Like A Girl

CITY
W E D N E S D A Y, J U N E 2 9 , 2 0 1 6
A7
EDMONTON JOURNAL
Its OK to get sweaty; its still feminine

Like a Girl advertising campaign
aims to keep young athletes in sport
DAV E L A Z Z A R I N O
When Stephanie Labbe was growing up in Stony Plain, female athletes werent in the spotlight like
they are now.
That wasnt a big part of my
childhood, said Labbe, admitting
most of her pro athlete role models
played mens sports. I remember
growing up and watching Hockey
Night in Canada on Saturday nights
with my family. That was a big part
of my upbringing. I looked up to
Patrick Roy, Kelly Buchberger.
Labbe overcame social pressures
and self-image issues to keep playing sports past adolescence. Today,
she is getting ready to play goal for
Canadas womens Olympic soccer
team in Rio.
But according to a new marketing campaign from Always, the
share of women who stop playing
sports when they hit puberty is
more than half.
Kimberley McFadden, a PhD
candidate at the University of Alberta who specializes in adolescent
physical activity and the motivations for it, said the issue is complex, but lies in physical and social
changes at those ages.
The problem with puberty for
girls is that it actually takes them
further away from what the media
and what society portrays as an
ideal image, McFadden said.
Hormonal changes mean girls
naturally gain weight while boys
testosterone levels mean weight
loss and muscle growth is the norm.
Added to that, the idea of being
sweaty or flushed during physical
exertion is socially frowned upon.
They dont want to be perceived
as gross or ugly, they dont want to
be all red in the face or going purple
from extreme exertion, she said.
A campaign being launched
by Always, a company owned by
Procter and Gamble, is aiming to
change that.
Their Like A Girl campaign is trying to reverse the idea that doing
something like a girl is a negative thing.

Confidence is built through
competence, said Michele Baeten,
global marketing director on the
campaign. So if they stop doing
the things that they like doing,
obviously they cant build confidence and they cant grow their
confidence.
The company has signed on 15
ambassadors including Labbe,
who is outspoken about the benefits of building confidence in young
women and keeping them active.
But a further hurdle may stand
in the way of success. For starters,
the game is already rigged in the
favour of male competitors.
Of the 100 top athletic sponsorships in 2015, just 11 of them were
women, with the highest-paid
tennis star Maria Sharapova
coming in at No. 12.
And of the largest deals in sport,
the only ones in the top 10 that involve women are the International
Olympic Committees $1.6-billion,
eight-year deal with Toyota and
the University of Texas 15-year,
$250-million deal with Nike. None
of the top 40 involves female-only
sports or leagues.
McFadden agrees there is a
massive disparity in sports funding between genders and feels if
there were more women featured
on television for high-ticket sports
events, it would offer more role
models for young girls struggling
to stay active.
She found it strange that the Like
A Girl campaign kicked off last year
with a Super Bowl ad, and said it
might have been more effective if
played during womens sporting
events.
Also, showing women doing
sport thats more stereotypically
male, she said. So, hockey players
and not just having them in their
underwear holding a hockey stick,
but having them in the hockey gear
doing really cool stuff.
For Labbe, the dream would be a
national womens league for players like herself who, to make a living in soccer, have to go abroad to
play.
Its going to take time to develop
it and its not going to be one of the
best in the world right away, but
its something we need to strive
for and we need to start to invest
in, she said. Thats only going to
help create even more Canadian
role models for these young kids.
In the meantime, both agreed
that a supportive family and an

emphasis on sport as a fun social
activity can be just as important.
For Labbe, it was her parents who
made the difference.
Theyre the ones that are getting
in the car and driving 45 minutes
each way, she said. Theyre the
ones packing the lunches and the
snacks for me so that I can eat on

the way to practices.
Though not entirely sold by the
campaign, McFaddens message is
strikingly similar.
Its OK to get sweaty, she said.
Its still feminine; its still beautiful to be really active.
dlazzarino@postmedia.com
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Stephanie Labbe, goalkeeper for the Canadian womens soccer team headed
to the Rio Olympics in August, was named as one of 15 ambassadors for the
Always Like a Girl campaign.F I LE S
For inquiries please call 311.
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CITY

Its OK to get sweaty; its still feminine

something like a girl is a negative thing.

that a supportive family and an

snacks for me so that I can eat on

PAYING CITY BILLS IN THE

For inquiries please call 311.

ADVANCE TRAC WITH ROLL STABILITY CONTROL

11420 - 107 ave. I waterlooford.com

1-877-611-2317 HOURS: MON-THURS 8:30-8, FRI-SAT 8:30-6

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