In a recent essay in Awesome Sports Project, an online journal for girls and women in sports, Shannon Brady ’16 credits playing basketball with helping her push back on social pressures to be fragile, thin, and submissive.
“Basketball has given me a platform to grow and thrive and truly appreciate my worth,” she writes. “The truth is, I feel horrible for the girls who don’t have access to this type of platform, the girls who don’t have an entire team behind them in the weight room and at the dining hall and on the court. Those girls don’t get to lift each other up and learn how to grow as a unit.”
She continues: “Sports have taught me to take up space. They have shown me what it means to be my largest, loudest, and most authentic self….I started to use my voice and I liked the way it sounded. I was excited and loud and unapologetic about it, and it was liberating.”
