Girls Forward: Toronto charity says that keeping girls in sports is crucial to the ongoing rise in women’s sports

Sold-out arenas, new professional leagues and growing sponsorships have made women’s sports one of Canada’s biggest success stories. But behind the excitement, organizations working with girls say the real test of whether the movement lasts will happen far from the spotlight, on community fields, in school gyms and at local recreation centres, where girls first decide whether sport is a place they belong.

From the continued rise of the PWHL, which had its inaugural season in 2025, to the launch of the Northern Super League and the arrival of the WNBA in Toronto, women’s professional sports have never been more visible on this side of the border. Attendance is climbing with records being broken across arenas, while sponsorships are growing, and young athletes are finally seeing professional pathways that barely existed a decade ago.

But for Gabriela Estrada, executive director of Toronto-based Girls Forward Foundation, the excitement surrounding professional women’s sports tells only part of the story.

“If we’re celebrating what’s happening at the professional level, we also have to invest in the girls who will become the next generation of athletes, coaches, officials and leaders,” Estrada tells Now Toronto.

Girls Forward

Founded in 2005 as the Fast and Female Supporting Women in Sport Foundation, Girls Forward was born to combat a simple issue affecting young girls nationwide: Too many girls face barriers to participation in sport. Estrada explained that these barriers are fueled by various issues, including a lack of financial resources or transportation, cultural barriers, or a lack of representation or belonging.

Since 2005, they’ve empowered over 36,000 participants across Canada since 2005, offering programming for girls ages four to 12, and then leadership development for youth aged 13-20. The organization also offers Role Model programming for women 21 and older, inviting them to take on roles as coaches, mentors, and facilitators in Girls Forward programs and events. 

Now the country’s leading organization, Girls Forward is Canada’s leading charity dedicated to empowering girls through sport, physical activity and education, and the only charity in the country doing this work on a nationwide scale. Working with communities across the country, the organization creates programs that not only introduce girls to sport but also build confidence, leadership and life skills.

The need is significant.

Despite the unprecedented attention surrounding women’s sports, Estrada explained that one in three girls in Canada drops out of sport during adolescence, while more than one million girls aren’t participating in sport or physical activity at all. Those numbers become even more pronounced when race, geography, sexuality and other intersecting identities are considered.

But data shows that keeping girls in sports is crucial. Beyond physical health, research has found that girls who participate in sport are more likely to develop stronger self-esteem, learn teamwork and feel empowered to take on leadership roles both on and off the field. For instance, a 2022 Canadian Women & Sport report shows that 62 per cent of girls aged 13 to 18 who are athletes say sports positively impact their confidence and self-esteem, while 87 per cent of Canadians believe sport helps girls develop important life skills.  

“Historically, sport was built by men for men,” Estrada explains. “When you take an intersectional approach, and you look at race, ethnicity, geographical location, sexuality, class, citizenship — all these unique things that make us who we are — we see the nuanced experiences and additional barriers for sport and physical activity participation.”

Those barriers often emerge during adolescence, when girls begin feeling pressure about how they should look and whether they belong in athletic spaces.

“There are girls that will feel that very early on,” Estrada says. “They might recognize that there’s no one else that looks like them in these spaces. That they don’t have any coaches or role models that look like them.”

Research also shows girls often approach sport differently than boys.

“What the data has shown us is that girls need to feel like they belong first to then be willing to take risks and try new activities,” Estrada says. “Whereas often boys look for that competition first, and once they’re competitive and can take risks, that’s when they feel like they can belong.”

The importance of representation

Seeing is believing, and as professional women’s sports continue expanding, Estrada believes representation is becoming one of the movement’s greatest strengths.

Representation is a tool that the Girls Forward team, which is women-led and women-run, is trying to leverage. Recently, they partnered with Northern Super League’s AFC Toronto, inviting racialized players into one of its soccer programs in Scarborough, where nearly all participants are Black and racialized girls.

“We were really transparent with them,” Estrada recalls. “‘Ninety-six per cent of our participants are young Black and racialized girls. Can you please make sure you send athletes that look like them?'”

The club responded by sending two Black athletes, and Estrada says that the effect was almost instant.

“You could just see it in our participants’ eyes that they’re like, ‘Holy s**t, this is an athlete that looks like me,'” Estrada explains. “Similarly for the players, they were so excited to see young players that looked like them.”

For Estrada, those moments demonstrate why representation cannot be treated as an afterthought.

“You can’t be what you can’t see,” she says. “That investment at the professional level shows that it is worth investing in girls’ and women’s sport across the country… but it also is this reminder that you have to invest in the girls as well to see them make it to that point.”

As Canada’s women’s sports ecosystem continues to grow, Estrada hopes the conversation expands beyond sold-out arenas and television ratings.

“I want to see more investment, more media attention, but that long-term sustainability,” she says. “It has to be top-down, bottom-up… looking at the full experience of going from grassroots to podium.”

She says that investment extends far beyond developing future professional athletes. It’s about creating opportunities for girls to become coaches, officials, photographers, journalists and leaders within sport.

“I hope more and more folks acknowledge that and see how it’s important for everyone to invest. Not even just dollars, but time, awareness and knowledge,” Estrada says. “Having a positive, empowering and accessible sport experience as a four-year-old, a six-year-old or an eight-year-old can change the entire trajectory of your life.”

Canada’s professional women’s sports boom may be rewriting what’s possible for young girls who dream of growing up to become elite athletes, providing opportunities for both careers and representation right here at home. But organizations like Girls Forward argue the future of that momentum won’t be decided in professional stadiums or packed arenas, but in community gyms, neighbourhood fields and school playgrounds, where girls first decide whether sport is a place they belong.