One of my best friends here has two daughters: one of them just turned 10 and the other is 8 and a half. The 10-year-old has recently started running on a girls’ team and the younger one has just started playing soccer. 

A few nights ago, I was having dinner with them and the older girl was telling me how a boy in her class during sports class at school was saying in an offensive, aggressive tone that girls shouldn’t play soccer or any sports, just with dolls and unicorns. My friend’s daughter was really upset by this, as were many of the other girls in her class and her younger sister, too. 

And I found myself spontaneously, wholeheartedly telling them, “Don’t ever listen to anyone who says you cannot do something because you’re a girl. Don’t let anyone stop you from doing something good or that you like because you’re a girl — girls can play soccer and run and do all the sports they like, and boys can play with dolls and unicorns, too, if they like to”. (My friend, their mother, of course chimed in with me.) 

These sincere words poured from my heart — and I (a runner & athlete myself) will be pacing the 10-year-old girl in her first 5K race on May 15th! The fact of being able to be there for these girls, for one of my “chosen families”, feels so lovely — and even more so as I can somehow make amends for what was said to me as a child and teenager and young adult, i.e. that I shouldn’t play soccer, or do many of the other fun things deemed “unsuited for girls”. I did them anyway, but it was a constant, painful struggle against my parents and many other people. Being able now to spread the opposite message, one that seems to me healthier and more inclusive, brings me profound joy. And hope.