“Everyone should feel that they can do whatever they want to their body and look the way that they want to look. And as long as you’re happy with it, and as long as you make yourself happy every day, then who cares what anyone else has to say?”
Fran Kirby speaks with confidence and authority when it comes to body image in women’s sport. But it has been a difficult journey to get to this point.
A pivotal part of England’s European Championship success in 2022, starting every match in their triumph on home soil, the Brighton attacking midfielder has long been an advocate for speaking out about taboos in women’s sport.
From one of the first female footballers to talk about mental health having battled depression, anxiety and burnout, Kirby, who won 77 caps during an 11-year international career and won 14 domestic titles across her illustrious Chelsea career, has also spoken openly about the impact of social media abuse and comments on her body type throughout her career.
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An in-depth look at the problem of online abuse in women’s sport.
Now 32, and one of the senior players at Brighton, Kirby uses that experience to help support the younger players and next generation to make them feel body positive.
“I’m happy to step up and have those conversations because ultimately what we want is for everyone to feel confident and for everyone to feel safe in their environment,” Kirby told Sky Sports.
“And if you feel like you can trust me or anyone else with that, then have the confidence to go and have those conversations.”
Having missed the 2023 World Cup with a serious knee injury, it was when Kirby returned to Chelsea training in October that her stark comments in a documentary for the club’s official channels created headlines and discussions.
In footage, someone off-camera calls out to Kirby: “How are you wearing a jacket?” before she responds…”Because I get called ‘fat’ all the time.”
Fran Kirby has stressed the importance of being open about body image concerns
Then Chelsea manager Emma Hayes praised Kirby at the time for speaking out, saying: “The media need to be mindful of the insecurities that might be there and body shaming is a real thing. The players feel it and I was proud of Fran for saying that because as women we’re judged enough to look a certain way.”
And when asked whether Kirby feels that the media have a greater responsibility to be mindful of editorial decisions, such as the images they choose for articles, she told Sky Sports: “Absolutely, I think so. And one thing that I’ve always tried to get across to people is, not everyone is going to look the same.
“I might do the same weights as someone else, but we are going to have completely different body types and that’s OK.
“You know, there have been some instances where I have seen the media post a picture of someone because they want a reaction from it, because they want the comments, because of the picture, whatever it is, whether it’s body type, whether it’s the way someone’s standing, whether it’s the way someone is acting, you know. There’s always been that kind of clickbait.
“I think we’re always going to have that. But I think as an individual, it’s understanding what works for you and what’s going to make you the best that you can perform at your sport.”
‘It’s normal to have some negative thoughts at times’
Rugby superstar and social media icon Ilona Maher has made huge strides in tackling stigma around body image in women’s sport, calling out online provocation and sharing her own vulnerabilities around body insecurities.
Ilona Maher empowers women and girls to embrace their body shapes
To her 5.4 million followers on Instagram in March she said: “I had an interaction recently that made me feel self-conscious of my shoulders. Afterward, I looked in the mirror and got worried they were too big. I flexed and checked them. I wondered to myself if anyone would find them attractive. If they are too much.
“I’m just letting you know I have these thoughts at times, too. I love my shoulders. I love myself but it’s normal to have some negative thoughts at times. To combat them, I talk to my family and friends. I go workout. Maybe get dressed up. Or look at hot pictures of myself in bikinis.”
Earlier this year, Maher, who won a bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics for USA’s first rugby medal in 100 years, went on the attack when one online troll claimed she looked pregnant in a dress she wore to a red carpet event.
“A guy recently commented on a picture of me and said ‘you look pregnant in that dress,'” Maher wrote in an Instagram reel. “So to him, I say that’s just a normal woman’s body. You probably haven’t seen a woman naked in a long time, if ever, and I hope you never get the privilege to again, because that’s just how we are, OK?
“That’s just what we’re working with. Me, professional athlete, I always have this, OK, it’s just part of me. I’m sucking it in right now and I have it, so please, please stop commenting the dumbest stuff.”
This week, England’s World Cup-winner Ellie Kildunne has spoken openly about the body dysmorphia struggles she has experienced during her career.
In Kildunne’s autobiography ‘Game Changer’ she explains how the Covid lockdown saw her suffer with disordered eating and unhealthy weight loss.
