In the seventeenth episode of The Idealists (formerly Grit & Grace), Melissa interviews Reese Scott, former heavyweight, registered amateur fighter and licensed USA boxing coach, who trained over 1,000 women and girls on her mission to open New York's first women's boxing gym.

She founded Women’s World of Boxing Club in 2007 and opened the first women’s boxing gym in New York in 2018. Reese has received Citations from U.S. Senator Charles Schumer and has been featured in Bloomberg News, MSNBC, the 2018 Global Reebok Campaign, Vice, Shape, ESPNW, Refinery29, and so much more.

In this episode, coach Reese shares how boxing saved her life and how awareness of personal space saves women’s lives.

“When I first started boxing, I was in a very dark place. It was an unfamiliar darkness. The depression and sadness were so heavy, that when I went to the boxing gym, I was so numb I didn’t care that they were so mean to me. I didn’t care about the names that they called me. I didn’t care about any of it. All I cared about was if I was going to be here the next day.”

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#14: Tina Wells