Brooklyn’s Jaime Penna is an ambassador for the ‘This Girl Can’ campaign, a Victorian version of Sport England’s viral campaign that led to 3.9 million British women getting active.
The soccer player, who is pregnant with her second child, recalls being told to lose weight when she asked for bigger shorts after the birth of her son.
“I’ve played soccer for pretty much all my life, for 20 years. I had a child and then I found it really difficult to return to a sport that I’d always known and loved,” she said.
“I would always ask for the large in the men’s and one day they weren’t available and the man turned around and said to me, ‘Well, why don’t you lose some weight’.
“I thought about it and I was like, you know what, I’ve had a child, my body might not be the way it used to be but it tells a beautiful story.”
Penna features in VicHealth’s This Girl Can advertisement, which shows women sweating it out at sports including boxing, roller derby and football.
VicHealth chief Jerril Rechter said research showed three in five Victorian women didn’t get enough physical activity.
“We’re hoping that our This Girl Can – Victoria campaign will help more women right across Victoria to get physically active in their day-to-day life,” she said.
View the ad at www.youtube.com/watch?v=iISKDZvjaSs
