Leah Williamson Guides Children To Find Power Within Them In New Book

The England women’s national team captain Leah Williamson is aiming to show children that they have the ability to achieve anything they want in life with the release of her first book ‘You Have The Power: Find Your Strength and Believe You Can’ out today.

The 132-page book, released by Macmillan Children’s Books and co-written by Guardian journalist, Suzanne Wrack, is aimed at children, especially girls, aged 11 and over and sets out to be “a positive guide for life which she hopes will inspire and motivate younger generations of girls to lead, find their strength and believe they can achieve what they love.”

In it, Williamson explains the journey she went on to reach the top of the women’s game, captaining England to victory in the UEFA Women’s Euro final against Germany last summer in front of 87,192 spectators at Wembley Stadium and millions more watching around the world.

Yet, she wants to show that the path to that moment was far from linear for a girl born with inverted toes and suffering from fragile ankles throughout her adolescence. Williamson, who praises her mother and grandmother as strong female role models in her life, is keen to emphasize that nothing else matters other than believing in yourself and being the best version of yourself you can be.

For children whose natural tendency is to feel like they do not fit in with the crowd and are different to other kids, Williamson attempts to give them the strength to feel they are on the right path to personal fulfillment. “If you are being different, it means you are focused on doing what YOU want to do and what makes you happy rather than what other people want you to do.”

She also encourages young people to be brave enough to take risks and be confident to speak out. Now acknowledged as a confident and distinguished orator, Williamson reveals she suffered from performance anxiety in big matches just a few years ago, occasionally leading to blurred vision. Sessions with a psychologist taught her techniques which she still uses to alleviate her nerves and always allow her to give her best.

Earlier this month, as a result of a campaign instigated by the Lionesses in the immediate aftermath of their victory at the UEFA Women’s Euro, the United Kingdom government pledged on International Women’s Day to create equal access to soccer for girls at school and a minimum of two hours of physical education a week.

For Williamson, who alongside Arsenal team-mate, Lotte Wubben-Moy was at the forefront of the campaign, this was a major victory. In the book, she laments how many of her contemporaries were not encouraged, in the same way she was, to play the game. “The way I see it is: if you choose not to play football that is a good thing, because it means you had the choice in the first place!”

Nonetheless, she understands how that choice still needs to be given to a more diverse pool of girls. Not shying away from the fact that all eleven starters for England in the UEFA Women’s Euro were white, Williamson admits that “we recognise that we need to do better. We need to make it easier for girls from different backgrounds to access football.”

Earlier this week, Williamson was named as the most influential woman in sport by the BBC Radio 4 Women’s Hour program on their first-ever Women’s Hour Power List. Speaking about the book, she said, “since our win in the summer of 2022, and with the platform we now have, it feels as though it is the right time to reach out to help the younger generation find the strength to believe in themselves, allowing them to become whoever they want to be.”

“I remember being that age, and I remember how tough it was. At a time where I am still learning myself, I want to help guide these young people, and help them understand that it’s not about being perfect, it’s about growing and getting to a point that they are happy with.”