A top that rides up every time she reaches for the ball. Light shorts on the wrong week of the month. A fabric that shows every patch of sweat. Ask teenage girls what bothers them about their sport kit and the list comes quickly, and none of it has anything to do with how well they play.

Those small frustrations add up at exactly the wrong time. In Australia, 15 is the peak age for girls dropping out of sport, and girls drop out at twice the rate of boys.^[1] The reasons are complicated. Study pressure, confidence and a lack of role models all play a part. But there is one factor that gets far less attention than it deserves, and it is sitting in the kit bag.

What girls wear to play changes how they feel when they play. And for a long time, girls have been handed kit that was never designed with them in mind.

Girls Have Told Us Exactly What They Want

We don't have to guess what girls need from their sport uniforms. Researchers at Victoria University asked them. In a national study, 727 Australian girls shared what makes them feel comfortable and confident enough to play.^[4]

Their answers were clear and practical. Three in four girls (76%) want a uniform that helps them feel ready to play. Shorts were the overwhelming favourite, preferred by 88% of girls for school sport, while 65% said they did not want to wear skirts for school sport. When it came to fabric, 90% wanted material that hides sweat, 81% wanted stretch and 64% wanted dark colours. And 65% agreed that girls should be free to choose from a range of uniform designs.^[4]

None of this is about fashion. It is about not having to think about your clothes while you are trying to play. A girl tugging at a top that rides up, or worrying about sweat patches, or feeling exposed in a skirt, is a girl whose attention is somewhere other than the ball.

Let's Talk About Periods

Periods are a normal part of life for most teenage girls, and they should never be the reason a girl sits on the sideline. Yet in 2020/21, 37% of girls surveyed through the Youth Sport Trust's Girls Active programme in the UK said their periods stopped them from getting active at school, up from 27% in 2018/19. That survey heard from 27,867 girls.^[2]

That figure comes from the UK, but the worry behind it will be familiar to Australian families: the fear of leaking, especially in light-coloured shorts.

The good news is that the top of the game has started listening. Ahead of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup, the Matildas' kit featured period protection in the base layer under the shorts for the first time, using a laminate gusset and liner built into the shorts.^[5] In the United States, Orlando Pride swapped the white shorts on their secondary kit for black shorts in February 2023, becoming the first NWSL club to make the switch for menstrual comfort. The club noted that all the girls' teams in its youth structure already wore dark shorts for training and games.^[6]

If professional players deserve kit that lets them stop worrying about their period, so does a 12-year-old at her Saturday morning game.

Growing Bodies, Real Concerns

Puberty brings big physical changes, often at exactly the age girls begin to drift away from sport. One of the most significant studies on this topic surveyed 2,089 schoolgirls aged 11 to 18 in the UK and looked at how breasts affect girls' participation in sport.^[3]

The findings were striking. 46% of girls said their breasts had some effect on their participation in compulsory sport and exercise. 73% reported at least one breast-related concern in sport. More than half said they never wore a sports bra during sport, and only 10% always did. And 87% of the girls wanted to know more about breasts.^[3]

That last number matters most. Girls are not asking to opt out. They are asking for information and support. Good-fitting kit, and an adult who is willing to have the conversation, can make a real difference.

Why We Built Our Girls' Range

Hero Athletica started with a simple belief. Every girl starts playing. Most quietly disappear. Hero Athletica exists to change that, for every girl who deserves to stay, and every woman who never forgot what it felt like to play.

Our girls' range is our answer to what girls have been telling researchers, coaches and parents for years. It is designed with girls in mind from the very first sketch, because girls are not small boys and should never have to play in kit that treats them that way.

We want every girl who pulls on Hero Athletica kit to feel the same thing: that someone thought about her when they made it.

What Parents and Coaches Can Do

You don't need to overhaul a whole club to make a difference. Small changes, informed by what girls actually say, can help keep them playing.

The research is clear that kit is only one piece of the puzzle. But it is a piece that families, coaches and brands can actually change, starting this season.