First published 2001
Jane Gottesman addresses a stark reality in sports media. When Title IX passed in 1972, only one in twenty-seven school-age girls participated in sports. By 2001, that ratio had jumped to one in three, yet media coverage remained sparse. Young female athletes lacked both role models and authentic representations of their experiences. Gottesman, working as a sports journalist, recognized this gap firsthand. She assembled photographs from leading artists including Annie Leibovitz and Ansel Adams alongside work from emerging photojournalists. The collection captures girls and women at play across diverse settings: playing fields, street corners, backyards, and gymnasiums. Each image shows female bodies freed from traditional constraints, embracing competition and physical joy. The book pairs these photographs with personal accounts from athletes themselves and includes a timeline marking significant moments in women's athletic history. Organizations including the Girl Scouts, NCAA, and YWCA endorsed the project. The book celebrates the female form through an athletic lens.
Genres: history, 20th-century, gender-studies, biography-memoir, 21st-century, journalism, activism, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: social-commentary
Period: 1972, 2001
224 pages · Hardcover · Random House