ART OF THE GAME – Creativity offers girls another way into football

Girls are three times more likely to attend football camps if creative elements like designing and drawing are part of the experience. 

This surprising statistic led to a competition for aspiring designers and a partnership to create the first holiday camps to combine football with art.

Clare McEwen speaks to creative workshop host, footballer, and designer Elly Wade and competition winner Ruby Robinson, to learn more.

In May this year, Bloomsbury Football Foundation partnered with Adobe to bring to life their first Kick & Create holiday camp for girls.

Moved into action by the finding that girls are more likely to try football if its combined with creativity, they brought together 40 girls for football coaching and creative workshops.

Elly Wade, who has built her career around her twin passions of football and design, hosted the first Kick & Create camp to pass her knowledge and enthusiasm on to the girls at the camp.

Alongside the holiday camps, the creative software company launched a football shirt design competition for aspiring designers.

Eighteen-year-old Ruby Robinson won, and got to watch both kinds of mascot – the people in furry suits and the excited children holding players’ hands – walk out at the 2025-26 Women’s FA Cup final wearing her design.

A stunning moment for the young graphic designer.

I was lucky enough to speak to both Wade and Robinson during the first ever Kick & Create camp.

Elly Wade, footballer and designer

Can you start by telling me a little bit about the camps?

The idea behind them is really to get girls into, not only football and enjoying football, but also to explore their creative side and really to understand that those two things go very much hand in hand. 

I’m starting the workshops with two questions: 
Raise your hands if you love and play football.
Raise your hands if you’re creative.

Sometimes girls raise both. Sometimes they raise for one. It’s getting them to understand that even if you’re just into creativity, you can still enjoy and love the game or vice versa. 

A lot of the girls, who didn’t consider themselves creative, I was saying: well, when you’re on a football pitch and you’re celebrating, you score a goal or you do a little trick. That’s all creativity. 

It’s not just art or football. There’s a lot of overlap between those things. 

Recent research shows girls are much more likely to attend football camps when creative elements are involved. Did that surprise you?

Yeah, I think it’s an interesting statistic. It surprised me, but it also doesn’t surprise me because I think there is a lot of overlap. 

But in the traditional sense for me of my career, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of people who are into sport and into creativity.

So I think it’s a really great way, if you are someone who is interested in sport, but maybe hasn’t got the confidence to play, you might be willing to attend something where you think: well, I’ll be doing something fun and creative and artistic which I love to do. And maybe that other 20% of me likes football and then vice versa. 

You sit in both worlds, football and design, did those two interests always feel connected for you or have you put it together as you’ve grown up?

When I was younger, no, I thought it was very much, I happen to be this artistic creative individual. I loved writing. I loved telling stories, progressing on to drawing, painting, photography, music production as I got older. 

And then alongside it I just always had this love of football. Played from when I was about eight – it was my love, my passion, my hobby.

Even as I got older, I remember thinking about colleges, I remember thinking about university and neither were a career – you know, 20 or so years ago, those really weren’t careers in the same way they are now. 

It was only as I started getting more and more into my career now, as a 3D artist, social media content creator for my football team – which was many years ago at Luton – did I then realise: oh hang on a minute, these things overlap in so many different ways.

Even now in my full-time job, a lot of the time I try to incorporate sport or football because it’s what drives my passion and keeps me motivated.

What would you say the aims of the camps are? Are they to give girls ideas as to what they maybe could do in the future within sport but also with their creative talents?

I think it’s basically what you said – understanding that football is a career now for young girls and so wanting to get more girls into football. We’ve seen it when England won the Euros, both times, the uptake.

I used to coach when I was younger and we used to have to mix age groups together. We’d have seven players. The uptake of girls now in football is so high and I think as someone who is a female in the creative industry, there is still that same… barrier is the wrong word… but there’s that same understanding of it being male-dominated, the same as football, was male-dominated. 

That for me is a really key thing about these camps – to show that these barriers aren’t there. These careers are there, no matter who you are. 

No matter whether you’re male, female, whatever, you can explore and you can go into football, if you’re into football. 

You can go into creativity, you could do the two, you could do photography for a sports club or a football club.

What I hope is the biggest outcome of this, is for young girls who – maybe like me 20 years ago –  don’t realise this is a career path and that, for both really, it is. 

What do you think this sort of creativity adds to football, not just on the pitch, but how girls maybe express themselves or feel part of the game a bit more?

