Girls’ and women’s sports are so important to me, both as a woman and as feminist. I was a chubby teenager that hated my body and engaged in a lot of self-punishing diet and exercise cycles that had me yo-yoing the same 20 lbs for years.

It wasn’t until I found a sport I love that all of this changed for me. Sports gave me a reason to be strong and fast, not just thin and pretty. It gave my body a purpose, a physical act that I could exert myself in the process of doing. It gave me a team of other girls to go on this journey with.

My relationship with my body has never been better and being conventionally fit/attractive is the cherry on top, but that’s all it is.

For me, it should be a priority of feminism to encourage, promote, and preserve a dedicated space for girls and women to be athletes--to push themselves and excel in physical competition with others like them--because it's the antidote to our cultural push for women to be passive decorative objects.

Why is fitness a feminist issue for you?