Visa launches new platform to reverse Australian girls dropping out of sport

Global payments business Visa has announced a partnership with digital youth engagement platform Year13 to highlight the benefits of girls playing sport as they enter their later teenage years and become young adults.

With research conducted by Year13 in partnership with Visa revealing that age 15 is Australia’s peak age for girls dropping out of sport - with lack of role models, body confidence and conflict with study all playing a role - the new platform will highlight the benefits of playing sport and make role models like Team Visa athletes Ellie Carpenter from the Australian football team, Claudia Bunge from the New Zealand football team and Olympic shot putter Dame Valerie Adams more visible and accessible as a way to encourage young girls to stay in sport.

The platform will also showcase content and advice from role models with careers in different industries such as music and the arts who will share the role that sport plays in their lives and why it’s important to them.

The new research reveals 60% of girls saying that they don’t currently have a female sports star they look up to and that one in five girls also say they’ve never (or can’t remember) the last time they saw women’s sport highlights in media. It also found that real and relatable role models were shown to be more important than ever with almost a third (31%) of young girls who do not play sport dropping out due to bodily insecurities.

The importance of family influencing participation in sport and providing exposure to role models was also highlighted. Parents were the second most influential group on the decision to play (behind friends).

However, nearly 70% of girls have no parents who currently play sport and almost two thirds (62%) of Australian girls say their family rarely or never watch women's sport.

Previous research has demonstrated that participating in sport has many long-term physical, mental and community benefits, but that Australian girls drop out at twice the rate of boys.

Commenting on the challenge, Matildas star Carpenter advised “as a young girl, juggling everything in my life with my passion for sport was sometimes challenging but not only has sport given me a career, it has also given me so much more - from confidence and resilience to lifelong friends.

“I’m proud to be a Team Visa athlete and hope I can play a role in encouraging girls to stay in sport.”

As the official payment technology partner of the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, Visa is committed to empowering and enabling girls and women to reach their full potential.

Visa and Year13’s research also showed that nearly half (48%) of girls who have stopped playing sport cite needing more time to study (the #1 answer) as the reason why they do not play, compared with 30% of boys. Further, only a quarter (25%) of young girls currently believe playing sports helps with skills for work, despite saying it can help with teamwork (91%) resilience (77%), collaboration (73%), discipline (71%) and leadership (70%). Additionally, benefits reported by young girls who did continue to play sport included its ability to clear their mind, lift their mood, give them energy, improve productivity, and help them sleep.

Year13 co-founder and co-Chief Executive, Saxon Phipps went on to say “there is a huge opportunity to reframe the way we talk to young girls about sport, as something that can actually help not just with study, but with relationships, mental health and all sorts of life and professional soft skills and we’re excited to partner with Visa to drive this conversation and grassroots participation by showcasing these inspiring role models on the Year13 and Visa PlayOn platform.

“Through this initiative, we’re encouraging parents and schools to speak with their children and students about staying in sport in their final years of school and beyond, instead of giving it up when most do by 15.”

Click here to visit the Year13 and Visa PlayOn platform.

Image: Matildas star Ellie Carpenter.