This Girl Can

"This Girl Can is a national campaign developed by Sport England and a wide range of partnership organisations. It's a celebration of active women up and down the country who are doing their thing no matter how well they do it, how they look or even how red their face gets." (via) The campaign is a reaction to Sport England's research according to which there is a clear gender disparity in the UK with two million fewer women playing sport (via).



“In This Girl Can we want to tell the real story of women who exercise and play sport. They come in all shapes and sizes and all levels of ability. They have a myriad of reasons for doing what they do. If you are wondering if you should join them – or carry on – this campaign says it really doesn’t matter if you are a bit rubbish or completely brilliant, the main thing is that you are a woman and you are doing something, and that deserves to be celebrated.” The campaign uses taglines such as "Sweating like a pig.", "I swim because I love my body. Not because I hate it." or "Feeling like a fox."  (via)



"Before we began this campaign, we looked very carefully at what women were saying about why they felt sport and exercise was not for them. Some of the issues, like time and cost, were familiar, but one of the strongest themes was a fear of judgement. Worries about being judged for being the wrong size, not fit enough and not skilled enough came up time and again."



More clips (many of them have been removed in the meantime, sorry):
::: Julie vs Inhibitions (Julie, 33, nurse, Manchester): watch ... + ... behind the scenes
::: Kelly vs "Mummy!" (Kelly, 31, mother, Bury): watch ... + ... behind the scenes
::: Grace vs Pace (Grace, 22, student, London): watch ... + ... behind the scenes
::: Victoria vs Sweat (Victoria, 29, nurse, London): watch ... + ... behind the scenes

"This Girl Can is here to inspire women to wiggle, jiggle, move and prove that judgement is a barrier that can be overcome." (via)

images via