Alex Scott has long been a hero of mine. The number of barriers she’s smashed through in football, in media and in her life is remarkable. So you can imagine the sheer giddiness I felt when she came along to Laces to surprise the girls (one her day off which I might add, making her even more of a legend).
Thank you so much to the Female Lead for making this happen.
At Laces this week Portia Ferrari and Glamour magazine to share what life is like as a female footballer and being in the team. The interest in women’s football ahead of the World Cup is growing, and it’s so exciting.
Over the past 6 months, Hackney Laces has been working with Sisterhood, a brilliant social enterprise that builds confidence in young women, and London Football Journeys, a charity that uses film and football to strengthen communities.
Through workshops and co-design sessions, Sisterhood has worked with the girls teaching them how to film and edit. And, empowering them to tell their stories as female footballers.
For International Women’s Day, the amazing folks at Girls on Film are putting on an evening of female football films, including the cult classic Bend it Like Beckham. There’s also a panel discussion where I’ll be speaking about the Laces, alongside documentary film maker Fleur Cousens who’ll be talking about her latest project Who Moved the Goalposts. Come along!
There are 146 numbers saved in my phone with the prefix ‘JAFC’ — Just Another Football Club. When I set up Hackney Laces 6 years ago, that’s what we were. A single club for girls in my borough. And now it’s morphed in to so much more.
Five years ago today, Hackney Laces was born. Back then we had no idea what we were doing. I knew that my neighbourhood needed a football team for the high number of teenage girls that wanted to play. And I knew that I could find some space and rally together some friends to get involved. I didn’t know that we’d be inundated with players, or that more than 90% of our players wanted to be famous as their future aspiration.
Each year when I reflect on Hackney Laces, I’m still astonished we’ve made it this far. 4 years and we still exist! I hope that this feeling never goes away because there’s still so much work to be done. In keeping with tradition, I’ll share what we’ve learned over the past year.
In a few short weeks, the Laces family will be saying goodbye to Alice. And that’s ok because Alice is moving on. First she’s going to America on a soccer scholarship. Then, the world is hers for the taking. Mark my words (you heard it here first) Alice is going places and where ever those places are, she’ll make them better through her compassion and her infectious energy for life and learning. There’s needs to be a stronger synonym for the word proud so I can use it here. That’s how I feel.
Big thanks to director Miles Langley and photographer Philippa Langley who came along to our Tuesday night kick about to shoot this.
When Hackney Laces first began four years ago, I don’t think any of us – players, volunteers or coaches – expected for us to grow beyond Hackney. I know I didn’t. Now our sister club Limehouse Laces is taking Tower Hamlets by storm, attracting so many young women to the club and inspiring them along the way.
On July 1, 2011 I arrived home from work to find a letter on my doorstep from Unltd. The letter read “Congratulations you have been awarded a level 1 award for your project just another football club”.
This was a big day. And Each year July rolls around I think back to beginning of laces and this day. Support from Unltd meant that not only did I no longer need to self- fund football sessions for girls, it meant that someone actually believed in my idea.