#LikeAGirl is back with a little help from Alesha Dixon

Three years ago Always launched the #LikeAGirl campaign with a striking video of young girls doing exactly what young girls do best: whatever they set their heart to. OK, maybe that’s a little twee but it’s exactly what the campaign was about. The original video showed us that doing something “like a girl” doesn’t have to be an insult, far from it. Now the campaign is back once more to tackle insecurity in teenage girls. This time Always have teamed up with Britain’s Got Talent judge Alesha Dixon.

Dixon originally came to fame through the pop group Mis-Teeq in the early noughties. She also holds the highest ever average point score of any contestant on Strictly Come Dancing and has quite some presenting experience under her belt. As part of the #LikeAGirl campaign, Dixon will be hosting weekly podcasts.

 

A post shared by Always UK & Ireland (@always_uk_ireland) on Sep 6, 2017 at 2:13am PDT

Her first podcast is already live and addresses persevering and becoming stronger through failure, something Dixon can talk about in depth. Her post Mis-Teeq career didn’t exactly take off and she ended up getting dropped by her label.

“In the end I dusted myself off, pulled myself together and a couple of years later had a platinum-selling album,” she says of that time, “I understand I needed to go through those times in order to get to a better place, make better choices and become a stronger person.”

Always has released a campaign video encouraging women to embrace failure, as failure only makes us stronger. “ Now I almost see failure as my friend,” Dixon says, “because things that test you, force you to go in another direction or learn something.”

According to research commissioned by Always, more than half of girls lose confidence during puberty and an even larger number stated they avoided trying new things for fear of failure. Dixon relates to this; “I didn’t turn up for one of my GCSE exams. I wanted to do so well that it paralysed me with fear.” 49% of girls agreed, saying that the pressure to be perfect has had a paralysing effect on them .

It is no wonder so many professional women suffer from imposter syndrome, a constant fear of being “found out” as a fraud due to an inability to internalize one’s own accomplishments. Imposter syndrome is found to be particularly prevalent among high-achieving women. Campaigns like #LikeAGirl help build a future where girls are taught to believe in themselves and not let failure stand in their way.

Sally Wijers