Warrior Girls: Protecting Our Daughters Against the Injury Epidemic in Women’s Sports

• Controversial and compelling: The Warrior Girls excerpts in The New York Times Magazine and The Washington Post received an overwhelming response. Warrior Girls has spurred a relevant debate that continues on websites devoted to sports, parenting, and women’s health. • The ignored injury epidemic: Well over one million girls play high school soccer, basketball, lacrosse, and volleyball. But women’s collegiate soccer players suffer concussions at the same rate as college football players. Most alarming are the high rates of knee injuries involving the anterior cruciate ligament, or ACL, which girls tear eight times more often than boys. • A crucial look at a culture in denial: Advocates of women’s sports worry that acknowledging the injury epidemic will threaten our daughters’ hard-won opportunities on the field. Warrior Girls examines these shocking truths and offers hopeful solutions for encouraging female athletes to play well—and safely.