Team GB Rugby stars back body positivity campaign to stop girls dropping out of sport

Team GB's Olympic rugby players have joined a campaign to encourage teenage girls not to drop out of sport.

Rugby Sevens players Jasmine Joyce, Celia Quansah and Ellie Boatman are tipped to medal at the Paris Olympics having finished fourth at the previous games in Tokyo.

The trio have joined lingerie company Bluebella’s #StrongIsBeautiful campaign to show girls “how they can look muscular and strong, as well as feeling feminine”.

Some 64 per cent of secondary schoolgirls drop out of all sport before the age of 16, according to Women In Sport, many due to insecurities about their bodies during puberty.

The players have spoken about the difficulty of playing sport as youngsters, often being the only girl on a team as well as being told they “look like a man”.

Ms Boatman, 27, said: “Sometimes you would even hear parents telling their boys to target the girl because she would be the weak link in the team.

“It was also definitely the case that the boys were celebrated a lot more and all the effort was focussed on them.

“Little or no expense would be made for girls' facilities and I would be given boy's kit which would absolutely swamp me."

The players have taken part in a photoshoot posing in lingerie to try and help girls feel empowered and change the perception that “the strong female form is not ‘feminine’”.

The #StrongIsBeautiful campaign has been running for the past eight years and has included female athletes from the Rio and Tokyo Olympics as well as the Women's World Cup last year.

Ms Joyce, 28, added:  “I started playing rugby at seven-years-old at my local rugby club, but it was always tricky playing as a girl, as there weren't as many clubs with girls teams so I had to take a few years out here and there, but it's getting so much better now, there are clusters and hubs everywhere for girls and women to play rugby."

She continued: "The one thing I'd say to girls regarding body confidence is to enjoy who you are. You're never going be perfect and there's always going to be parts of your body you're self-conscious of but embrace it all.”

Ms Quansah, 28, said: "I think one of the biggest challenges for women's rugby is people's perception that you can't be feminine and play rugby, that one comes up frequently.

“People love to say women shouldn't play rugby or you’re too pretty to play rugby and all of those things that just aren't true."