#InYourName // Why The Swedish Women's Football Team Is Leading By Example

The Swedish Women’s Football Team recently executed one of the best, most empowering and inspiring campaigns I have ever seen. Period. This was brought to my attention from a friend who knew that I would absolutely love it…and he was right! I was blown away as soon as I saw the shirts and the way they were leading by example.

In a collaboration between the Swedish Football Association and ADIDAS, the Swedish National Women’s Team replaced the names usually printed on the back of their shirts with messages of empowerment. I know right, how freaking cool?! This initiative, #InYourName, was created to celebrate and inspire…and I don’t know about you, but boy oh boy has it sure inspired me. Is this not just one of the coolest things you have ever seen?

This is standing together.

This is championing one another.

This is setting an example for young girls.

This is women empowering women.

This is positively promoting self love.

This is reminding you to shine as your brightest self.

This is cultivating kindness.

This is believing in you and your dreams.

This is powerful.

This is inspiring.

This is girl power.

This is literally everything!

In a statement released by the SFA they highlighted that players were asked to pick a message from various empowering Swedish women in the hope that it will inspire women to believe more in themselves and that they can do anything they put their minds to. What a beautiful way to promote self love and self belief. We need to be carrying out more campaigns like this, not just on a public level but right down to grass roots. I love the thought of instilling in girls from a young age the concept of supporting one another, being kind to themselves and believing that they can do anything they put their minds to. #InYourName encourages them to support one another and focus on teamwork. Imagine playing in your school team and looking around at your team mates jerseys throughout the game to instantly be inspired. I believe that this then has a ripple effect long after the game has finished. This team is leading by example and we should all be following suit.

As you can see from these incredible images, the messages included a variety of different quotes highlighting strength, courage, kindness, self-love and self-belief:

‘NEVER LOOK DOWN ON SOMEONE UNLESS YOU’RE HELPING HER UP’

‘JOIN THE SELF LOVE CLUB’

‘I BELIEVE WOMEN CAN DO ANYTHING THEY DECIDE TO’

‘EVERYONE YOU MEET IS FIGHTING A BATTLE YOU KNOW NOTHING ABOUT. BE KIND ALWAYS’

‘I’M NOT BOSSY, I’M THE BOSS’

These messages are fiercely empowering on their own. But what a message they send out as a collective, from an association in the public eye. It’s the stuff goosebumps are made of and I can only imagine how empowering it was for these women, running out onto the field with these messages on their backs.

This campaign has got me thinking, we should ALL be wearing messages of empowerment on on our backs in our day to day lives, obviously not physically, (Sidenote: although that would be pretty dang cool – who wants to sign up for a collaboration?!) but metaphorically, think of it as an imaginary superwoman cape, a constant reminder of just how freaking amazing you are. And a reminder that everyone is fighting a battle which makes it imperative to be kind. What would yours say? I would love you to share below.