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In this study, we examine data from young girls spontaneously talking about what it is like to be a girl athlete. During ten focus group interviews, the girls' (n = 52) often digressed and their conversations provide rich insight into their lived experiences as girl athletes. In this article, we portray these girl athletes' negotiations as they enact, transform, transgress, and combine gendered expectations about being both a girl and an athlete. Using a narrative approach and creative nonfiction, we present vignettes exemplifying the themes of performing girl, performing athlete; gendered sport lessons; sport friends; and sport mentality. Not surprising, these girls' experiences reveal how gender permeates all aspects of their sport experiences. Gender performance was a continuous negotiation with myriad potential outcomes. One could be sporty and girly girl, sporty and not girly girl, a girly girl cheerleader, or one could even be sporty and a cheerleader. We believe that the strong friendships among the girls provided the space in which they could experiment with these multiple gender performances. The strong bonds developed among teammates created space for exploring gender performances and provided a safety net for their daily identity negotiations. By being skilled girl athletes, they are destabilising gender and gendered expectations. At the same time, they are creating fluid and hybrid identities that are personally meaningful yet flexible enough to allow further exploration.

Building on previous research in which we provided an opportunity for female college athletes to construct their own photographic portrayals, this study explored young female athletes' perceptions of the college athlete photographs. Fifty-two girls participated in focus group interviews where they viewed and discussed the images. The young athletes particularly liked images they perceived to show authentic athletes (e.g, in athletic settings, with appropriate sport attire), images they could relate to due to personal experiences, and images that reflected competent and passionate sportswomen. Images perceived as revealing a lack of motivation, poor sporting attitudes, and nonathletic poses generally were disliked. Images depicting multiple social identities (e.g., an athlete in a dress) were controversial and generated much discussion.

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Previous research suggests that sport media provide one avenue for boys and girls to learn what and who is valued in sport. We explored girl and boy athletes’ perceptions of photographs of female college athletes, which provided insight into young athletes gendered perceptions of athletes and sport. Sixty-nine sportskids participated in focus group interviews where they discussed what they liked and disliked about a series of photographs of college female athletes. Framed by feminist cultural studies, the authors situated their analysis within the current historical moment bounded by young athletes’ post-Title IX and postfeminist sensibilities. The authors present their appraisals of a few exemplar images that characterize themes that appeared across the whole photo collection. Emergent themes included gendered sport terrain, which situates their comments within the gendered milieu of their sport experiences. Data also revealed themes associated with the select images: female athleticism, inspiration versus objectification, transgressing heteronormative femininity, and sporty cute. Overall, both girls and boys struggled with images that were interpreted as too feminine or too muscular/masculine. These data also point to how little has changed in the past 50 years regarding how female athletes are culturally constructed. While the borders of acceptability may have shifted, female athletes continue tenuous navigation of socially acceptable boundaries of athleticism, femininity, and muscularity while masculine privilege in sport continues and the presence of females in sport is framed by a heterosexual male gaze.