At puberty, girls’ confidence plummets.

The most recent Always Confidence and Puberty Survey revealed that over half of the girls lose confidence during puberty, with 1 in 2 also reporting they felt paralyzed by their fear of failure. In fact, this fear of failure leads 7 in 10 girls to avoid trying new activities, whilst failure itself making 6 in 10 consider quitting activities they love, such as math, music, or science.

According to the survey 80% of girls said they felt the pressure to be perfect  lead them to fear failure, and 75% agree that social media also contributed to their fear of failing. This confidence drop comes at a stage in life where learning from failure is essential to building and learning new skills. Girls are experiencing a paralyzing fear of failure at a time when they could actually most benefit from persevering through failure. Learning from failure is essential to learning new skills and building confidence.

That’s why Always has just released a new video – Keep Going #LikeAGirl – designed to help girls reframe how they see failure. It marks the launch of the latest chapter of the Always #LikeAGirl campaign and is here to empower and inspire confidence in young girls.  

The video depicts a group of girls confronted by fear as they take on everyday challenges at school. At first, each girl appears overcome by their fear of failure during chess matches, soccer games, and drama classes. Then, the video turns into an empowering PSA: showing failure is an opportunity to fuel growth and build confidence. 

Even the video’s director, Lucy Luscombe, related to the freezing fear of failure that many adolescent girls experience. 

“I remember so many times when I felt afraid to fall short and the lengths I’d go to avoid it, but I was so inspired by the girls we met during filming,” Luscombe said in a statement.  

She hopes the video will encourage girls to try new things.

“It is my goal that this video helps us all reframe how we think of setbacks and encourage everyone to inspire girls to see these experiences as a way to build their confidence and keep going,” she said.   

This isn’t the first time Always, the leading provider of feminine care products, has released an initiative aimed at building confidence in girls worldwide. 

In 2014 Always launched the #LikeAGirl campaign, with the first video targeted to combat the negative impact that the phrase, “like a girl,” has on girls’ confidence. Since then, Always helped reclaim the phrase, turning “like a girl” into a message of empowerment. 

Before the launch of the #LikeAGirl campaign, the phrase was often seen as an insult indicating weakness. After watching the first campaign video for Always #LikeAGirl, 76% of people surveyed said their perception of the phrase had changed. 

Since then, Always #LikeAGirl has helped provide the world with 44 “girl power” emojis, inspired girls to keep playing sports, and reminded girls that they are unstoppable. 

On top, Always has donated over 70 million sanitary pads to girls in over 45 countries and helps 17 million girls receive puberty,hygiene and confidence education every year.

Always hopes to use the power of social media to continue its mission of building confidence for girls as they transition into strong, successful women.

“Always will do all that we can to normalize and reframe failure as something that is not to be feared, but something that is crucial to growth and building confidence,” Michèle Baeten, Always Associate Director, Procter & Gamble, said. “Our goal is to create an environment where girls feel they have full support to try new things, make mistakes, and are encouraged to keep going #LikeAGirl.”   

Global Citizens can share their own stories of time they faced failure and what they learned from it, to help build a movement that inspires girls everywhere to embrace failure, building a future of full of confident girls and women.

*Note: Always is P&G’s leading feminine hygiene brand. P&G is a proud corporate partner of Global Citizen.