This Skirt Won't Work!: How Women Athletes Changed Their Clothes and Changed the Game

Meet five trailblazing women in sports who cast aside the stuffy, confining outfits they were expected to wear in favor of clothes they could move in!



Imagine trying to play tennis in a long dress, or swimming laps wearing heavy petticoats! That’s how it used to be for girls in sports. But when a few women athletes dared to change their clothes, they changed the game.



See how cyclist Kittie Knox, swimmer Annette Kellerman, tennis player Suzanne Lenglen, Albertine LePensee and her Canadian hockey teammates, and Lily Parr with her soccer team flouted convention and risked scandal to wear things they could truly play in. They decided "this skirt won't work!" and donned bloomers, shorter skirts, or even modified men's garments in order to up their game, and in doing so helped change standards for what women could wear—and do! Features back matter with cool facts about each woman and team, as well as a look at women athletes today who continue to take a stand for clothes that are more comfortable and inclusive.