WHO IS YOUR #SHEKICKSHERO? | OneFootball

FBB MEETS SK, DOES #IWD2025!

In a wholesome half-term collaboration, we went to Football Beyond Borders’ North West office to meet some young ballers from Manchester and Merseyside. We talked about International Women’s Day (8 March), the challenges women face in society today, equality, intersectionality, the importance of celebrating female role models and those women all around us that inspire us and give us cause for thanks.

Harriet Farnham from FBB talks us through the history of IWD.

WHAT AND WHEN IS IWD?

International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. Find out more here: https://www.internationalwomensday.com/

WHAT DOES BEING A WOMAN MEAN TO YOU?

We discussed this as a group and also thought about how things had changed/were changing. Two of the fab comments were:

“When people underestimate you, as a woman, it’s FUN to prove them wrong!” (AVA FOSTER)

“We have more independence now and can have our say.” (FRAN BOYLE)

Jen O’Neill (former editor of SK) gives a lowdown on the journey of the magazine from On the Ball in 1996, through to present day as She Kicks.

WHO IS YOUR #SHEKICKSHERO? We asked a host of women within football, including staff who work with the Lionesses: “Who do you admire, who inspires you, who are you thankful for and why do you think #shekicks?” We shared their answers with the group and then asked everyone taking part in the workshop.

Here’s a great ‘squad photo’ of the girls with their poster, plus some of their FBB coaches and Jen & Louise Aukland from Oxford University (Football on the Brain).

And, here’s what some of them had to say…

AVA FOSTER, HALEWOOD: “Me mum. When I was very shy and didn’t have a voice of my own, she gave me a voice and spoke out, and she inspired by doing that. And she works with young kids; it can be kids who are going through the worst times in life and she’ll give them a voice and something to look forward to.”

CALLIE GREENFIELD, SALE HIGH SCHOOL: “Ella Toone is my role model. I’ve been to the Ella Toone tournament, which we won, and I scored two goals, which was really good. And especially because of what she is going through at the moment, losing her dad.”

Ericka’s poster

ERICKA BANZA, THE BARLOW RC HIGH SCHOOL: “I picked different women but the main three are: Bunny Shaw, because even though she faces racism and difficulties with football, she is still persevering, and that really inspires me; Amy Winehouse, because when I was younger, I felt self-conscious of my voice, I always thought it was too deep, but then I listened to her and her voice was deep but it sounded amazing, and that helped me feel more secure in how I sound; and my mum, because she inspires me every single day and is the strongest woman I know.”

FRAN BOYLE, SALE HIGH SCHOOL: “The Lionesses and when they won the Euros. Some of the quotes: ‘When we drove in on the bus, the amount of people that were stood waiting for us down the road, it was packed.’ It showed how much of an audience it brought, how much bigger it has gotten. And, ‘I want to share my journey because there will be young girls who can relate to me.’ They are representing themselves to a younger audience so that they might have someone to look up to and they might go on to achieve what they have achieved or even greater.”

Fran’s Lionesses poster

RUBY BURNS, HALEWOOD: “I picked Everton as a whole because I think it’s important that teams lower down the league get the recognition that they deserve. I zoomed in on Issy Hobson because it’s important that girls have someone [similar] to their age to look up to. She scored against Arsenal and scored the equaliser in extra-time and became the league’s youngest goalscorer. I also zoomed in on Courtney Brosnan, who gets overlooked because she plays for a team lower down in the league, but she is a good goalkeeper and deserves the recognition. And I think it’s important to show that teams lower down can still bring in the numbers that bigger teams can bring in.”

FRAN FORD, HALEWOOD: Amongst a few others, Fran picked several pictures of herself, which is pretty iconic! “I inspire myself,” she said. And also some of her favourite person, her friend, Milly.

Laurie told us why Jordan Nobbs inspires her, and she was wearing the shirt too!

LAURIE CANNON, HALEWOOD: “I picked Jordan Nobbs. She’s played football since she was little and played in the WSL every single season; she’s the only player to have done that. She’s had an amazing career and has many accolades to show for that. She’s made the most-ever WSL appearances (193) and she’s also showed her resilience over the years, which is why I look up to her. She’s overcome many challenges. For example, she did her ACL in 2019, just before the World Cup, and that was something she had really been looking forward to and working hard to get into. And then, just before another major tournament, she hurt her knee again, which was awful for her. But she showed her resilience and ambition and worked hard to get back into the team and was able to represent England in the 2023 World Cup. After 12 years at Arsenal, she had to make a hard decision to change teams but she did it for a better opportunity to be in the World Cup squad.”

RUBY WELSBY, SALE HIGH SCHOOL: “I picked the speech that is said to Margot Robbie in Barbie because it is all about empowerment. It says: ‘It’s literally impossible to be a woman. You are so beautiful, and so smart, and it kills me that you don’t think you’re good enough. Like, we always have to be extraordinary, but somehow we’re always doing it wrong.’ And I feel as a young woman, in today’s society, you’re always thinking that you’ve got to be up and above, you’ve got to do so good and sometimes it’s so hard because you can always get put down by other people. I just think it’s a really good thing to show young women that you don’t always have to be perfect.”

Ruby’s ace poster which is all about the empowerment of women and includes the superb speech from the Barbie movie…

MILLY FARRELL, HALEWOOD: Milly’s collage consisted of strong women who inspire her, including her FBB coach Rachel, singer Adele and her auntie.

Former SK Editor Jen O’Neill helped to run the workshop and she shared her hero: “I was inspired by Kelly Smith MBE. I think #shekicks because she played football with a level of skill, awareness, poise and purpose like no other woman I had ever seen before. She was fearless on the field. That was in 1998. I played at a good level and knew I was a decent baller but still felt a bit embarrassed and certainly not proud of it, publicly. After seeing Kelly in action, I did not want other girls to feel like that. I wanted them to know about these fantastic players, teams, opportunities and stories, and so I put my energy into working to report on and promote the sport of women’s football, when few others cared, for many, many years.”

Then KELLY SMITH MBE (the current Arsenal Asst. Coach, who played 117 times for England and scored 46 goals) also kindly shared a video message explaining a little about who she was thankful for: “I never really had any female role models growing up; women’s football wasn’t on TV, it wasn’t talked about, and not too many people came to the games, like we see now with the Lionesses selling out Wembley.

A video message from Kelly Smith MBE

“Hope Powell CBE was my England manager. She had to knock a lot of doors down at The FA, because The FA at the time didn’t really respect the women’s game either. She had to fight for us to get kit, to get expenses, because people had jobs and were losing money playing for their country.

“She fought for Central Contracts for us to get a salary from The FA to make us better footballers. She was certainly a pioneer in the game and coached the national team for a long, long time. If it wasn’t for her, and her being so strong and having those conversations, then I don’t think the women’s game would be where it is today. So, she’s my role model for International Women’s Day.”

Now we want you to think about it… Who is YOUR #shekicks hero?

Share it with us at @shekicksmag on Insta.

Find out more info…

on FBB: @footballbeyondborders https://www.footballbeyondborders.org/

And our joint partners Football on the Brain: Football on the Brain is a public engagement project involving researchers from the University of Oxford and football communities, understanding more about how our brains are involved in football. To celebrate IWD, researchers will be sharing their #SheKicksHeroes Follow along on social media: @FootballOnBrain #FootballOnTheBrain