I’m Issey Kyson, a 17yr old junior athlete and advocate for girls in sport.

For years, everyone around me from coaches, teammates and even my own family believed I was on a fast track to sporting success. I was setting junior parkrun records, winning national medals, and ranking among the UK’s best young athletes. But everything changed when I hit puberty. Suddenly, the progress I’d taken for granted began to slip away. My body changed, my performances dipped, and I felt disconnected from a body I no longer understood. No one had prepared me for how these changes might affect me in sport, not my school, not my club, and not the curriculum. I quickly realised that I was not alone in this and learned that two thirds of girls quit sports by the end of puberty!

Since then, I’ve worked to raise awareness, break the stigma, and push for change. I’ve shared my experiences on social media, spoken at public events alongside athletes like Paula Radcliffe and Katarina Johnson-Thompson, and partnered with Nike on numerous campaigns focused on girls’ experiences in sport working with the likes England footballer Lotty Wuban-Moy and Olympic Champion Keely Hodgkinson.

I decided to take that advocacy further by calling on the government to change the national curriculum, so that girls would be taught how puberty affects them in sport, not just in biology or PSHE. That journey, the meetings, the challenges, and the voices I encountered along the way, became the foundation for Out of the Race: Why Girls Quit Sport, a documentary that tells the bigger story. It brings together Olympians, politicians, policy makers, educators, health professionals and teenage girls, and shines a light on what really drives so many young women out of sport during adolescence.

One of the most meaningful moments in this journey came in 2024, when I was invited by the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson MP, to formally consult on the national curriculum review. That opportunity followed a series of meetings with the Department for Education, the Association for Physical Education (afPE), and other curriculum leaders, that focused on how schools could better support girls in sport during puberty.

In parallel with these efforts, alongside the afPE, I developed a national school toolkit to raise awareness and offer practical strategies for teachers and coaches. It’s now being distributed to around 20,000 schools, with the potential to reach over a million children in schools.

I’m incredibly grateful to everyone who has helped along the way,  from professionals who shared their insights, to the girls who opened up about their stories. Their honesty and support has helped me shape something that feels bigger than just my own experience. I’ll keep pushing forward until every girl has the knowledge and support she needs to feel confident, enjoy being active, and stay involved in sport.