{"id":2023,"date":"2019-02-05T21:21:40","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T05:21:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.playworks.org\/southern-california\/?p=2023"},"modified":"2025-03-28T11:24:17","modified_gmt":"2025-03-28T18:24:17","slug":"breaking-barriers-for-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.playworks.org\/southern-california\/2019\/02\/05\/breaking-barriers-for-girls\/","title":{"rendered":"A Day to Play and Break Barriers for Girls in Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cToday I got to hang in a world where Rock Paper Scissors solves all and Fortnite dances are the new hello,” stated Meagan Kong, professional dancer\/athlete and Adidas\u00a0ambassador, in an\u00a0Instagram\u00a0post<\/a> about her experience at a Playworks event.\u00a0 #adidaswomenla<\/span><\/p>\n

From indoor recess to cooperative after-school games, it was a day to start breaking down barriers and empower the next generation of women athletes and leaders.\u00a0<\/span>On January 16, Playworks partnered with Adidas and its \u201cambassadors\u201d\u2014a group of female athletes, innovators, community leaders, and entertainers from around the world\u2014to kick off the<\/span> She Breaks Barriers <\/span><\/i>initiative in Southern California.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Meagan Kong Breaks Barriers at Jefferson Elementary School (Photo credit: Anahi Velasco)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Junior Coaches show how it\u2019s done!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jefferson Elementary School in Lennox hosted the day of fun and inspiration, with its own Junior Coaches joining together with students from two other Playworks schools. The wet weather outside hardly mattered as Playworks AmeriCorps Coaches and Junior Coaches showed that active and healthy play can happen anywhere. They led a series of classroom games, teaching pros from the WNBA and other sports some new tricks.<\/span><\/p>\n

The day also featured a lunch-and-learn panel, after-school team building, and plenty of\u00a0opportunities for the Adidas\u00a0ambassadors to share their personal stories and for kids to ask these inspirational women questions.\u00a0The <\/span>She Breaks Barriers<\/span><\/i> initiative works to support young girls and help them grow into strong, confident, and healthy leaders. The barriers to girls in sports can be very real. According to the Women\u2019s Sport Foundation, by age 14, girls drop out of sports one-and-a-half times faster than boys. By age 17, more than half of girls who participated in sports have quit because they don\u2019t feel welcome.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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High fives from WNBA Player Shavonte Zellous<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Janelle Matthews, a Playworks program manager at the event, says her own experience bears this out.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Janelle, aka Coach Jay, is Thumbs Up on Breaking Barriers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cEven when I was a young girl, I liked to play football and basketball, and I always got a hard time, like, \u2018Why don\u2019t you go play jump rope? Why do you have to come over here?\u2019 So I think that struggle with certain sports can definitely drive young girls to shy away from playing them. It\u2019s so important for me as a female coach to say, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m a girl, and I\u2019m going to play, too. You want to play soccer? Let\u2019s go play soccer.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s why the day\u2019s message was important for the handful of boys who came to the event, too. One boy was awestruck when he met Christie Rampone, the former captain of the U.S. Women\u2019s National Soccer Team, three-time Olympic gold medalist, and two-time World Cup champion.<\/span><\/p>\n

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High fives from Olympic Champ Christie Rampone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHis mouth was open, his eyes were bright, he was looking at his friend next to him and nudging him like he just couldn\u2019t believe it. That\u2019s learning, too. You think about him as a young boy, looking at this woman who had dominated in the sport of soccer and looking at her with respect and excitement. Think about him going back to his school and having a different perspective on girls playing soccer,\u201d\u00a0Janelle says.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Fun, games, and Breaking Barriers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Playtime and smiles with Adidas\u00a0ambassador Hannah Bronfman<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Learn about Play Days<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cToday I got to hang in a world where Rock Paper Scissors solves all and Fortnite dances are the new hello,” stated Meagan Kong, professional dancer\/athlete and Adidas\u00a0ambassador, in an\u00a0Instagram\u00a0post […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117,"featured_media":2085,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"region":[],"class_list":["post-2023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-updates"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nA Day to Play and Break Barriers for Girls in Sports - Southern California<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Playworks partnered with Adidas along with their female athletes and ambassadors for a day of fun and inspiration in Los Angeles.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.playworks.org\/southern-california\/2019\/02\/05\/breaking-barriers-for-girls\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Day to Play and Break Barriers for Girls in Sports - 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