Megan Simmons never set out to run a business. She trained as an occupational therapy practitioner, and for years her work centered on helping individuals move through the world more easily. It was motherhood, paired with what she saw in her clinical practice, that pushed her toward something bigger. 

She kept noticing the same pattern: families raising kids with different needs were constantly trying to bend themselves to fit spaces that were never built with them in mind. So she built one herself. 

Today, as the founder of Sensory FIT and the Sensory FIT Foundation, Simmons runs an inclusive community space in Malvern, mentors other women starting businesses of their own, and is raising three kids alongside a husband who runs his own company, too. This year, she is doing all of it while navigating one of the hardest seasons Sensory FIT has faced since it opened.

Megan Simmons is a 2026 Main Line Parent Women of Influence Award Winner

Main Line Parent’s Women of Influence Awards celebrate exceptional women making significant impacts in our community. Megan was nominated by a customer and a friend and was selected based on her achievements and dedication to creating positive change. Each Women of Influence Award Winner has committed to support Family Focus Media’s core values. Together, we are fostering a sense of belonging and empowerment for all families. All backgrounds, races, genders, and sexual orientations are welcome and safe with us.

Beyond the awards, our Women of Influence Luncheon and Speed Networking Night attendees come together as our Women of Influence Network, a community fostering connections, collaboration, and mutual support.

An Idea Built From Her Own Overwhelm

Simmons is quick to point out that none of this came from a business plan. “I’m not a business person or a marketer, I’m a therapist,” she says. “It wasn’t part of the plan. I went out on a whim.” What she did have was a clear sense of what was missing. Through her clinical work, and through her own experience trying to balance motherhood with a career, she saw how isolating it could feel to search for spaces where a child of any ability, and the parent standing beside them, could actually relax.

That instinct became Sensory FIT, a sensory gym and community space built for children, teens, and adults across every ability level. Simmons designed it to look, at first glance, like any indoor play space. The difference, she says, is in who is standing at the door. “Our staffing is the difference,” she explains. “You get access to me and to volunteers, parents of special needs. This sets us apart. We can help communicate, we have double eyes on the doors in case anyone elopes. When you come in, you can relax and just enjoy your child, letting them be who they are, giving you a space to feel safe.”

Families who have walked through those doors describe exactly that shift. One Main Line Parent community member wrote that Sensory FIT was “the only place where I can ‘relax’ a minute or two without being worried about something for them,” adding that the space felt intentionally designed with her sons in mind in a way no other place had.

The idea found its audience fast. In three and a half years, Sensory FIT expanded from programming for children age 8 and under to offerings that now reach adults. Simmons estimates the space has served more than 5,000 families. 

Regional partners took notice, too. CHOP, Nemours, and the Eagles Autism Foundation have all worked alongside Sensory FIT, and one of those partnerships still stops Simmons in her tracks. She was meeting a friend at a coffee shop, talking about her desire to find more women who shared her drive to build community. When she checked her email afterward, she discovered a personal invitation from CHOP and the Eagles Autism Foundation to become the provider for their Huddle Up Challenge. “That was something I didn’t expect or will ever forget,” she said. “I started to cry. CHOP was the connection. That was the biggest turning point.”

Rebuilding, Again, Without Giving Up the Mission

This year has tested Simmons in a way none of the earlier ones did. Water damage forced Sensory FIT to temporarily close, and she is candid about what that has felt like. “It’s been a nightmare,” she shares. “It’s a true test of whether I continue, whether I still have it in me. Since Sensory FIT opened, I have had to rebuild every year. It’s tested my ability, my willingness, and my passion. It’s the community aspect that makes me continue. Everyone has been reaching out behind the scenes to let me know that they’re here for me.” She doesn’t dress up the hard days, either. “The self-doubt creeps in,” she says. “After the pity party, you tighten the ponytail. I can do way more, so I’m looking.”

There is no confirmed reopening date yet, and finding the right space has proven far harder than Simmons expected. “Finding locations has been a test for the community,” she says. “Businesses and owners don’t understand what it means to be inclusive. It’s about accessibility for wheelchairs and easy entrances, but also advocacy, because some businesses don’t understand. They often refer to us as ‘too high risk’ and worry their location isn’t the right fit.” 

Even so, she has no intention of closing the door on what she has built. “I will never stop advocating for what I believe in and what I believe the community needs,” she says. “Whether or not we have a brick and mortar, I will not give up on what Sensory FIT is and on being that space for our community. There’s nothing like this that I can refer people to. There’s nothing truly like what we’ve created.”

Giving Families a Way In, Regardless of Cost

Early on, Simmons realized that a small business alone could not carry the weight of the access she wanted to provide. Free memberships and sponsored play sessions were not sustainable to fund the LLC, so she created a second organization to do that work.

“Sensory FIT is an LLC,” she says. “We were giving away free memberships, asking local businesses to sponsor and help the community. From a small business standpoint, it’s not feasible to give away. So we created the Sensory FIT Foundation for free memberships, free play sessions, and free programs, especially for kids aging out of the school system.” The Foundation now operates as a registered nonprofit and runs its own fundraising, separate from the business itself, to keep that door open for families who need it most.

Home, Chaos, and the Kids Who Grew Up Alongside the Business

Outside of Sensory FIT, Simmons and her husband have been married 18 years and are raising three children, a senior in high school, a fourth grader, and a second grader. Her husband runs his own business as well. “It’s pure chaos, but we make it work,” she laughs. “We get to be together. Providing enough stability for our family is the ultimate goal. We’re prepping for college now.”

Her kids have effectively grown up inside Sensory FIT. Her son was 2 years old when she started the business; he’s 8 now. “I didn’t think about how much it would affect my children and what they would see,” she says. “But they helped me grow it. They’ve learned empathy, compassion, hard work, seeing mom and dad build these businesses and that it takes a lot of sacrifice. My middle child we call the next CEO of Sensory FIT. She loves checking people in and taking care of the families who attend. They’re part of our family.” Simmons has noticed the ripple effect at her son’s school, too, where teachers and classmates have paired him with kids in sessions because of how naturally inclusive he’s become. 

As for her own downtime, she keeps it simple. “Sensory FIT takes up a ton of time, and I absorb my kids’ hobbies too,” she says. “At this stage of life, I’m a chauffeur, and I’m so grateful that I’m able to do that.”

Making Sure Other Women Don’t Build Alone

Simmons started her business without a built-in support system, and that gap shaped how she shows up for other women now. “In the beginning, it was very lonely to find the tribe and figure out what it looked like,” she shares. “Finding them has been the most important thing. It makes it so much easier to continue and trust in your instincts.” In fact, that search eventually led her to co-found a networking group for women building businesses while raising families, and to become someone other founders turn to when they’re considering branching out on their own. “I try to show up in a way that makes things feel possible, not perfect,” she says. “I share the real side of building a business, the challenges along with the wins, so women feel like they have permission to try without needing everything figured out first.”

Her nominators describe someone whose public commitment matches her private character. A childhood friend who nominated her wrote that Simmons has “always been focused, organized, and driven with purpose,” not for attention, but because that’s simply how she’s wired. A Sensory FIT parent whose daughter has special needs put it more simply: people drive in from hours away, sometimes from out of state, because nothing else quite like it exists.

Simmons is still waiting on a reopening date. She is still fielding the texts from families asking when they can come back. And she still believes, without hesitation, in what she’s spending this hard season fighting to rebuild. “Sensory FIT exists because the community needs us,” she says. “The community has shaped it into what it is today.”

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Follow Sensory FIT on Instagram and Facebook for updates about what’s next, and connect with Simmons on LinkedIn.

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