We all know that women had, through much of history, clothes that just didn’t work for what they wanted to do.

Most of us know what bloomers are, and how they were an early way for women to be able to exercise, and ride bikes, without having their clothes get in the way. This book goes beyond this, showing how women, such as Katherine Knox invented the knickerbockers, much like bloomers, but better. They were a tighter fit, and much easier to move around in. She used to race bikes, against the men. She was alos one of the first Black members of the League of American Wheelmen.

This book covers this invention as well as the one piece swim suit that Annette Kellerman invented, and Albertine Lapensee, who invented the hockey outfit for women.

This is a great book to show how women overcame the clothes that were available at the time, and moved past them. We can look back and realize how silly it was that women were even made to wear clothes like that. But the back of the book points out recent trends such as women playing volleyball, in the Olympics, being forced to wear bikinis instead of shorts and a shirt.

I also like how the original clothes are shown before we see what was redesigned, so we get an idea of how much work went into the better clothes.

Great book to get kids thinking and talking. If anything, I wish there were more stories.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. This book will be published the 2nd of December 2025.

A fun, inspiring book showing how girls and women changed conventional clothing to be more comfortable and perform better in sports. Educational while still being engaging and encouraging to kids.

As a homeschool teacher and mother of girls, this book is an invaluable source for not only learning about history (even recent historical events), but for female empowerment. The book tells short stories about women in sports who have altered their uniforms to better perform like their male counterparts. Some sports include hockey, soccer, swimming, and bicycling. I appreciated that more information was provided about these particular women following the story. It served as a sort of glossary and makes it easy to spark interest and further research these women, their historical dress, and traditional gender roles. In addition, the author included more recent events that children can relate to such as the Norwegian volleyball team in 2021 challenging their uniforms and a British swimmer in the Tokyo Olympics representing African American women in 2020. My daughters (ages 6 and 8) were shocked at the dress requirements for sports and enjoyed this book especially since we studied colonial dress prior to this. Thank you to Sourcebooks and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this fun, educational title.

This shines a spotlight on the evolution of women's functional clothing options in sports, and how we still have room to grow. Readers learn how women broke ground first in a sport they excelled at, then in changing the way they dressed so that they could be active and comfortable. While in the past women had to fight to wear pants, shorts, or one-piece swimming suits, now some female athletes are fighting discrimination to be allowed to wear coverings that protect their privacy, natural hair, or religious preferences. The book does a nice job of showing how women should be allowed to wear what feels right for them.

I love the biography at the end where we get to learn more about these important female athletes. I highly recommend this book for schools and libraries.