Over the past few months you may have noticed a new campaign taking off. It’s called This Girl Can. All of a sudden it was all over the TV and the internet…and we loved it.
Their aim is to inspire women to forget any fear of judgement and just go for it. It is a celebration of active women who are doing their thing, no matter how they look or how red their face gets. No matter if they succeed straight away or take a thousand tries. It’s about teamwork, it’s about chasing your dreams and it’s about being yourself. In short – it’s pretty much what LRB stands for. On their website there’s loads of information about all different types of sports and it’s great to see a page on roller derby and how to get involved, wherever you are.
Of course, we had to get involved, and once we did it was time to choose a representative who embodied the ethos of both This Girl Can and LRB. A-team blocker extraordinaire and all-round fab league member Pops was an obvious choice – and having seen the video and billboards, we’re super glad she agreed!
As an ambassador for TGC, Pops was interviewed and filmed in action at training. In the space of 3 minutes, I think Pops managed to summarize a lot of important things about roller derby and hopefully dispel some preconceptions. It’s not a violent sport. Sure, there’s contact, but it doesn’t have to be scary. It takes a lot to learn to let yourself fall over again as an adult, but once you do that’s half the fun.
Of course, roller derby is a team sport, so it’s not just Pops that features in the video. As members of LRB, we’ve always thought our team was pretty special. There is a great family vibe and it’s a place you can make friends for life. I think the number of smiles on Pops’ video sums up the general consensus of being involved in such a fun sport.
On Tuesday morning Cali Floor’ya was invited onto BBC Radio Merseyside’s breakfast show to have a chat with Tony Snell about the This Girl Can campaign and how important it is to our team. You can still listen to it on catch up and Cali appears from 50 minutes in.
Here at LRB we’re lucky to have found a way of keeping fit that we absolutely love, and maybe roller derby is a sport you would love too. OK, maybe I’m biased because LRB is my team, but I dare you to watch Pops’ video and not want to get involved.