Inspiring New Video Celebrates the Women's National Soccer Team Ahead of the World Cup
They inspire us!
Ahead of the FIFA Women’s World Cup this summer, Twitter and the U.S. women’s national soccer team partnered to make a video centered around the hashtag #SheInspiresMe.
In the clip — exclusively debuted by PEOPLE — the featured players include Alex Morgan, Tobin Heath, Kelley O’Hara, Rose Lavelle, Becky Sauerbrunn, Adrianna Franch, Megan Rapinoe, Ashlyn Harris and Julie Ertz.
“It is so important to celebrate women in sports and women in general because we have made so many strides, we want an equal seat at the table, we deserve an equal seat at the table,” Morgan, 29, begins the video.
“It’s important for girls to have role models to look up to, to be inspired by,” Heath, 30, continues.
O’Hara, 30, chimes in: “To all the women who have gone before and broken barriers for us, thank you.”
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“Without you, we wouldn’t be here today,” Franch, 28, says. “We play for you, and we play for the ones coming up.”
“Hashtag she inspires me,” multiple players proudly say together.
The women’s national team won the last World Cup in 2015, and they’re looking to defend their title at this year’s tournament, which kicks off in France on June 7 and ends one month later, on July 7.
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In March, on International Women’s Day, the championship-winning soccer team took a stand for equal pay, filing a federal gender discrimination lawsuit to the U.S. Soccer Federation.
In the lawsuit, which was filed in Los Angeles federal court under the Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, all 28 female players claimed that they are not paid equally to the men’s national players.
In a statement issued to Time, Morgan, a forward for the team, said taking a stand on gender equality came with the territory of being a professional female athlete.
“Each of us is extremely proud to wear the United States jersey, and we also take seriously the responsibility that comes with that. We believe that fighting for gender equality in sports is a part of that responsibility,” she said. “As players, we deserved to be paid equally for our work, regardless of our gender.”
