Bluebella’s new campaign with the stars of Team GB Women’s Olympic rugby team

Blubella has launched a new campaign with the stars of Team GB Women’s Olympic rugby team.

With the Olympics starting at the end of July, Team GB Rugby Sevens players Jasmine Joyce, Celia Quansah and Ellie Boatman, have teamed up with the lingerie brand’s #StrongIsBeautiful campaign to encourage girls to be proud of their bodies and keep playing team sports. To emphasise their point the athletes posed in body revealing lingerie for an impromptu training session at Richmond Rugby Club’s pitches in south-west London.

More than half of secondary schoolgirls (64%) drop out of all sports before the age of 16 and for many girls the reason was insecurities about their bodies during puberty.

Ellie Boatman, 27 from Camberley, Surrey, said: “This Bluebella campaign is about showing girls that sport and fitness can help them feel really empowered, and how they can look muscular and strong, as well as feeling feminine.”

Bluebella CEO and Founder Emily Bendell said:

We have to change the perception that the strong female form is not ‘feminine’. The idea that strength and femininity do not go together is a really damaging perception for keeping women in sport but also more broadly. We are thrilled that these three Team GB Rugby Sevens players  are supporting #StrongIsBeautiful and helping to challenge attitudes which are sadly still too prevalent.”

The #StrongIsBeautiful campaign is one that Bluebella lingerie has been running for the past eight years to try to improve teenage girls’ attitudes to their bodies, and get them back playing sports. The London based underwear brand have previously worked with female athletes at the Rio Olympics in 2016, the Tokyo games in 2021, and the Women’s FIFA World Cup last year. The GB women’s Rugby Sevens team are strong contenders for a medal at the Paris Olympics, and are much improved after coming fourth at the Japan 2021 games.