All photos (c) This Girl Can
If you live in the UK, you've probably seen or at least heard of the campaign 'This Girl Can'. The campaign was developed by Sport England to empower and celebrate British women in sport, and I love it! I remember seeing the TV ad for the first time - I completely stopped what I was doing (updating See it, Want it! obvs) and was mesmerised by this beautiful, positive message that was coming out of my TV. I challenge you not to feel inspired while you're watching it!
It feels so amazing to know that I'm not the only girl out there who feels held back in sport. At school, if you aren't really, really good at sport, you kind of get forgotten, even if you love playing sports, and that feeling of rejection and "I'm not good enough" kind of blows out the spark that us average girls had for sport. It's sad, it truly is. So as you get older, you do less and less sport, and you get less enjoyment out of it. For me, it often feels like a chore. Even when I go to the gym, which is where I'm supposed to be sweating my arse off, I often feel self-conscious. There's this idea that's been planted in my head at some point, and maybe in the minds of other girls too, that we're girls and we aren't supposed to sweat profusely. Well you know what? We are! And I vow to do as much sport and sweat as much as necessary from now on!
What's great about being a girl is that we have so many amazing role models out there. Girls who are really damn good at what they do, and who we can look up to, even if we think we suck. My sporty idols include snowboarders like Kjersti Buaas, Jenny Jones and Kelly Clark, rock climber Hazel Findlay and dressage rider Charlotte Dujardin (google them, they're all awesome!)
Part of being active involves finding the right gear to do it in. I for one am not keen on a $100 pair of running leggings, even if they are the jazziest leggings I've ever seen, but it's tricky to find clothing that does the job (and it's not a simple job, there's sweat involved and it needs to be wicked away!) AND looks good AND is affordable. Personally, I swear by H&M sportswear, but I've gone out of my comfort zone to find you some other options too.
So the moral of this blog post is that it doesn't matter how good (or bad) you think you are, how red your face is, how much your arse jiggles or how little or much makeup you're wearing. Don't let anything hold you back, because nothing is worth missing out on all that fun! My struggle with sport in recent years has often been linked with the fact that I now have a muscle syndrome and it is so frustrating to not feel well enough to be active, or to feel worried that doing too much will make me sick, but I'm trying really hard to not let that hold me back. So, my goal for the next few months? To make my good days incredible and memorable, doing the stuff that I want to do like climbing, skateboarding, cycling, running, playing tennis, horse riding, hiking, snowboarding... you get the idea.
What are your sporting goals?
Much love,
Bemsy x
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