jump out.