Veronica Zelner isn’t afraid to ask the waitress when the food will be ready with a polite smile, tacking on “please” and “thank you” before and after. She isn’t afraid to hand out business cards to girls she has never met before on campus that read “Hi, DM me” with a winky face. She isn’t afraid to strike a pose in a dark green rhinestone-encrusted bikini on a stage in front of dozens of people. She is the Blonde Unit.
Veronica grew up in Marco Island, Florida, where she tried every sport –– and didn’t enjoy any of them. Instead, she found her place in theater, where her “louder than life” and girly-girl personality fit in best.
At 13, Veronica moved from Florida to New Jersey when her mom was diagnosed with cancer and needed better medical care. Her mom first moved by herself while Veronica was still in school, leading her stepfather to take a stronger role for the family. About two years after their move, her mom became cancer-free.
In New Jersey, Veronica continued to attend theater camps, experience the explosion of social media and idolize the personalities she saw growing up on YouTube, like Jenna Marbles. In high school, Veronica still tried to find a sport for herself, even after she began drifting away from theater.
“Nothing seemed to fit me, but I always had this just drive for fitness and a want to be connected to that community, but I didn’t know how,” she says.
In 2020, after months of painting and “doing nothing,” Veronica decided to start pursuing the drive she felt toward fitness during her freshman year of college at Penn State Altoona.
“I want to be able to create something for myself that will last for the rest of my life,” she says.
“Yeah, you’ll see me around here a lot.”
While she always has seen herself as confident in personality, Veronica’s attitude toward her physical appearance didn’t reflect that confidence –– and she wanted to change that. She switched her eating habits from a regular diet of Goldfish that she picked up during the pandemic to eating clean and organic. A few months later, Veronica saw a difference — and so did her growing Instagram followers.
Documenting her new lifestyle and answering questions on her Instagram story led Veronica to connect with a Rutgers University kinesiology student who was interested in making her a weightlifting plan. She signed up for Planet Fitness, followed her new plan and continued to post her progress. Her followers, whether they were past classmates or friends of friends, felt encouraged by her, and their support motivated Veronica.
“Girls that I went to high school with that I would envy based on the way they did a sport or the way that they looked were reaching out to me being like ‘Hey, can you send me your workout plan?,’” she says with a reminiscent grin.
At Altoona, Veronica found a group that inspired her as she explored the fitness world. The summer after freshman year, she continued to push herself, working hard in the gym and posting her progress on social media. “I acted like I was an influencer,” she says.
During the fall of her sophomore year in 2021, Veronica joined her first bodybuilding gym. It was dirty — smut plastered on the walls and dim lights –– but she loved the feeling that she was “for real” about bodybuilding.
“I remember coming up to the front desk guy like, ‘Yeah, you’ll see me around here a lot,’” she says.
As she began to gain more of a following on social media, Veronica asked her private fitness story followers what she should name her new fitness Instagram. Luckily, a past classmate provided the perfect name to emulate Veronica’s personality in and out of the gym: the Blonde Unit.
The Blonde Unit became Veronica’s online diary for all things fitness –– reflecting the young girl she used to be who dreamed of becoming a YouTube sensation. She confidently posted workouts, fitness videos and personal bests to her new, revamped “fit-stagram.”
While Veronica was set on her new workout routine, a photo on Instagram caught her eye and altered her goals entirely –– a photo of a “shredded” female bodybuilder in a sparkly bikini. “How do I do that?” she thought. As a glamor-loving girl who wore a sparkly tiara on every birthday through her teen years, Veronica saw the rhinestone-plastered bikini and was sold.
“I saw that, and I went ‘Yep, I could do it. 100%,’” says Veronica. “Which now, two years later, looking back on it, is absolutely fucking absurd, but that has been every single thing I’ve ever accomplished.”
Veronica felt entranced by the sport. Becoming a true bodybuilder had now evolved into an achievement that she fiercely desired. Perhaps her outlook was in part from her attitude of “delusional confidence,” in her own words, but she had the discipline and drive to take on this new era of her life led by her goals.
The summer before her junior year in 2022, when she would attend University Park, Veronica hired a professional coach and joined a bodybuilding gym in her hometown. While, at first, the new gym was intimidating, she quickly befriended Liv Odrzywolska, a more experienced bodybuilder, after she complimented Veronica’s outfit. The two friends have stuck together throughout Veronica’s entire bodybuilding journey.
