
In the last 10 years, there have been a lot of conversations about transgender kids playing sports. While most people support it, some are loudly against it, not realizing how their discrimination also affects cisgender kids. Two short-haired girls in England have been victims of discrimination, and their soccer team is showing up for them.
The short-haired girls have been accused of being boys, which has hurt them and their team. But thanks to the senior members of their soccer club and their moms, the girls are realizing that the haters don’t matter.
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Both girls are part of the York Railway Institute AFC football club in York, England. Since they began playing for the junior team, they have been openly discriminated against during their games because of their short hair.
Parents and coaches on opposing teams have decided that short-haired girls must be boys, creating an uncomfortable situation for the girls and their parents. Wendy Topham, mom of 11-year-old daughter Flo, spoke with the MailOnline about the hate.
“The first time we experienced anything was, I think it was a couple of summers ago. There was a really big tournament and we got through to the final and Flo scored about three goals, and we heard a mum on the other side of the pitch shouting to the ref, ‘Ref, ref that’s not fair. They’ve got a boy on their team,'” she explained.
Topham explained that naturally, Flo was “mortified.” She explained that they thought “maybe it was just a one-off kind of thing,” but there have been “numerous occasions” where parents of kids on the opposing teams, and even coaches “have wanted to see more evidence of their gender on the team sheet.”

She explained that the unwanted attention has made her daughter “very, very anxious.” It’s gotten so bad that the mom explained the girl is afraid to go to the bathroom because she’s worried people will think she’s a boy.
Flo is one of two short-haired girls on her team. The other, Camille Little, has also been subject to discrimination. Her mom explained how this discrimination has affected the girls’ ability to play.
“She felt bad, she was embarrassed. It affected the entire game, and none of the girls could play particularly well because they were all so upset, so we lost the match,” Aimée Little told YorkMix. “But it’s not about losing the match, it’s about what happened and how it happened.”
Continued hate against the short-haired girls led the team to stand up for themselves. That’s when Wendy Topham got a brilliant idea: they’d show people that their girls deserved to be on the soccer pitch.
Topham and Little paid around $277 to get new shirts made for the girls with their message: “Girls can have short hair — get over it.”
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“When all the teammates wear those T-shirts, it sends a real strong message that they are a team. They’re a unit, and they’re in it together, and that’s been a small but powerful statement,” Aimée Little said.
Throughout it all, the team’s coach, Kelly Shepard, has been fiercely supportive of the girls. “Everything’s changed since the campaign started, it’s all about letting the girls know that you can do what they want,” she said.
Since the campaign launched in 2023, the shirts have been a hit. The adult women’s team has also begun wearing the shirts in solidarity. Additionally, the club shared a video in support of the girls.
“It’s been horrible. It’s the girls’ basic personal choice, it’s who they are. Some girls have short hair and this singles them out and they don’t need that,” women’s team player Kate White told the BBC.
“In this day and age things like this shouldn’t be happening and as soon as I heard about it I thought we need to stand up and speak out because it can really damage their confidence,” player Gemma Hardy agreed.
The girl’s team assistant coach, Adam Cooper, told BBC, “[Soccer] is meant to be good for mental health and mental health of children is really important.”