Body image: a person’s subjective picture or mental image of their own body. An epidemic to the adolescent population. A paralyzing idea to young female athletes.
There is a specific body type required to fit into a variety of sports. Running, it’s super skinny with long legs. For dance, skinny and tall. For more physical sports, skinny yet muscular. So how does this impact the athletes going through a variety of changes in their body?
“There’s a certain standard that you’re told you have to meet, so that is a struggle,” Alyson Kleinman (9), a dancer, said.
Kleinman says that there is a certain standard she feels dancers are expected to meet. It has been difficult mentally to grow up in the dance environment and feel like there was something she was missing.
“We all struggle with it because even if something is slightly off to what the standard is, it just knocks everyone’s mood off,” Kleinman said.
But it is not just dancers. Different sports throughout history have continued to prioritize specific body types.
“I do kind of have a runner’s body… I feel like that does benefit me sometimes,” Claire Ely (10), a Track and Cross Country athlete, said. “But sometimes I wish I had other things that runners have and that’s impactful overall.”
When trying to fit a certain body type, there is so much room for comparisons and wants. The urge to weigh less, or have more muscle. To be taller, shorter, skinnier.
“I’ve looked at my weight a lot more and am keeping track of that,” Ely said.
There is this idea that in order to be a skilled runner you have to look a certain way. Whether it is weight or height, it becomes something girls may hyper-fixate on, looking at it like a pipeline to success.
“Female athletes as they change, a lot of them, continue to feel judged the whole way,” Nathan Davis, Arlington Track and Field and Girls Soccer coach, said.
There is a noticeable difference in the confidence of young female athletes as they start maturing in the sport.
“Girls get stronger and fitter, which helps them get a little bit more confident with their bodies,” Davis said. “That’s because they get older and can mature a little bit.”
The confidence that comes with gained skills can help secure these young athletes. But when do the comparisons and insecurities go away? Does gaining skill change your confidence?
“The best thing about track as opposed to soccer is that you can build your own self confidence by improving,” Davis said.
Changing the difficulty of each skill may improve one’s view of themselves, but it does not change the challenges it takes to overcome personal doubt.
“You try on costumes, and they look one way in the book because of the girls that’s wearing it, and then on you, it looks completely different,” Kleinman said.
