NBA and WNBA back Lean In Girls program that tells facilitators not to call participants ‘girls’
The NBA and WNBA support Lean In Girls, a free leadership programme for 11 to 15-year-olds, but its facilitator handbook advises adults not to address participants collectively as “girls”. The guidance reflects the programme’s aim to include young people exploring their gender identity, and raises questions about how the leagues reviewed the curriculum before backing it.
A 2023 handbook says the programme is for young people who “identify with the girlhood experience” and includes activities on confidence, goal-setting and handling failure. It encourages, but does not require, participants to share pronouns, and recommends terms such as “everyone” or “team”; other sections cover social power, bias and allyship. Lean In described an updated 15-session programme at a February 2026 webinar, while the article says a request for its current curriculum was made.
- NBA and WNBA support Lean In Girls, a leadership programme for ages 11 to 15.
- Its handbook recommends gender-neutral terms when addressing participants.
- The curriculum also covers pronouns, bias, social power and allyship.
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The case for
The guidance can be seen as a considerate way to make a leadership programme welcoming to young people with varied experiences of gender, while avoiding assumptions about how participants identify. Using terms such as “everyone” or “team” is a small change that need not prevent the programme from supporting girls’ confidence and leadership.
The case against
Critics could reasonably question whether a programme presented as serving girls should avoid addressing participants as girls, and whether that language makes its intended audience less clear. They may also ask whether the NBA and WNBA adequately reviewed the curriculum before endorsing it, particularly as the article reports that the current version was requested but does not provide it.