Hey Jake.
Good question.
I’m assuming you’re running raspberry pi os.
Pip, a package manager old enough to default on a mortgage in the peak of the GFC, hasn’t exactly figured out a graceful way of managing virtual environments.
I’ve found pipx to work for me, which does attempt to handle virtual environments for you.
Alternatively @Jaryd recently wrote this article of VEs.
You may find the solution following his process and see if there is a step you missed.