Kylie Kelce is the ultimate girl's girl. In addition to parenting four daughters and coaching a high school field hockey team, Kelce is constantly giving women their flowers on her podcast. She knows what it means (and looks like) to support women. Now, she's taking that a step further and sending one high school girls' sports team to a FIFA Women's World Cup match in 2027.
Kelce is partnering with Dove's Back Her Game initiative, and to enter to win, coaches across the country will submit a video on Instagram or TikTok, sharing how their team brings confidence to the field, from now until October 4.
For Kelce, she says this is an opportunity to show girls in sport that they belong on the field. Even today, one in two girls drop out of athletics [1] primarily due to body confidence and criticism, as well as societal pressures. But seeing women play on the greatest stage in the world, has to offset some of that, right?
"You're talking about these women who are just going out there and being badass," Kelce says, reflecting on this generation of women athletes. "And not only do I get to now watch them and cheer them on and appreciate them, but this is the world our girls are growing up in . . . how lucky are we?"
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Kelce recalls growing up in the Mia Hamm era [3]. "And what an amazing thing to get to have as a core memory," she tells Popsugar. "But it was slim pickings," she says, when it came to the visibility and attention placed on women's sports. "It was so small, the the opportunity, for women to sort of take that national stage, and now we have like all of these women who are just absolutely demanding people be interested because they have the skill, they have the determination, they have the grit. It's so much fun to watch. And I think that women are unstoppable."
The viewership and excitement around women's sports right now is not only exciting for young girls growing up, it's exciting for us as grown women to get to watch, Kelce says, admitting that she's been star struck a few times by today's powerhouses. "I'm such a fan girl, like I got to talk to A'ja Wilson. My brain melted. Trinity Rodman. My brain melted." As a field hockey coach on the daily and mom of four girls, Kelce can't help but hope her daughters will have that same love and appreciation for sports and women athletes. But she's also prepared if they don't become athletes themselves.
"If nothing athletic sticks, that's OK. The good news is we have four."
"I hope they love sports. I do selfishly, I really do. Now, if they don't, we are totally prepared for that," Kelce says. In fact, her husband and former Philadelphia Eagles star, Jason Kelce, was in competition jazz band in school. "So we're also prepared for the arts," Kelce says. Musical theater, band, the fine arts? She's all for it. "I mean, our second might be a sculptor. Who knows? I will cheer them on no matter what."
Right now, amongst her four children, Wyatt, Elliotte, Bennett, Finnley, they're dabbling in soccer, martial arts, and gymnastics. "So we'll see what sticks. If nothing athletic sticks, that's OK. The good news is we have four," Kelce says. In other words: "We upped our odds."
When Kelce's not mapping out her daughters' sports schedules, she's working on her own team plays, coaching girls field hockey at her high school alma mater. Kelce herself grew up playing a variety of sports, starting with soccer, then lacrosse, softball, basketball, and ultimately field hockey, which is what stuck. "The joy that field hockey brought me, being around my team, playing the sport, feeling accomplished — that was worth it to me to keep going and I wanted to do the best that I possibly could," she says, recalling her decision to transfer from community college to Cabrini College and play Division III. "I truly believe it was like the perfect place for me to be. It was great work-life balance. I got to still experience the competition. I got to still experience the true happiness it brought me to play. I got to be around my teammates and we still got to win."
Today, Kelce doesn't play field hockey anymore, but "I get to talk about it almost every day," she says. And each time she coaches, she finds a new challenge in connecting with the players on her team, supporting them in their own athletic dreams and goals. Kelce is even open to owning her own women's sports team some day . . . in Philly, of course.
"It would have to be Philly based. There's no other other option. I'm not going to pull some nonsense that some of the other professional sports team owners pull when they live in a different city and own sports teams other places," Kelce says. "It would have to be Philly — but it would have to be the perfect scenario, the perfect storm."
Alexis Jones [5] (she/her) is the section lead of the health and fitness verticals at Popsugar, overseeing coverage across the website, social media, and newsletters. In her eight-plus years of editorial experience, Alexis has developed passions for and expertise in mental health, women's health and fitness, racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare, and chronic conditions. Prior to joining PS, she was the senior editor at Health magazine. Her other bylines can be found at Women's Health, Prevention, Marie Claire, and more.