This Girl Can was originally launched in 2015 and has recently released a new advert to encourage and inspire women to exercise. It is a campaign funded by The National Lottery and led by Sport England which aims to promote every type of exercise, claiming ‘Your body, your call’. The website itself includes different ideas on how to get active from sailing and fencing to roller derby and quidditch, the range is endless.

The 2020 advert focuses on breaking the taboo of working out whilst on your period, by showing a woman’s tampon string as she changes after exercising. Director of insight at Sport England, Lisa O’Keefe stated “We’ve designed the new adverts to show things we’re still not seeing – women using exercise to manage period symptoms”. The campaign offers a realistic presentation of exercising whilst menstruating and doesn’t push the narrative that as women we dress in all white, whilst smiling perfectly and experiencing no pain during menstruation, as depicted by many period adverts.

The campaign shows real women taking part in exercise that can be incorporated easily into their everyday lives. The website for This Girl Can offers a huge variety of ideas on how to get active, including working out with your baby or training with your pets. It also presents different stories discussing the barriers women have faced when it comes to exercising and how they have overcome them. For example, Hannah shared her experience with ‘debilitating cramps and discomfort’ whilst on her period which made it difficult for her to take part in any form of intense exercise. She found that she was able to do yoga and pilates whilst menstruating and embraced this form of physical activity.

The campaign aims to inspire women to become more confident whilst taking part in any type of sport, it does this by showing a range of body types and ages in the advert, with a mother and daughter taking part in exercise together. This campaign is crucial in encouraging women to become more active as many girls stop taking part in physical activity towards the end of secondary school, with 40% of women aged 16 and over not active enough to get the full health benefits of sport and physical activity.

By creating an advert that portrays the reality of exercising whilst on your period, This Girl Can is helping to break the taboo surrounding the subject and start a conversation which will benefit everyone. It also encourages women to become more confident in themselves and embrace physical activity, without feeling any shame about their periods.

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