Kildunne said in an interview with BBC Sport that she would exercise to compensate when she couldn’t control what she was eating.
“I could probably see myself getting a little bit smaller, but then was still trying to chase being smaller on top of that,” Kildunne said.
“I wasn’t in that team environment with physios all the time, or my team-mates.
“And body dysmorphia is such a funny thing, because I would have been small but I would see myself as bigger in the mirror.
“It seems really stupid now, and I look back on it – I don’t know why I did it. But I just ended up having a terrible relationship with food.
“In the rugby world, I’m considered small, but in my world outside rugby, I was considered big – so I never really had that place where I felt comfortable, that I fit in.”
England’s Ellie Kildunne has written in her autobiography about body dysmorphia struggles she has experienced
‘I feel terrible about myself because I’m super aggressive’
In tennis, world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka has faced criticism for spending too much time posting videos and pictures on social media – yet with four Grand Slam titles and 23 WTA Tour singles titles, she could hardly be accused of taking her eye off the ball.
Sabalenka, who has 4.9 million followers on Instagram and 1.3m on TikTok says she uses social media to show who she really is but has also opened up on vulnerabilities she has, saying she wants to move away from the ‘aggressive’ player that people watch on court.
“I show everything (on social media). And, the main reason was that, you know, I look really aggressive on court, and I cannot look at myself, watch myself playing,” Sabalenka said last October ahead of the Wuhan Open.
“I feel terrible about myself because I’m super aggressive. I wanted to be connected with people. I wanted to feel support in the stadiums. I wanted to experience that support, so I felt like I need to share myself. I need to show people who Aryna is and everything came from there, and that’s why I started to share myself just to make sure that I can stay connected with people.”
I show everything (on social media). And, the main reason was that, you know, I look really aggressive on court, and I cannot look at myself, watch myself playing.
Aryna Sabalenka
Yet only recently at the Miami Open, she revealed she was growing tired of the toxicity online.
“For some reason I see more negative than positive about myself,” she said.
“People just being rude and mean to all of us and I feel like it’s just not really worth reading and going through.”
And what kind of message does that send to the next generation of sportswomen dreaming of success like Kirby, Maher and Sabalenka have achieved?
Kirby is desperate that young girls do not allow body image concerns affect their pursuit of sporting glory and says that conversations around nutrition and increase in nutritionists working in women’s football has helped educate footballers around how best to fuel their bodies.
Empowering players to understand importance of nutrition
Last December, the Women’s Super League in collaboration with The Well HQ and with support from Subway, developed groundbreaking guidance to highlight the impact of female-focused fuelling for female athletes.
Andy Hudson, Head of Performance Support for WSL said: “These are elite athletes who require elite performance environments to perform at their best, and make the women’s game the best it can possibly be.
“We want to empower players and club practitioners to feel confident in understanding the role that nutrition plays, and the way they fuel themselves can enhance their performance.
“Additionally, we firmly believe that this can have an overall societal impact – whether it’s a professional player or a young woman playing football recreationally, the importance of nutrition cannot be underestimated.”
‘You have to fuel yourself the right way’
Kirby reflects on how far the game has grown when it comes to nutrition.
“When I started, a lot of research was around the men’s game and what works for them and how we can implement that into the women’s game,” she said.
“Whereas now we do have nutritionists who just work in women’s sport. I think it’s so important because growing up, a lot of these girls don’t know how many calories they should be eating a day. They don’t know how many carbohydrates. They don’t know how much protein.
Women’s footballers are learning more about the importance of fuelling your body in the right way
“It becomes a problem because you have to fuel for performance. If you want to be able to sustain a 90-minute game of football, plus being able to recover to train, plus being able to do it again, you have to fuel yourself in the right way.
“And sometimes young girls especially and even more experienced players probably experience this, they go ‘well, I don’t want to eat that much because I don’t want to feel heavy tomorrow. I don’t want to look like this in the kit.
“Obviously with the way the women’s game has grown in terms of the media, the TV is amazing and what we’ve always asked for and wanted. But it’s the flip side now of letting go of what people think about you. As long as you’re performing, as long as you’re playing well, it shouldn’t matter how you look.”