Alongside her new coach and friend, Veronica learned the advanced knowledge that went into bodybuilding — including nutrition, how to follow a plan and ultimately, how her body functions when building muscle.
After getting a feel for bodybuilding, in November Veronica decided to start her 22-week prep, a period of time dedicated to an extremely regimented fitness and nutrition schedule, for her first competition in February. However, her parents were hesitant about her competing and worried that she would come to them for money to fund her prep. While they financially supported her through school, they were not funding her bodybuilding — and the expenses that came with it.
“At the end of the conversation, my parents said, ‘It’s like you’re allergic to money, Veronica,’” she says. “That shit lit a fire under my ass.”
“I did my first one, and she looked fucking bomb.”
While the thought of proving her parents wrong tossed and turned in her head, Veronica eventually found a way to fund her upcoming prep: spray tans. It was perfect –– she had been getting spray tans since she was 14 years old and had been the designated “self-tanner” girl at her previous job at Ulta. Doubts that this could be just a “silly idea” rolled around in her head, but was it really that silly?
In her studio apartment, Veronica balanced classes, set up her Facebook Marketplace spray tan equipment and began her bodybuilding prep. She surfed Reddit pages to discover leaked cosmetology school guides to read up on, spray tan experts’ Quizlets and instructional YouTube videos –– ensuring that she understood how to professionally spray. After practicing her lines on a white tarp that she bought from Goodwill, she felt ready for her first client.
“I did my first one, and she looked fucking bomb,” Veronica says, though at the time, she felt nervous and was acting on that same “delusional confidence.”
From there, Veronica built a new social media empire, this one being titled Tan Luxe. She put up some pictures of her first client on Instagram, asked her Snapchat friends to get a spray tan in exchange for promotional photos and printed out business cards, watching as her “silly idea” came to fruition.
By the time the 2023 spring semester rolled around, Tan Luxe was booming. Veronica tanned the Lionnettes, the Penn State Cheer Team and sororities, as well as doing philanthropy partnerships with other campus organizations. The business prospered, and she even introduced hair tinsel services to her clients.
“You’ll never understand it unless you’re in it.”
Veronica was heavily in prep for her two upcoming competitions. Within the 22 weeks, she watched her body undergo rapid change, and she became extremely regimented with what she consumed.
“Each week, you’re stepping into a new version of yourself,” she says. “It’s incredible. It’s seriously like a metamorphosis.”
Veronica felt akin to a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly as she saw new lines and veins transform her body. The transformation took discipline, struggle and sacrifice, though. Her friends went out to the bars at night and stayed out until the early morning while she was trying to find an open gym to do her cardio. She stayed at school through the holidays and continued to prep, sacrificing large family feasts for her quiet State College apartment, cluttered with spray tan equipment instead of holiday decorations.
“When you’re in that prep phase, nothing else matters because you’re just so excited for your goal,” she says. “You’ll never understand it unless you’re in it.”
Throughout prep, Veronica worked with local members of the International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness Professional League (IFBB pros). While she was competing in the Organization of Competitive Bodybuilders (OCB), an all-natural federation that requires a drug test and a polygraph before competing, she admired the women who competed in the National Physique Committee’s (NPC) competitions — the largest bodybuilding organization in the United States where a competitor like Veronica could become a professional.
Veronica chose to compete in the bikini category for both the shows she was in prep for, striving for an “X” body shape –– fuller shoulders, glutes, quads and hamstrings as well as muscular, but not overly toned, abs. The judges in the bikini category look for balance in the physique. The women strike a pose in clear high heels, fluorescent bikinis hand-jeweled with glistening rhinestones and sparkling jewelry. They are painted with a bronze tan to emphasize every line and muscle. Lashes are pasted onto their eyes, glam is fully done and hair full and voluminous. The women who stand on this stage look like action figures and Barbie dolls melted into one.
“[Liv] was the one who really introduced me to bodybuilding seriously because she is very deep into this as well. She bought me my jewelry for my show,” Veronica says.
Inspired by one of her favorite bodybuilders, Ashley Kaltwasser, three-time winner of Ms. Bikini Olympia, Veronica selected a dark green bikini, hoping the color would bring her luck.
