Exclusive: The Body Confidence Lesson Kylie Kelce Wants Every Girl to Hear

When Kylie Kelce talks about body confidence, it’s not in the glossy, vague way we sometimes hear in ad campaigns. She’s speaking as a mom of four (adorable!) girls, a former Division III field hockey player, and a coach who knows how much strength — physical and emotional — it takes for young athletes to stay in the game.

That’s why she’s partnering with Dove on its new Fans of Confidence campaign. The campaign supports Dove’s Body Confident Sport program, an evidence-based curriculum for coaches designed to help girls ages 11–17 feel seen, supported, and encouraged to keep playing.

For Kelce, the message is truly personal. “When I was a freshman in high school, I was talking to a friend of mine who was a boy, and I had bent down next to his desk, and he was like, ‘Oh, your thighs are thick.’ And I looked down at my legs, and I was like, ‘Yeah, because I’m a field hockey player.’ … That is the moment where I was like, ‘Why wouldn’t I have strong legs, right?’ And it was so obvious to me at that point,” she recounts in an exclusive conversation with SheKnows.

“It wasn’t necessarily what my body looked like, it was what it could do for me and how it benefited me in my sport, and how the idea of strength and being muscular was an asset to me as an athlete,” she continued. “So that having that experience myself, I want to make sure that the girls that I’m coaching [and] my own daughters understand that your body is not only valued by what it looks like … in sport, no one cares, right? Like, if you’re able to run for long distances, or you’re able to have endurance, you’re able to have strength, you’re able to translate that into your sport. Nobody cares [what it looks like], and that’s important. It’s so important.”

Kelce says the Body Confident Sport program is key to helping coaches and parents support girls in staying active. “You have so many young girls right now quitting sports because they don’t feel like their body fits it, or because they’ve been told that their body is not meant for that sport. I think that it just speaks volumes about Dove that they are willing to put so much into this. And I’m so, so grateful to have the opportunity, because this is something that’s clear and something that’s truly important to them.”

As a coach, Kelce sees her role as much more than teaching skills. “Coaches are there to make sure that the culture of the team is that of a positive and encouraging environment … to recognize how they can uplift each other, both on and off the field. And so those positive relationships with your peers are often influenced by, like I said, the culture. So as a coach, I find it super important to not only encourage body positive talk just very blatantly, but also to make sure that they feel supported, that they feel that they can continue with their sport.”

At home, she’s deliberate about modeling that mindset — which hasn’t always come easy. “I honestly have had to switch up the way I speak about myself,” she confesses. “I make it a point in front of our girls to model the way I would like them to speak about themselves … We talk a lot about, like, ‘Wow, look at how strong you are.’ The compliments that we give are a little bit different, and I feel like they’re starting to shape the way that they think about themselves.”

One recent ‘proud mom’ moment: when Kelce’s oldest daughter Wyatt told her sister Elliotte, “Wow, you are really strong!”

“It’s so simple and it’s such a fleeting moment, but at the same time, I’m like, ‘Yes, that was the way to say that,'” Kelce gushes. Seeing her daughters learn how to compliment each other in ways that build confidence feels like such an accomplishment

For Kelce, the message she hopes to leave — with her daughters and her players — is simple: strength, support, and encouragement matter. When girls feel supported in their bodies, they stay in the game, she says — and they carry that confidence with them into every part of life.

Watch Dove’s moving and inspirational “Fans of Confidence” video here.