Good for a Girl

A Woman Running in a Man’s World

By Lauren Fleshman Penguin Press, 2023

Lauren Fleshman grew up believing she could do anything men could do. As she watched young female runners around her deal with disordered eating and injuries, she questioned their choices and felt confident she’d make better ones. She wanted to be the best, while staying healthy.

But during her years of high school, college and pro running, despite her best intentions, she had to contend with puberty, negative body image, disordered eating, irregular periods and, ultimately, a body that was breaking down.

“We fold and smash women and girls into a male-based infrastructure and then scratch our heads when the same friction points show up again and again,” Fleshman writes. The realization made her angry—“angry that so many women and girls were blamed for not thriving in a system not truly built for them.”

Good for a Girl is the story of Fleshman’s life and impressive career—from ncaa champion to Nike pro and Olympic hopeful to, in more recent years, coach of Littlewing Athletics in Oregon and brand strategy advisor at the women’s apparel brand Oiselle. It’s also an honest and unflinching examination of the problems with women’s sport.

Fleshman incorporates statistics about menstrual dysfunction, how puberty affects male and female athletes differently, the lack of female coaches in the U.S. and body image among female athletes—all to show that attempts to train and coach women like men is not a recipe for success. And that women deserve a different, better approach.

The book is part of her effort to fix the sport she loves; it’s infuriating and sad, but also hopeful, and compulsively readable. Fleshman doesn’t only identify what’s wrong with the running world—she also lays out what needs to be done by coaches, schools, the ncaa and running brands to fix it. “True equality in sports, like any other industry, requires rebuilding the systems so there is an equal chance to thrive,” she writes.

Good for a Girl is a must-read for every runner, no matter their gender.—