“It’s really emotional and special because you dedicate yourself so much to be able to present your physique in such a special way,” she says. “To some people, it is just literally a bikini, but to the women in bodybuilding, it’s your world.”
On Feb. 28, 2023, Veronica competed in her first show in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She arrived at the hotel, passed her lie detector test and tried to stay calm. Liv was there as her “stage mom,” carrying Veronica’s backpack for her and helping her navigate all the emotions she was feeling.
“Even though it was her first show, she didn’t show many nerves and was her normal bubbly self,” Liv says. “I just remember her being excited to get up there and do her thing.”
While Veronica’s face of confidence was shining through, she felt jittery about going up on stage for the first time.
“It’s hard to relax,” Veronica says. “When you know the thing that you’ve been working on for the last five months is about to happen tomorrow.”
Supporters from various points in Veronica’s life showed up for her in Atlantic City: her siblings, a friend from her Birthright trip to Israel, her fellow bodybuilders and her parents –– who, despite their financial concerns, cheered her on through prep and her shows. However, she says that her competitive strength came from her inner soul and her box of competition essentials: her special bikini, her other show gear and the handwritten note from herself expressing how proud she was for making it to this moment.
The morning of the show, Veronica got her hair, makeup and tan done –– a highly saturated shade closer to paint than the tan she uses for Tan Luxe. At the same time, she entered her last day of “peak week,” the final week before the show when training starts to focus more on making the body look fuller.
“They actually have to manipulate your body with water, food and candy,” she says.
Every few hours, she would send her coach a photo over text of herself posing, and he would tell her what to eat or drink to bolster the appearance of her muscles, whether it be a few ounces of water or another Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup.
After writing a paper for class and responding to Tan Luxe’s clients in her hotel room, it was finally time for the show to start. In the swarm of strong, muscular women, Veronica was looking to make friends by telling each competitor how beautiful they all looked and how proud she was of them.
“That really mattered to me, to go in with a really positive mindset and attitude toward everything because, at the end of the day, I knew that if I was at least kind, that’s all that mattered to me,” she says.
The line of women walked out onto the stage and began their posing. Veronica, in her full glam and enormous high heels, felt what everyone else on stage was feeling –– the glaring lights, tension in her smile, the difficulty in trying not to sweat. They all held their poses while the judges moved them into different orders, comparing each physique to the next.
During the next round of individuals, each woman displayed their style of posing, some more sexy, others more simple, while Veronica herself went for bubbly and girly, with hair flips and bright smiles, staying true to her off-stage personality.
“It’s self-expression in a wonderful way,” she says.
Veronica placed third overall, an accomplishment she was proud of, but also made her want to strive for even better.
A month after her first show, she entered her second competition in Bloomfield, New Jersey, where she placed second in her class and third overall, finishing off her season of competing.
“You go from being a Barbie to just being a regular girl.”
After her shows, Veronica switched coaches and began to learn new elements of bodybuilding like tempo pace for training, blood glucose tracking — even tracking her stool –– and what each measure means for her body.
This post-prep created a new challenge for Veronica as she had to begin reverse dieting and increasing her caloric intake.
“Without having the goal of a show in mind, it’s really hard to stick to your goals. I also turned 21 at the same time, and it became the perfect storm,” she says.
Veronica had difficulty seeing her body change, missing the popping veins, defined muscles and leanness she had worked for. She began the difficult journey of learning to love her body outside of prep.
“My body image got extremely skewed,” she says.
The image that she created with Tan Luxe helped her during this time. She had always advocated for body image positivity and strived to make her clients feel beautiful, no matter what body type they had –– why couldn’t she do the same for herself?
“You go from being a Barbie to just being a regular girl,” she says.
After a summer of learning self-love through therapy and personal growth, Veronica switched to lifestyle training –– still training and following a fitness regimen but also taking rest days and enjoying going out to eat with her friends.
Veronica continues to grow her Tan Luxe business from her State College apartment, with plans to move her enterprise to Tampa, Florida, at the end of the summer. In the meantime, the political science major with dreams of going to law school is finishing up her senior year, having collected two bodybuilding medals, a living room full of spray tan equipment and the knowledge that whatever comes next, she will figure out –– even as she learns how to DJ, adding another hobby to her collection.
As for bodybuilding, she sees herself competing again in the future, but for now, her bikini waits in her closet for the next time she poses on stage.
