April 29, 2021
Lions Michelle Lee shares her story in her own words
With 1 in 3 Canadian girls dropping out of sport in adolescence, compared to just 1 in 10 boys, Canadian Women & Sport launched a national awareness campaign, She's Got It All, to challenge traditional mindsets on how women and girls experience sport. Only by better understanding the needs of women and girl athletes will we be able to make changes that support them to stay in sport. In support of the campaign, Ontario University Athletics reached out to our athletes, coaches, and administrators to learn about their experiences. We appreciate their honesty and vulnerability, and we are excited to spotlight their stories, in their own words, and encourage all of us to consider how we might behave differently after listening to their stories.
Toronto - My name is Michelle Lee, and this is my story. I am currently a player on the women's varsity field hockey team at York University. As of now, I have been playing field hockey since the tenth grade, making this my fifth year being in the sport. Other than field hockey, I also played competitive ice hockey for twelve years and played on a plethora of different teams for my school as well.
I had always come from an athletic family, with an older sister and a younger brother. Due to this, everything was always competitive at home. Since I was the second girl, one problem I always had to deal with is getting used equipment from my sister whilst they both got new stuff. This often made equipment uncomfortable and difficult to play in. It was not until I was older and playing more competitively that I started getting new equipment for myself.
As an East-Asian Canadian girl, I heard a lot of stereotypes growing up and saw a large amount of disapproval in my pursuit of sports. I have seen family members look down on me because I was balancing my time between studies and athletics. They believed I was underachieving in academics as I didn't have the same extraordinary grades as my siblings, both of whom ended their athletic careers for their academics. This sometimes had me questioning if I had made a wrong decision with my pursuit of athletics.
"As an East-Asian Canadian girl, I heard a lot of stereotypes growing up and saw a large amount of disapproval in my pursuit of sports."
One thing that really kept me going was the WickFest hockey tournament my team went to on one of my last years of ice hockey. My team was lucky to have a good managerial team, as we got to meet Hayley Wickenheiser. She told us her story and about all the obstacles she had met and overcame over the years to be where she is today. Being able to meet someone who was such a powerful role model for female athletes really inspired me to stay in sports. I am grateful for being able to have lived through this amazing experience as I know many people aren't granted the same opportunities.
"Being able to meet someone who was such a powerful role model for female athletes really inspired me to stay in sports."
Overall, the hardest obstacle I have had to overcome is the overwhelming amount of body shaming I have endured. In general, I was always a very small kid, so people always thought I was weak. I've had teachers get the boys to carry anything heavy from class to class instead of me and tell me that they needed the strong kids to help. To combat this, I'd be that kid you see grabbing one too many chairs just to prove them wrong. As I got older, I noticed it was common for people to think girls couldn't play sports. On mixed-gender teams, I would always be picked as the first girl, but this wouldn't happen until every single boy was already picked.
Once I got into high school, I believe people were more mature than this and saw humans for humans regardless of gender. Although in many aspects it did get better, one notable experience I have is a teacher going on an hour tangent. This was because I had to miss their class for a tournament. This person, who will remain unnamed out of respect, had gone on about how girls should not play sports. They believed because women had fought so hard to gain the rights to an education that we should not waste it by missing class. That same week, they encouraged my male classmate to attend his game and miss class to help his team win their basketball game.
Eventually I concluded that people were just not supportive of people they did not care about. Unfortunately, my own father proved me wrong. He was overall in support to me playing sports, but it did not stop him and my family from tearing me down consistently. One of my most prevalent memories is of my father fat shaming me in a photo I took in the snow. I remember him saying, "Why do you look so fat? I didn't even recognize you". He then laughed and went about his day as if nothing had happened.
Since then, I haven't been able to eat every meal and I still have body image issues. On occasion, I had banned myself from any food other than meals to avoid eating unnecessary fats to help keep me healthy. This just made things worse because my family would mock me for it. I hit a point where I had gone days without eating to the point of blacking out multiple times because I was self-conscious that I was eating too much, or I never wanted to and eventually, I stopped feeling hungry.
