Kristina Patterson explains:
"For women, it is people they can relate to – not this perfect image of a finely tuned professional athlete, but of someone who is like them.
For girls, it is images of people who are like their older sisters, mums, aunties, teachers, the lollipop lady – people in their everyday life.
'This Girl Can' presents sports participation as something that everyone can engage in.
Making women visible at all levels of sport
Being a parent is a fantastic motivating tool. Every parent wants their children to be healthy and happy; setting the example of being active can play a significant part in this. I want my children to see it as completely ‘normal’ - that being active is something the whole family do.
Similarly, as a coach I hope that every time I step on to the pitch or the mats, even though there may be only one or two girls in the session, I hope that those girls, as well as the mums and sisters watching, have a sense that sport is for everyone, including them.
When I first began coaching football, parents would often comment that they loved that their daughters had a female coach. At the time, I didn’t fully appreciate what they meant. Now as a parent I really do.
We take opportunities to expose our daughters to female coaches when the opportunity arises – not because they’ll necessarily coach them any better than a male coach, but because it reaffirms the normality of females being active and involved in sport."