Megan Garbutt is a Media and Communications apprentice at Grimsby Town Football Club. Previously she has worked alongside national publications following the Lionesses and is one of the co-hosts of the popular digital panel show, All For Women's Football.
To kick things off, Megan, can you tell me about your relationship with sports as a young woman?
As a young woman, I’ve always had a strong relationship with sports. I’ve had parents who have brought me up to try anything I want to and to watch anything with no boundaries so I’ve always been involved with sports, whether that’s watching from the sidelines or running with an egg and spoon in my yearly sports day at primary school. I’ve never felt out of place as a woman in sport.
It's always great to hear that your parents helped you embrace these opportunities. Egg and spoon races aside - what’s your earliest memory of sport?
My earliest memory of sport is playing cricket every Friday at my local cricket club.
It was open to anyone in certain age groups to just come and have a go at cricket and play some games and drills with the other local children. Parents were allowed to sit and watch or have a drink in the pavilion. It was just very relaxed, but a very inclusive way to introduce young children to a sport that may not be deemed as that popular, especially for young women.
I know we’ve discussed this a bit before, but what do you think about female opportunity, both in sport and in media? Is it starting to improve?
The more accessible the opportunities are, the more women will be highly invested in getting involved in sport, whether that’s as athletes or as part of the media.
Over the past few years, more opportunities lower down the sporting pyramid have been significant to the sport's growth. Whether it’s girls-only sessions for certain sports, or just the way companies are promoting their local participation sessions, it’s all making a massive difference.
Locally, working in football, Grimsby have recently launched their new Girls ETC which is allowing girls a clearer pathway to the professional game and giving them access to professional coaching, and I believe the popularity of that is down to the achievement of the Lionesses winning Euro 2022.
In the media, there are so many names of women, whether they’re ex-athletes or not, that people look at and associate with certain sports or programmes. That shows how much of an impression these certain people in the media have. You look at the likes of Alex Scott and even if people don’t watch sport or women’s football, they know who Alex Scott is because of her presence in the media which can only be a good thing.
And finally, what advice would you give to young girls interested in getting involved in sport, and also getting involved in sports journalism?
Now is the time. There isn’t a better time to be getting involved in sport for females. The amount of female athletes that are seen as figureheads or inspirations these days is crazy. You can’t count/ name them all as you’d be there forever as every woman in every sport is an inspiration to someone out there!
To someone getting involved in sports journalism, Do it! You may feel outnumbered due to the amount of males that want the same career, but that allows you to push yourself to the top so much more than you realise and the experience you will gain will be invaluable at such early stages in your desired career.
You can follow Megan on X and All For Women’s Football on X and YouTube.
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