This blog was simply started as a school project. The second semester of my senior year, I took a transdisciplinary research class. In this class, I chose to research women’s sports and mental health. I eventually narrowed down a topic from that field and chose my research question: How can Universities better promote mental wellness for female collegiate athletes?
After researching academic sources and interviewing past and current athletes, I learned about the multitude of problems that female collegiate athletes were facing because of their mental health. I read countless news articles on athletes committing suicide, having extreme eating disorders, and hiding injuries. Aside from these physical effects, I also learned about the worsening mental wellness of these athletes as well. I gathered there was general attitude of athletes not sharing their struggles with coaches and staff. This could be due to the strong stigma surrounding mental health in sports, a lack of support and resources from universities, or a fear of the possible repercussions that could stem from athletes dressing these issues with their coaches like losing playing time or being judged. The underlying point is theres a big problem in collegiate sports thats not being properly addressed.
I created this blog with the intention that it will serve a variety of purposes. First, I hope to uplift female athlete. With little representation in the media, female athletes often feel overlooked and insignificant which can be a major factor to mental health issues in athletics. By sharing their stories and highlighting their voices, I hope to properly represent the athletes in the way they deserve. Secondly, I hope to educate people on mental health in athletics. The stigma surrounding mental health is ever-growing and is only treated with contempt by the public. We live in a world where athletes at any level are afraid to talk about their mental health publicly let and especially are especially fearful of missing games or competition because of the backlash they would receive from the public. I hope I can shine light on the reality and importance of mental health in sports to the public. In the long run, I hope this will lead to greater support for female athletes and a greater understanding of the things they may face. Lastly, I hope to inspire change. The core purpose of this website is to answer my research question on what universities can do to support mental wellness. By highlighting changes that are currently being made and bringing light to negative practices in the athletic community, I hope universities and other institutions will learn to change their ways and focus more on the athlete.