Sports can be a powerful motivator in a girl’s life. Girls who participate in physical activity and continue it through their teenage years often feel more confident about their bodies and reap the health benefits of exercise for the rest of their lives.
During puberty, girls experience unique and dramatic changes to their bodies. They start their first period, get new curves and their breasts start to grow. This can make them feel insecure about their appearance and make them vulnerable to judgment and comparisons with others. This can be enhanced through their sporting environment, on and off the field.
Globally, 45% of teenage girls drop out of sport, twice as many as boys of the same age. New research from Nike and Dove shows that the biggest reason girls drop out of school is the impact the athletic environment can have on self-esteem and body confidence. To change this environment, coaches play a unique role in positively changing girls’ perceptions of their bodies. In fact, research from Nike and Dove shows that 74% of girls said their coach was the reason they felt more confident.
This is exactly why Nike and pigeon She co-founded Body Confident Sport, a unique set of evidence-based tools to coach girls aged 11-17, to help them feel more confident about their bodies and experience that sport is where they belong.
Body Confident Sport was developed over two years by Nike and Dove with world-renowned experts, including Appearance Research Center And this Tucker Center for Research on Girls and Women in Sports. Input from teenagers from France, India, Japan, Mexico, the United Kingdom and the United States was used.
The online tool includes training steps that have been shown in clinical research among over 1,200 girls to help improve self-confidence and body confidence.
“By shifting the focus from what their bodies look like to what their bodies can do, we inspire girls to keep exercising and reap the benefits,” said Vanessa Garcia Brito, vice president at Nike. Chief Social and Community Impact Officer. “We believe that when more girls participate in sports, we will prepare the next generation of female leaders and trailblazers who can change the world.”
Body Confident Sport’s mission is to help a million young people (and perhaps more) around the world feel more confident about their bodies, and aligns perfectly with Nike and Dove’s long-standing commitments to empowering women and girls. The partnership leverages the strengths of each brand: Nike as the leading global champion for male and female athletes, and Dove as the world’s leading provider of self-esteem and body confidence education. Their mission: to make a bigger difference together around the world, with the aim of achieving a more equal future for girls and women, both inside and outside of sport.
This partnership and tool aligns perfectly with Nike’s global efforts to increase girls’ participation in sports and play and to hire and train more acting coaches. Earlier this month, Nike launched…I’ve got this“, a YouTube series with and for girls ages 10-13, where the power of sport is used to give them more self-confidence and help them find their own way. The partnership with Spotify aims to inspire girls ages 10-17 to UK to exercise regularly through dance This builds on Nike’s work at The Courtyard in Manila, where the company’s collaboration with Girls Got Game Philippines and the Tucker Center has created a free, data-driven digital tool that can be used to educate girls about to train around. the world.
The open source Body Confident Sport tool from Nike and Dove is available for free on the site bodyconfidentsport.com.
