Category: Nurturing Our Younger Athletes

Be More Than the Media

12/14/2017

I was slothin' around watching YouTube videos about girls and sports when I stumbled across Gatorade's clip, "Keep Her in the Game." (The video is posted below). This clip spoke loudly to me and inspired me to write this piece about the toxic relationship between young female athletes and the media.

According to Women’s Sports Foundation, girls are quitting sports at two times the rate of boys by age 14. Unfortunately there are many reasons as to why young and teenaged girls drop out of sports. Six reasons talked about by Women’s Sports Foundation can be found here .

Two reasons, inspired by WSF's list, that we expand on in this post are girls' lack of exposure to female athlete role models, and the pressure from advertisements to be society’s idea of “feminine.” We talk about these reasons because they are factors that children and teenagers can learn to control, and parents and mentors can help solve.

Lack of Exposure to Professional Female Athletics

With the lack of women's sports on television, on the Internet, in the news, and in other forms of media, girls are not exposed to the powerful athletic role models. Girls see the actresses on television, the models on Instagram, the latest gossip on Buzzfeed about the Kardashians. Celebrities, models and YouTube sensations are who girls are exposed to and look up to the most. These icons are often in with the latest fashions and trends, and present themselves in a delicate way that girls watching try to replicate.

Non-athletic role models can of course be a positive influence, but without the exposure to female athletes, girls aren't seeing the well-rounded picture of what a woman can be. Their minds aren't enlightened with the fact that yes, women can indeed get down and dirty and still be "#goals."

So, expose girls to professional female athletes and their games. You may recall I talked about this in It Takes a Village to Raise an Athlete . Girls need to know professional women's sports is a thing. The world of pro sports isn't just the men's games she sees on TV every day. Make watching women's games a household routine. Bring the female athletes' accomplishments up in conversation. Do whatever you need to in order to make girls aware of female athletes and just how "cool" sporty women can be.

Pressure from Advertisements

In addition to having external positive role models, girls need to learn how to be their own role model. If they don't, the media will take over. Advertisements will tell our girls they're not good enough and show them what they need to have to make themselves "better." Most times, this includes how to be delicate and a "real and attractive" girl. This results in girls walking off the sports field, as shown in the powerful video below (please watch it).

I took a course called “Media in a Global World” this past semester. Of my two and a half years at university so far, Media in a Global World probably taught me more and had me thinking more critically than any other course I’ve taken. Much of that is thanks to the professor, of course. A large focus of his teachings was on advertisements – how toxic they are, how they can ruin us emotionally, how they damage our identity and make us feel like there’s

something wrong with us. He made it clear that advertisements have to be around in order for certain companies, such as news organizations, to make money. However, what we can do is learn to think about advertisements critically.

When watching TV or flipping through a magazine with your daughter, niece, girl you're babysitting, etc., make verbal, critical comments about the advertisements. Explain how it's all photoshopped, how the ad is trying to be manipulative, how no healthy human looks like the Barbie in the advertisement (even the photoshopped model in the ad).

Make sure you do as much as you can to make her feel comfortable in her own skin. She is fine just the way she is. Those advertisements will do everything they can to make her feel like she's not good enough and that she needs to buy their product. But she's so awesome she doesn't need that product. Or that stick skinny body. Ever.

As mentors (which can be parents, older siblings, coaches, teachers, etc.), we have a role to play in keeping girls in sports. If sports aren't her thing and other interests, such as music or art, flow through her blood, then that's fine; let her find her calling. But if sports are what she loves, do everything you can to prevent her someday abandoning athletics to be more like a "girl."

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It Takes a Village to Raise an Athlete

12/7/2017

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You know what they say: it takes a village to raise a child. It’s especially true when it comes to raising young athletes. Whether you’re a coach, teacher, parent, friend or family member, these are some things I personally believe we should keep in mind as a society when raising a young, female athlete.

Push-ups on your knees are not called "girl push-ups." If she can’t do an original push-up, tell her to do a knee push-up. Never call it a “girl push-up.”
Don’t tell her she runs like a girl. If you told that to Mia Hamm she would say, “Maybe if you ran a little faster, you could too.”
Instead of telling her she’s strong for a girl, just tell her she’s strong.
Tell her about professional female athletes. Read news stories to her. Share YouTube clips with her. Figure out which of the athletes she looks up to and nurture that interest. She attends school where everyone's hockey cards only have male players on them and most people's favourite professional athlete is a man. Make sure she knows women grow up to be athletes too and that they are just as good to have as role models as male athletes.
Let’s say you see a little female hockey player who’s too talented for her age. If this were a boy, most would say, jokingly or not, “He’s going to the NHL someday.” So, do the same for her: “She’s going to the NWHL.”
Make sure she knows that if she can run faster than the boys, throw a dodgeball harder than them and beat them all at soccer during recess, then she should. If you see her holding back, confront it immediately. Athleticism is not manly . . . it’s GIRL POWER.
Always remain conscious of the fact that she's an athlete trying to have fun and succeed in a male-dominated department of life. Whatever the situation may be, just make sure she always knows sports are for girls too.

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Author

Jessa Braun is a soccer-loving ENFP who works as a sports journalist for her university. She is obsessed with the Harry Potter series and "Club Can't Handle Me" by Flo Rida.

Be More Than the Media

It Takes a Village to Raise an Athlete

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