Slowly I have learned to not care about what others think and started to do things for me. This included becoming more distant from my family, who had put many negative thoughts into my head. Since then, I have become more successful than I imagined possible. Currently, I am a full-time space engineering student, work for the admissions team at the school, am a mentor for incoming varsity athletes, and of course, I am a female athlete.
"Slowly I have learned to not care about what others think and started to do things for me [] and since then, I have become more successful than I imagined possible."
Michelle Lee | York Lions | Student-Athlete
Toronto - My name is Michelle Lee, and this is my story. I am currently a player on the women's varsity field hockey team at York University. As of now, I have been playing field hockey since the tenth grade, making this my fifth year being in the sport. Other than field hockey, I also played competitive ice hockey for twelve years and played on a plethora of different teams for my school as well.
I had always come from an athletic family, with an older sister and a younger brother. Due to this, everything was always competitive at home. Since I was the second girl, one problem I always had to deal with is getting used equipment from my sister whilst they both got new stuff. This often made equipment uncomfortable and difficult to play in. It was not until I was older and playing more competitively that I started getting new equipment for myself.
As an East-Asian Canadian girl, I heard a lot of stereotypes growing up and saw a large amount of disapproval in my pursuit of sports. I have seen family members look down on me because I was balancing my time between studies and athletics. They believed I was underachieving in academics as I didn't have the same extraordinary grades as my siblings, both of whom ended their athletic careers for their academics. This sometimes had me questioning if I had made a wrong decision with my pursuit of athletics.
"As an East-Asian Canadian girl, I heard a lot of stereotypes growing up and saw a large amount of disapproval in my pursuit of sports."
One thing that really kept me going was the WickFest hockey tournament my team went to on one of my last years of ice hockey. My team was lucky to have a good managerial team, as we got to meet Hayley Wickenheiser. She told us her story and about all the obstacles she had met and overcame over the years to be where she is today. Being able to meet someone who was such a powerful role model for female athletes really inspired me to stay in sports. I am grateful for being able to have lived through this amazing experience as I know many people aren't granted the same opportunities.
"Being able to meet someone who was such a powerful role model for female athletes really inspired me to stay in sports."
Overall, the hardest obstacle I have had to overcome is the overwhelming amount of body shaming I have endured. In general, I was always a very small kid, so people always thought I was weak. I've had teachers get the boys to carry anything heavy from class to class instead of me and tell me that they needed the strong kids to help. To combat this, I'd be that kid you see grabbing one too many chairs just to prove them wrong. As I got older, I noticed it was common for people to think girls couldn't play sports. On mixed-gender teams, I would always be picked as the first girl, but this wouldn't happen until every single boy was already picked.
Once I got into high school, I believe people were more mature than this and saw humans for humans regardless of gender. Although in many aspects it did get better, one notable experience I have is a teacher going on an hour tangent. This was because I had to miss their class for a tournament. This person, who will remain unnamed out of respect, had gone on about how girls should not play sports. They believed because women had fought so hard to gain the rights to an education that we should not waste it by missing class. That same week, they encouraged my male classmate to attend his game and miss class to help his team win their basketball game.
Eventually I concluded that people were just not supportive of people they did not care about. Unfortunately, my own father proved me wrong. He was overall in support to me playing sports, but it did not stop him and my family from tearing me down consistently. One of my most prevalent memories is of my father fat shaming me in a photo I took in the snow. I remember him saying, "Why do you look so fat? I didn't even recognize you". He then laughed and went about his day as if nothing had happened.
Since then, I haven't been able to eat every meal and I still have body image issues. On occasion, I had banned myself from any food other than meals to avoid eating unnecessary fats to help keep me healthy. This just made things worse because my family would mock me for it. I hit a point where I had gone days without eating to the point of blacking out multiple times because I was self-conscious that I was eating too much, or I never wanted to and eventually, I stopped feeling hungry.
Slowly I have learned to not care about what others think and started to do things for me. This included becoming more distant from my family, who had put many negative thoughts into my head. Since then, I have become more successful than I imagined possible. Currently, I am a full-time space engineering student, work for the admissions team at the school, am a mentor for incoming varsity athletes, and of course, I am a female athlete.
"Slowly I have learned to not care about what others think and started to do things for me [] and since then, I have become more successful than I imagined possible."
