This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Niagara Water. All opinions are 100% mine.
My daughter has always been this delightful combination of girly girl and tomboy. She wears dresses while digging in the dirt. She likes helping daddy in the garage and playing with dolls. In the same shopping trip she will ask for high heal shoes and a football. She is active, and loves doing anything outdoors. She is not afraid to fall. She is not afraid to get dirty. She finds joy in the experience, in the doing, in the trying.
Her current favorite thing to do is to ride horses. And take care of horses. She enjoys the entire process from riding to brushing to cleaning stalls. No job is too dirty for her when it comes to her love of horses. The stable owner loves this about her, not too many of her students actually want to get dirty and help care for the horses as well.
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She also enjoys nagging at me to buy her a horse. She has turned nagging into its very own sport. And she is very good at it.
Sports is something that is traditionally considered a “boys thing” but more and more girls are making names for themselves and proving themselves in so many different sports. Soccer is one of those sports that really has a level playing field when it comes to the differences between boys and girls.
Team USA soccer star Heather O’Reilly knows that girls have what it takes to play and so she has teamed up with Niagara Water to help promote female empowerment and help parents encourage their daughters to GIRL UP and show off their girl power. The awesome video below shows just how inspiring girl power really can be.
I watched the video with my daughter and it definitely inspired her. She grabbed her soccer ball and headed out to the yard.
She has always enjoyed running around in the backyard kicking the soccer ball as the dogs chase after her, but after watching the #GirlUp video, she was calling herself a soccer player and was actually trying to score goals. Her excitement even had me joining in the fun as well.
I even showed her how to “juggle” and we took turns trying to see who could keep the ball up longer.
Of course, she made time to hang upside-down too. Who doesn’t like to hang upside-down?
She may always choose riding a horse over playing in an organized soccer league, but watching the Niagara Water Girl Up definitely inspired her to not limit herself or her perception of what she can or can’t do. And for the brief time she spends playing in the backyard she is a soccer player. She slides and falls. She gets back up. She kicks the ‘winning’ goal. She leads her team to victory time and again.
When it comes to empowering my daughter, the most important lesson I want to instill is that she believes in herself. That she believes that she has the ability to do whatever it is she sets her mind to. Not just riding a horse or playing soccer, but ANYTHING.
In order to help inspire girls, Niagara Water wants them to show off their girl power and is offering a chance to win a $700 soccer camp scholarship. To enter, simply snap a picture of your soccer star in action and then upload it to Twitter or Instagram with the hashtag #GirlUpSweeps.