Like you said, being able to express yourselves, we all do it in different ways. 

Some people like to draw, some people like to do skills on a football pitch. Some people like to be vocal, to communicate, to help one another. 

I think getting to explore those different avenues of not just creativity but expression, and having a place to do it with confidence, that’s the main thing. 

So many young girls probably have these incredible ideas of what they want to do, what they want to be. And I think as females, especially, we tend to be slightly less confident.

I wonder now with this space, when you’re younger, if you’re almost pushed to be like: hey express yourselves, be confident and we’re all doing it together.

As they progress through school and their careers, we’re going to have these incredibly talented, expressive, really confident young women, which I think will really start to shape how people are creative and how brands even run things by having these people in the meetings where they need to be.

You mentioned confidence, what other skills might camps like this bring to girls?

Confidence is a big one, self-belief, and understanding that we’re all very different too. 

Creatives are very different, footballers are very different, and I think on the surface people probably think art is art and football is football.  

But as people, being able to express ourselves and understand we’re all different, is great. The more we get supported around that, I think it will end up driving a lot of change in women’s football, in football in general, in design, in these really high-end companies.

Yeah, all of these skills. The confidence, the self-belief, the understanding that being different is great. That’s how we get these really cool outcomes.

We just did a workshop and told them to do the same thing – design a shirt – and we’ll have all different outcomes. And knowing that yours is different to yours, but they’re both amazing because it came from you. 

Talking about identity too. Learning that about ourselves is a really important thing at a young age.

What would you like the girls to take away from the camps? 

Yeah, everything that we spoke about and really to understand that football and creativity and the things that we love and enjoy, can all come together.

When I was young, I didn’t have to choose a football path or just the creative path. Any of the skills and talents and things that we want to do.  

I want them to go away and be like: that’s all cool. Whoever I want to be, or whatever I want to do, it’s down to me. And I’m gonna do that. 

I’ve built an entire career on being passionate and hardworking because I didn’t go to college. I didn’t go to university, you know, self-taught. That passion is what still drives me. 

I enjoy being a role model for not only young creators, young footballers, but also the ones who perhaps don’t want to go and do higher education.

Education is so important, but it’s not always a limiting factor if we have that kind of belief and that passion. 

Creativity is hard to teach, but I think what we’re doing in these camps is pushing them to believe in themselves, believe in their passion.

Do you think women’s football is a particularly exciting space for design and creativity right now?

Oh yeah, absolutely. 

With the involvement of Adobe especially. More and more brands. We see Arsenal’s social media accounts and the way they engage their fans, the way they engage their players. The way that Adidas brings out tips and stuff, and it’s all just different forms of expression – all the stuff we’ve already talked about.

Every single year or almost every single month, I see something new that I love, and I think it’s incredible. 

More people in the social media space, more people talking about women’s football. I think anything to do with that is exciting.

And I think how different it is compared to when I was these girls’ age. It’s incredible and to be able to be a small part of it and that small change –  it’s an honour. 

The last eight to ten years has been that real big jump to: of course girls play football. Of course, we have a girls football team. Whereas, when I was younger I was playing with the boys’ team at school and that was normal.

Now it’s completely normal that there’s a girls’ football team and if there isn’t, that’s now being questioned. I think that’s where that transition is now so key. Why haven’t you got a girls’ team? 

It’s becoming an expectation which is what’s now going to take it even further. 

What does it say about the growth of women’s football that we’re talking not just about that access to playing football, but access to the culture around the game?

Yeah. I think about the last few years especially and how hugely things have changed. A lot is thanks to the Euros and the Lionesses and and also then the brands who are talking about it, the brands who are involved, the people with a big voice, like Adobe, getting involved. They lead from the top.

And I now think we’re seeing these real impactful changes, where Arsenal women now play at the Emirates. 

They now get 40,000+ fans there. Not only have they got the opportunity but they’re now proving why that opportunity is so important – because we now have tens of thousands of people able to support.

They’re on TV, which previously you wouldn’t really have many games. Now all the WSL is on TV, the FA Cup.

So I play in the FA Cup, I get knocked out relatively early on because of the level I play at, but some of those games get chosen to go on TV. That then brings money into the clubs, brings money into grassroots football. 

And it’s all this really incredible circle of football that stems from, not necessarily football, but stems from Adobe, stems from the TV, from all the fans being able to watch. All the people who are doing their side hustles, we’ve got merchandise, we’re really seeing these transitions, these changes that are making big differences.

