Meet Carlijn
Carlijn Krijger is the founder of Superwoman, a Netherlands based platform dedicated to helping women feel confident, healthy, and connected to who they truly are. Her work was born from her own experience of losing her health and identity at a young age, followed by years of searching for answers that ultimately transformed her life.
The Moment Everything Changed
Some journeys begin with a dream. Others begin with a loss.
For Carlijn Krijger, the path that would eventually lead her to founding Superwoman started with a quiet but deeply unsettling realization that something was wrong. At twenty years old, she found herself living in a body she no longer recognized and carrying a version of herself that felt increasingly distant.
On the surface, her life appeared healthy. She cared about nutrition, valued taking care of herself, and was studying veterinary medicine. By most standards, she was doing everything right.
Yet her body was telling a different story.
She lost her period. Her libido disappeared. She gained weight unexpectedly. Her skin became highly sensitive and rashes appeared across her face. The physical symptoms were difficult enough, but what troubled her most was the internal shift she could not explain.
She no longer felt like herself.
The outgoing, engaged young woman she had always known seemed to fade into the background. Social connections became harder to maintain. Isolation slowly replaced community. What began as confusion eventually became a downward spiral affecting both her mental and physical wellbeing.
Looking back, Carlijn describes that period with remarkable honesty.
“When I was 20, I lost my period, libido, I started gaining weight, I had rashes on my face and highly sensitive skin. But I didn’t just have those physical symptoms. I felt weird. I was not myself at all anymore.”
For many people, health challenges are measured by symptoms. For Carlijn, the deeper pain came from losing her sense of identity. She knew something was wrong, but answers were difficult to find.
What followed was not a quick recovery. It became a years long search for understanding.
Searching Beyond the Obvious
Over the next three years, Carlijn dedicated herself to finding solutions. She sought guidance from experts, explored different perspectives, and invested heavily in her own healing. Financially, emotionally, and mentally, the journey demanded more than she ever expected.
By her own account, she spent more than forty thousand dollars pursuing better health and a deeper understanding of what was happening to her.
The process challenged many assumptions she had previously held. It required her to examine beliefs she had accepted without question and remain open to possibilities that felt unfamiliar.
Perhaps most importantly, it required humility.
Growth often begins when certainty ends. Carlijn discovered that one of the greatest obstacles was not simply finding answers but being willing to consider that some of her previous conclusions might have been incomplete.
She learned that transformation rarely comes from staying within the boundaries of what feels comfortable.
She describes one of the hardest challenges as learning to step beyond familiar ways of thinking and being willing to look elsewhere for solutions. That willingness opened doors she had not previously seen.
The experience reshaped her relationship with herself.
As her health improved, something else happened. Her confidence returned. Her energy returned. Her sense of purpose returned.
The woman who had once felt disconnected from herself slowly began to reemerge.
And with that return came a new question.
What if other women were experiencing something similar?
From Personal Healing to a Bigger Purpose
Many founders begin with a business idea.
Carlijn began with a personal transformation.
After rebuilding her health and reclaiming a sense of wellbeing she once thought might be lost forever, she found herself surrounded by people whose lives had also been transformed through similar principles and experiences.
These relationships reinforced what she had already begun to suspect. Her story was not unique.
Many women were struggling silently.
Some felt disconnected from their bodies. Others felt trapped by expectations, routines, or identities that no longer reflected who they truly were. Many appeared successful on the outside while quietly feeling exhausted, frustrated, or disconnected within.
Carlijn recognized a pattern.
The challenge was not simply physical health. It was the loss of authenticity.
She began to see how easily people could move through life on autopilot, following routines and expectations without ever fully reconnecting with themselves.
This observation became one of the foundational ideas behind Superwoman.
Rather than focusing solely on external outcomes, Carlijn wanted to create something that helped women rediscover who they are beneath the pressures, roles, and assumptions they carry.
Her vision was rooted in a simple but powerful belief.
Every woman deserves the opportunity to feel amazing in her own skin and fully become herself.
That belief became the foundation of Superwoman.
Creating a Space for Women to Thrive
Today, Superwoman serves women who want more than surface level change.
Carlijn’s work focuses on helping women reconnect with themselves, strengthen their wellbeing, and create greater impact in their own lives and communities.
The women she works with often have ambitions, responsibilities, and goals. Many are already contributing meaningfully to the world around them. Yet Carlijn believes that when women truly feel aligned with themselves, their capacity to contribute expands even further.
She is particularly passionate about supporting women who are already creating positive change.
Helping these women grow, she believes, creates a ripple effect that extends far beyond any individual success story.
When women become healthier, more confident, and more connected to themselves, their relationships change. Their families benefit. Their communities benefit. The people they lead and support benefit.
What might begin as personal growth often becomes collective impact.
Carlijn has already witnessed this effect through the network she has built and the lives she has touched directly and indirectly.
For her, these moments represent one of the most meaningful measures of success.
Success is not defined solely by achievements or recognition. It is reflected in growth, contribution, and the ability to help others move forward.
As she explains:
“I honestly feel like a superwoman every day and I want other women to have access to that too.”
That statement captures the heart of her mission.
Superwoman is not about creating an impossible standard. It is about helping women reconnect with strengths that already exist within them.
Redefining What Success Means
In a culture that often measures success through external milestones, Carlijn holds a different perspective.
Her definition is deeply personal.
Rather than comparing herself to others or chasing predetermined benchmarks, she focuses on continuous improvement and personal evolution.
She knows success is measured by progress.
It is found in becoming a little stronger, wiser, healthier, or more aligned than yesterday.
This perspective reflects lessons learned during her own healing journey. Recovery was not achieved through one dramatic breakthrough. It came through countless decisions, adjustments, and moments of persistence.
Those experiences taught her that meaningful transformation often happens gradually.
The same principle now guides her leadership.
She does not claim to have all the answers. Instead, she remains committed to learning, growing, and helping others do the same.
Her purpose is guided by a simple philosophy: to do the greatest good for the greatest number of beings, people, and things.
That vision extends beyond business goals. It reflects a broader commitment to contribution and service.
Looking Toward the Future
Carlijn’s vision for the future remains closely connected to the mission that inspired Superwoman from the beginning.
She wants to help more women discover what becomes possible when they feel fully connected to themselves.
Not a curated version of themselves.
Not a version shaped entirely by external expectations.
But the version that feels authentic, capable, and alive.
As Superwoman continues to grow, her focus remains on expanding that impact while maintaining the personal connection that defines her work.
She believes the future belongs to individuals who are willing to think independently, question assumptions, and create lives aligned with their deepest values.
For women seeking that path, she hopes Superwoman can serve as both a guide and a community.
A place where growth is encouraged, authenticity is celebrated, and transformation is approached with honesty rather than perfection.
The future she imagines is not built around becoming someone else.
It is built around becoming more fully yourself.
The Courage to Return to Yourself
Carlijn Krijger’s story is ultimately not about overcoming illness or building a company.
It is about remembering who she was beneath the confusion, fear, and uncertainty.
Her journey demonstrates that some of life’s most meaningful transformations begin when we stop searching for who we should be and start reconnecting with who we already are.
What emerged from her struggle was not only renewed health but a deeper sense of purpose.
Today, through Superwoman, she offers other women the opportunity to begin that same journey. Not toward perfection, but toward authenticity. Not toward becoming someone different, but toward becoming themselves.
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