We are excited to announce our partnership with the Loughborough Lightning Netball Team! This campaign is all about highlighting the shared values between ourselves and the team, as we join forces to challenge traditional beauty standards.
This collaboration is all about celebrating and empowering tall women and women in sport. This blog series in particular will include an exclusive interview with the team (below) as a well as individual interviews to get to know the players.
Make sure you stay up-to-date for exclusive insights about the inspiring women of Loughborough Lightning Netball! Discover what drives their success, the challenges they have faced, and how they have overcome adversity. Plus, get a behind-the-scenes look at the team and learn about their unique stories. It’s all here – only available to those who keep following along!
Emma Thacker (6’3″), Zanele Vimbela (6’0″), Francesca Williams (6’0″), Beth Cobden (5’10”)
Alice Harvey (6’3″)
In Conversation with Loughborough Lightning Netball
What positions do you all play?
Beth plays WD/GD/C, Emma plays GA/GS, Fran plays GD/GK/WD, Zanele plays GK/GD, and Alice plays GK/GD
What is a Netflix series you’re currently obsessed with?
Fran – We’ve all just binge watched the Night Agent and would definitely recommend it!
What is it like to be a woman in sport?
Fran – It’s a super exciting time to be involved in women’s sport at the moment, it seems to be really growing and everyone’s finally catching on to how exciting women’s sport is. Netball right now in this country is really growing right from participation up to us at the elite level as well.
I just love playing a team sport as well and being surrounded by other women who have the same passion and the same interests, we train hard everyday, we get on so well and have such a fun time together and then to be able to do the thing we love everyday is amazing and we’re very grateful to do it.
Most important skills to be a successful netballer?
Emma – Having passion and drive for what you do i think. You can pick up skills along the way, but that mentality of wanting to play elite sports is probably the most important thing. I think if you put your mind to being good at anything you can just go out and do it.
Any advice for girls wanting to get into sport?
Zan – It’s part of a healthy lifestyle to get into as well, by all means participate in whatever you want. At the same time netball is growing which is quite exciting and one to try and get involved and make friends and be apart of a community that’s very active, which is really healthy.
Advice to your younger self?
Alice – I would say just keep finding the fun in it, keep turning up because it’s something that you enjoy, you’ll definitely become more successful at the end of it. And remove all pressure and just do it because your friends are doing it, because you find it fun and you’ll go far.
Would you say that your experience with finding clothes has changed over the years?
Fran – I think being taller its harder to find clothes that fully fit and flatter your body so it took longer to find the right clothes. Always having to find tall sections, or sometimes you fit in a size in one style, but not in another across the same brand, so having to find a brand that is focused on tall people and accentuating having long legs; which is obviously a positive thing.
What challenges have you faced being a tall woman?
Fran – Not being able to buy clothes that fit properly making sure that you have clothes that really flatter your body type that would be the biggest challenge in terms of fashion. When you’re younger as well growing up you tend to the be the tallest person in your year, I’ve been tall from really young age and i’m sure the other girls have as well – it’s a confidence thing. When you’re younger and taller than everyone else, whereas now actually we are playing netball and we are a part of a sport where we feel strong together as a group and I love it, when we all go out together and we’re all so tall, people look around and wonder what we do and how we’re so tall – which is amazing! But it is just about having that confidence, if I hadn’t of found netball maybe I wouldn’t be as confident as I am now with my height. I actually use my height every day to play sport at an elite level, so i’m grateful for my height, but not everyone had that when they were younger, so finding that has been a real strength.
Wearing heels – we found 36% of women wouldn’t wear heels if they were a bit taller. How do you feel about that?
Emma – Wear what you want, especially if you’re dressing up to go out a pair of trainers just doesn’t always work at the time, so i think just having a pair of heels that most importantly a. fit and b. don’t have a massive heel, but have a little something makes a nice outfit look really nice instead of just dressing it down with trainers.
What advice would you give to young women that are struggling with body image issues/ height?
Emma – Flipping potentially something that might make you less confident into something more positive, looking at yourself and being like yeah this is great rather than looking at yourself and thinking i don’t like this and picking yourself apart isn’t good for anyone. So i think just taking your height or your body type with great confidence, when you look confident, everyone thinks she looks great rather than shying away from those sorts out things.
Shop tall jeans, tall t-shirts, and tall suits seen on the Loughborough Lightning girls.
If you would like to know about the girls, make sure you keep up to date with our blogs. I’ll be releasing them weekly, introducing each player, so you can get to know the team. You can also check out our landing page which will keep you up to date on everything Loughborough Lightning.
Read Beth’s blog here.
Make sure you follow @longtallsallyfashion on Instagram & Facebook.