Ruby Robinson, winner of the shirt design competition

Congratulations on the competition win. Your shirt design is amazing. Can you tell me how it came about?

It came up on my Instagram – Karen Carney was talking about it. And because I do illustration and graphic design in college, I was like: well, I might as well give it a go and see what comes out of it. 

But I didn’t go in expecting to win. There’s so many people that have probably entered. But then I got the email and thought: that is crazy! 

It’s such a good opportunity because it can look so good on my CV for the future.

So what was your reaction when you found out?

It was three days after my birthday and I couldn’t believe it. I didn’t even know what to think. 

I told my mum and she was like: are you sure this is real?  

“I hope so mum. I really do.”

Does it make you think differently about having a creative career? Or were you already sure?

I definitely would love to go into it. I’m doing it as a subject at college and it’s something I would love to go into and even more if I can do it in football. That would be even better.

What does it mean to you to have your design shown on national television and at Wembley in front of all those people? 

I love watching football, so knowing that my design will be seen by thousands of people is just something I never thought would happen. And to have the opportunity at such a young age – it’s just shocking. 

I’m going to enjoy it as much as I can while it’s happening. 

How do you think these camps can help inspire girls?

It would definitely help younger girls get into the flow of maybe going into football as they get older, and having the opportunity to go into that as a career.

They didn’t have a girls’ football team when I was in secondary school, so it was not a thing for me to be able to continue doing after primary school. I’m glad that younger girls can have these opportunities because we deserve them. 

The Lionesses have definitely made the visibility go up and given the opportunity to many young girls.

I wouldn’t have watched women’s football if it wasn’t for Euro 2022 and all of that coming into the media. 

So it definitely helps younger girls to know about it. 

So actually this wouldn’t have come about if the Lionesses hadn’t raised the profile. Wow. That’s quite a short cycle from there to here for you.
Have you always loved drawing and art?

Yeah, since secondary school, I took it as a GCSE option and my teacher wasn’t very… I’d do things and he would correct me and it knocked my confidence a bit.

Then when I went to college, my teacher helped me get confidence again. And I actually found the love again that I had for it when I was younger. 

While you’ve been involved in the camp here have you thought: oh wow, this would have made such a difference to help me understand that I can express myself?

Yeah, definitely. If I had this when I was younger, I think I’d still be playing football now, to be honest. 

Did you link football with design before or was it this competition that sparked you into doing it? 

I’ve been to a few games in the last couple months and I’ve really got into it and I’ve been collecting programmes.

I love the fact that the programmes have all these different graphics on them. That helped me know that graphic design crossed over with football. 

For my college course, my tutor has made me do my final project around this shirt design. So, I’ve designed loads of different stuff that could be used in football matches and stuff.

She wants me to show it in the final show that we’re having in college. 

A kit is one of the most obviously visible parts of football culture. What do you like about shirt design?

I love the fact that every shirt design is different. They all have certain aspects on them that you have to look at properly to see the design on it. 

When I was designing this shirt, I wanted to design something that wasn’t out there before. I wanted it to be completely different from everything else.

Have you got a favourite shirt?

Probably the Arsenal third shirt from this season. [2025-26]

What do you think creativity brings to football? 

I think it gives people the opportunity to also be involved in the football industry in a different way.  So not playing on the pitch, but still being involved within the industry.

Do you think creative opportunities like this help girls feel more connected to football? 

Yeah, definitely.

I don’t think you’ve seen much stuff to do with men’s football within the creative industry – this opportunity is obviously for women’s football.

And that’s great that young girls and boys can get involved in designing a football shirt that could be worn in the Cup final.

Does women’s football feel like an exciting place for someone who’s studying graphic design and wanting to go into the creative industry?

I love going to games, the atmosphere about it is just something else. I don’t think you get that anywhere else. 

At a women’s game, everybody is so supportive of the players, everybody gets along, it’s something else. 

So you could be part of this new visual culture of women’s football, which is building its own identity at the moment. That’s got to be pretty exciting?

Yeah, I’d love to –  if I could, I would definitely go into football in the graphic design industry. 

I would do anything. Anything would do it for me.

What does it say about the growth of women’s football that we’re not just talking about access on the pitch – now we’re talking about the culture around it too?

Yeah, it really shows that women’s football is getting bigger and it can get to the size of men’s football.

People need to realise that we’re all the same and we can all do the same thing. 

It doesn’t matter if we’re a man or a woman.