‘Owning It’ is a new radio documentary that discusses the challenges in keeping girls interested in sports during their teenage years, as well as the hurdles faced by female athletes because of their gender.

Reading the statistics and listening to the stories of young girls got me thinking about my own experiences, and it made me realise why this documentary is so important.

Going back to my childhood I was always really energetic, I never stopped moving and loved a good competition.

At primary school I was in the netball team and took part in cross country running events as well as taking ballet lessons. Looking back now, I can hardly believe that was me!

That all important transition from primary school, where I felt sheltered and confident, to a large secondary was a big factor in my separation from sports.

When you start high school, they do a test to determine which group you’ll be in for PE, teaching the girls and boys separately. I remember doing a bleep test, a game of football, and multiple laps around the school field. These three activities would determine the next five years of my PE experience, not that I knew it then.

Much to my dismay, I was placed in the top set away from my friends and instead with the popular sporty girls who treated every game as if it were the Olympics.

As part of our research for this documentary, we saw that only 51% of girls felt comfortable in PE classes. What’s worse is I expected that figure to be lower. For the girls who were less confident, PE was just an opportunity to embarrass yourself in front of the cool, sporty girls, who would make your life miserable for the next week should you ever drop the ball or miss a shot.

That was my experience anyway. I remember feeling frustrated that my group had to do sports like hockey, football and rugby (non-contact of course), while the lower group got to do zumba, trampolining and badminton- all my favourite activities.

This presented the idea that you either had to be good enough to do the same sports as the boys, or you had to stick to the stereotypically ‘girly’ forms of exercise.

Consequently I started to resent PE, it emphasised my overall lack of confidence and I didn’t like feeling sweaty for the rest of the day. I did anything I could to get out of it, or at least try to convince them to move me down a set.

I thought my luck had finally arrived in year 11, when I was able to choose to revise for exams instead of participating in PE, and I succeeded in avoiding it for the majority of the year. Looking back now, that makes me sad because I was actually pretty good at sports. I was never picked last and I had good coordination, being rewarded with the ultimate prize - fielders moving out when it was my turn to bat in cricket!

I enjoyed playing with family in my free time and continued dancing up until my late teens, when body image issues became too much. But now I wish I’d had the confidence to play to my full potential and get more involved at school. If I had, then maybe I would have avoided the negative relationship I developed with exercise afterwards.

After finishing school, I rejoiced in the fact that I’d never have to do sports again - something I had loved so much as a child. I stopped exercising and put on weight, but at least I didn’t have to worry about dropping a ball and being laughed at right?

Skip to years later and my unhealthy, unhappy 19-year-old self realised that I needed to turn things around. I learned about proper nutrition (something we weren’t taught at school), started to exercise and unexpectedly found myself loving it.

Just over a year after that, I found myself two stone lighter and embracing both the physical and mental rewards you get from a good workout. Whether I’d be confident enough to do team sports again, I still don’t know, but for now I’m enjoying the benefits of putting exercise back into my life. I only wish it had never left in the first place.

That’s why a project like ‘Owning It’ is so important. My PE lessons made me fear sports, rather than teaching me the physical and mental benefits of exercise.

Mental health issues are becoming increasingly prominent for young people and if they had a safe space to exercise in, it could be incredibly beneficial to their wellbeing.

Looking back with a fresh perspective, I wish I hadn’t let confidence issues stand in my way of doing sports and I know many of my friends feel the same way. So why am I telling you all this? Because I think it’s important to show that the issues I faced are still happening with girls across the country and it can have a significant effect on their lives and well-being.

In the future, we must consider how to make sport and physical education a more inclusive space for girls, which is something that I’m hopeful the new curriculum in Wales will do.

To hear more about these issues, as well as the challenges faced by female athletes, make sure to tune in to ‘Owning It’ at 6:30pm on Tuesday the 24th over on Radio Wales, or catch it after on BBC Sounds.

Megan Bishop is a graduate of Cardiff University’s prestigious school of journalism and is currently an intern at EatSleep Media. Here, she has been smashing out social media, developing our corporate brand and online personality and generally making the co-founders’ lives a lot easier. She has yet to bring any of the 13 pairs of bespoke Mickey Mouse ears she owns into the office!

Why does ‘Owning It: Keeping Girls In Sport’ Matter?