Girls care what they look like. Even the ones that say they don’t, still care a little. Twas ever thus, though it does seem to be worse than ever these days. Studies have shown fear of aesthetic judgement plays a massive part in teenage girls, who happily swam and ran and enjoyed all sorts of sport in their younger years, giving up exercise in their droves.
And it’s undoubtedly a factor for women in their 20s, 30s, 40s and beyond too, which is just the most rubbish thing, as we all need sport to live a happy life. Whether it’s snowboarding, surfing, skating, cycling, running, climbing, whatever, our heads need the endorphin buzz from the exercise, our bodies need the health kick, and to get cheesy on you for a sec, our souls need the kind of nourishment that only comes from doing something you love. On repeat.
Sport helps you live in the moment. Being able to focus on nothing more than linking your next snowboard turn or pulling your next skate trick or where your next hand hold is takes your face away from your screen for a while; it gives you a peace from your own thoughts, which we all need from time to time.
So we’re stoked to see a new campaign from Sport England called “This Girl Can” which tackles the problem head on. Sure they must have not quite added the snow, skate and surf sections yet (!!), but it’s still a rad celebration of in their words “active women doing their thing no matter how they do it, how they look or even how sweaty they look.”
We especially like this spinning video from paediatric nurse Victoria who says:
It’s totally alright for a man to give it everything, look rubbish and sweat where as girls have to look nice all the time but you can look nice and sweat.
So while it would be sick if everyone did sport without giving a shit about what they looked like, until that day dawns messages like this can only be a good thing.
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