When Olivia Baxter’s date bailed on their plans last November, she decided to go out anyway, alone, and filmed herself doing it.
The video found its niche online, and the comments rapidly filled with women in Fort Worth looking for community and friendship.
Within weeks Baxter launched Fort Worth for the Girls, a women’s social club centered around Sunday wine walks. Seven walks later, 40 women show up each week to build friendship, community and navigate the particular loneliness of life after college.
“It’s so hard to make friends post-grad,” said Baxter, who grew up in Flower Mound and moved to Fort Worth in 2024 for work. “A lot of people work from home, so they’re not leaving their house. I wanted to create a space for girls to just get outside and meet people in the wild.”
The club’s tagline, “Creating community where the West begins,” gives a nod to the city’s beloved motto.
After college the structures that made friendship feel effortless — such as shared classes, campus life and sororities — all disappear.
“I grew up making friends through extracurriculars at school, classes I was in or sororities,” said Lauren Lamm, a 27-year-old TCU graduate who saw Baxter’s TikTok and attended the group’s first wine walk.
Lamm, a Fort Worth resident for eight years, said most of her college friends have since left the city.
“They’re in a screen about this big,” she said, gesturing. “You see them on FaceTime, you text them, and you just want those people that you meet up with for a wine night,” Lamm said. “Since COVID, things have gone digital — dating, making friends — it can be really hard to make friends through a screen.”
Baxter watched a similar group take shape in Dallas and wanted something like it in Fort Worth. When she could not find one, she built it herself.
The format is an intentionally low barrier. Participants meet outside of Saddlerock Wine & Beer Co. on Samuels Avenue, walk a 1-mile loop and return for a glass of wine and conversation.
Members of Fort Worth for the Girls take a 1-mile wine walk on March 15, 2026. Founder Olivia Baxter launched the social club last November after a viral TikTok drew responses from women looking for community in the city. (Nicole Williams Quezada | Fort Worth Report)
Chelsea King and Madelene Riche chat during a Fort Worth For the Girls wine walk on March 15, 2026. (Nicole Williams Quezada | Fort Worth Report)
Baxter tries to greet each woman on arrival, nudging strangers toward one another based on what she picks up in conversation.
“If you come alone, you’re going to make a friend,” Baxter said.
Since starting the wine walks, Baxter has expanded to other events — a white elephant gathering, a cocktail making class, a facial night — giving members more ways to connect throughout the week.
That variety of activities mattered to Madelene Riche, 24, who moved back to Fort Worth last July after graduate school. Like Lamm, Riche found that most college friends had either moved away or entered a different stage of life.
“I showed up to the very first walk just by myself, no expectations, and met some of the greatest girls I have truly ever known,” Riche said.
Brenna Carney, 30, grew up in Fort Worth and came to the first event curious to learn whether a local could find much of interest in a group aimed at newcomers. She quickly found her answer.
“The girls who have just moved here are more likely to want to do things and explore,” Carney said. “I’ve lived here my whole life and some of the stuff we’ve done I’ve never done before.”
Members of Fort Worth for the Girls toast after a wine walk at Saddlerock Wine & Beer Co. on Samuels Avenue on March 15, 2026. (Nicole Williams Quezada | Fort Worth Report)
Caroline Rodenbush, 27, a flight attendant who moved from New York a year ago, met Baxter at a book club at Saddlerock Wine & Beer Co. before Fort Worth for the Girls even launched.
She watched the idea take shape from the inside.
“Female friendships have been the most rewarding aspect of my life,” Rodenbush said. “It’s really just women supporting women in this group.”
Baxter said she did not expect to benefit personally from what she built for others, but now has a friend group of about 13 women, all from networking through the social club.
“There’s so much opportunity to build connection,” she said. “It just takes that one leap, going to a walk even alone — and you can make friendships that will hopefully last a lifetime.”
Nicole Williams Quezada is a reporting fellow for the Fort Worth Report. Contact her at nicole.williams@fortworthreport.org.
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