El Monte studio owner rebuilds from fire, earns Woman of the Year

After losing 93 pounds in a single year and finding no boutique fitness options in her hometown, Jay Armada opened Beastin Beauties in El Monte — a women-focused studio she rebuilt following a 2020 fire and that has since earned her the city's Woman of the Year honor.

The studio fills a gap in El Monte's working-class San Gabriel Valley neighborhood, where boutique fitness spaces remain scarce, and offers a judgment-free environment that reflects a growing demand for women-centered fitness communities across the greater Los Angeles region — including neighboring Orange County.

Armada founded Beastin Beauties to deliver the kind of fitness experience that did not exist in the community where she grew up, she told ABC7 Los Angeles. "Boutique fitness spaces here, it doesn't exist here, so I needed to have this for the people in my community here, where I grew up," she said. The studio offers dance fitness, pilates, yoga, zumba and circuit training.

The business came close to ending when its original location burned down in 2020. Armada told ABC7 she nearly walked away from everything she had built. "I thought I didn't wanna do it anymore. Maybe it was a sign from God that you should just quit. But my community held me up and they just really made me believe in it again," she said.

The studio's mission, Armada said, traces directly to her own transformation. "I want people to feel what I felt when I was going through my own journey. I had lost ninety-three pounds in a whole year and I just wanted everyone to feel that," she told ABC7.

Members describe the atmosphere as unlike anything found at a standard gym. "You walk in and you feel like you're able to let loose and inhibit it in a way that you don't find in other places," said Esmeralda Cabral, a member. Ruby Rose Yepez, a member and yoga instructor at the studio, said the women-only format lowers the barriers for those starting out. "It takes away the stresses of being in a space where you may feel judgment from others. And there's a certain level of comfort as a woman that you wanna be able, especially if you're starting a health journey or you're reigniting it, you wanna have the comfort of being around under supportive women," Yepez said, according to ABC7.

Yepez said Armada's vision extends beyond physical fitness. "Community and connection here in this space is super, super important. Jay is not just about bringing people here for health. She brings people here to build the connections so that they feel that they're part of a community," she said. Cabral said those bonds form with little effort. "You build a connection without even really trying. You're all experiencing the same moments together. There's always just so much fun happening," she told ABC7.

The city of El Monte named Armada its Woman of the Year in recognition of her contributions, ABC7 reported. She said the honor belongs to the community that carried her through the fire — the same community she is still building, one class at a time, inside Beastin Beauties.