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Evalee Anderton

Dr. Anne Canavan

English 2010

05 March 2018

Women in Professional Sports: Project Two

Starting project two was difficult because I didn’t know what audience to target. I figured

it would be easier to do an infographic that could be shared online for teenagers to adults because

I wanted to be able to show a large group of people why the gender gap in sports is important.

Trying out different formats and images just proved too complex for me and I was uninterested

in how I showcased this information. I had the feeling that I wasn’t reaching my full potential of

creativity. I didn’t want to be another infographic or brochure even though lots of them are

intriguing. While these thoughts were in the back of my head, I was thinking about how to aim

this towards kids. I wanted to have kids as my audience because other students who have done

this project focused it at kids. I feel it makes this project more fun to make and more lighthearted

surrounding a difficult subject.

Specifically, the audience I want to reach are girls from age five to twelve because if

they’re too young I feel like they might not be able to do the activity in the book as well as not

fully understand the quotes and facts. Examining the examples from previous students was

eye-opening for me in the sense of many creative outlets. Initially, I was thinking of doing a

coloring book or pop-up book similar to how some of the examples were except with my own
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twist on it. Before starting that, I wanted to see if there were more options so I decided to go to

the audience first hand and get feedback.

I explained to the girls I babysit, the dilemma I was having doing this project. They told

me if I want to make learning a topic fun I should make something more interactive than

coloring or a pop-up book so they suggested a dot to dot. That sparked the idea of an activity

book. For the purpose of the book, other than giving inspiration and facts of women athletes to

young girls, I wanted it to keep kids busy and quiet. For example, while they’re in church or

having to wait in the doctor's office. I remember growing up and doing dot to dots in coloring

books that had a bunch of different activities in it. So besides making a couple of dot to dot

pictures, I figured I would include a few color by number pictures and mazes.

For the cover, I wanted a nice neutral color because I don’t want this book exclusively

just for girls, I want boys to be drawn to it as well. As for the image on the front, I put some

women standing on a medal podium that I got from Canva. It was awesome that this was one of

the first images to appear if you looked up medals. I wrote exactly what the book is and what it

has in it. I decided to print off at least three of each activity with different sports to give a variety

of sports these girls can participate in. I put it in the order that I did because I didn’t want to be

too repetitive with the sports and I wanted the medal podiums at the end to have the kids feel like

they accomplished something and this is their gold medal. Last but not least the works cited page

so at least an adult knows where this information came from.

Along with these pictures, I typed some quotes and facts that coordinate with the image.

For instance, the image of the woman weight lifting has a couple of facts about a few women

that compete in that sport. Some of them have quotes such as the tennis dot to dot that quotes the
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professional tennis player, Venus Williams. Kids won’t learn anything by simply doing these

activities, that’s why I put quotes and facts in there from and by these athletes so they have

someone to look up to and it ignites inspiration. Growing up a boy has many all-star players he

can see broadcasted on lots of broadcasting networks, while girls often have far and few in

between they can aspire to be like. With this book I want them to know there are many

influential female athletes that they can relate to. It’s important for this next generation of girls to

be interested in sports because they could make a huge impact in the future and break more

boundaries.

Although my audience is girls, it’s not limited to boys as well. I want them to grow up

with the mindset that girls playing sports should be just as powerful as men's sports. When they

grow up appreciating and respecting the skills women are capable of they will succeed in sports

themselves. It starts with parents taking their boys and girls to women’s sporting events so they

can get the media coverage they deserve to be able to get the pay and recognition they worked so

hard for. While watching the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) or The

National Women’s Hockey Leauge (NWHL) isn’t the norm yet, it’s definitely trending.

Hopefully, more books similar to the one I made, possibly with better quality, will be published

so they can inspire and encourage kids to keep participating in sports and make a difference.