Maher x Dove #Keepherconfident Campaign

“What if every girl saw her body for what it could do instead of how it looked?” This was the heart behind what Ilona Maher, Olympic Medalist for the U.S. Women’s Rugby Team, shared during the recent Confidence Playbook Panel in Vegas with Dove. The brand shared the interview clip in a reel on social media and shared in the caption that it was a celebration of athletes paving the way for the next generation of girls to stay confident and stay in sports. In this candid panel, Maher shared that she was always a bigger girl growing up and that she would go cry to her mom, “Mom, why do I look like this? Yet, I’m fitter than her but she’s so much smaller than me…Sports was the only way I realized my body was for a bigger purpose… sometimes we think of bodies as something just to be looked at and objectified and I think that sports gives us a reason to show what we’re capable of,” Maher said. The reel has resonated with users on Instagram, receiving over 75k likes, 1k+ comments, and over 2k reposts.  

She added that there isn’t one perfect body type. We’re all different, so find “what makes you feel alive” and makes you understand that your body is so much more. Maher is an official brand partner for Dove and a leading face for their #keepherconfident campaign. She is known for speaking out about body positivity and body image on her social media platforms. 

This partnership seeks to address and raise awareness for a critical statistic in youth sports and athletics: one in two girls quit sports due to body image issues and low confidence directly tied to criticism shared about their body.

There are several key initiatives as part of this Dove campaign that launched this summer during the FIFA World Cup 2026. Promoting the Body Confident Sport curriculum to teach girls to appreciate what their bodies can do rather than how they look, per PR Newswire. Following the Panel in Vegas with Maher and other athletes like Hockey star Hilary Knight, and soccer player Alyssa Thompson, Dove hosted a Body Confident Sports Workshop that invited Boys and Girls Club of Southern Nevada for mentorship, movement and confidence-building activities. 

Additionally, for every Dove item purchased, a portion of the proceeds is donated to organizations dedicated to keeping young girls active in sports, per PR Newswire. 

Chief Growth Marketing Officer at Dove shared, "That's why at Dove, we're committed to showing girls what is possible. Through #KeepHerConfident and Body Confident Sport, we're helping them discover the confidence, community and joy that comes with playing sports,” said Marcela Melero. Melero added that,  “Celebrating the accomplishments of the most elite athletes is powerful, but it is equally important to create environments that ensure the next generation believes there is a place for them in sports,” per PR Newswire. 

Dove is continuing to expand access to it’s program, Body Confident Sport, an evidence-based program created to that helps coaches, parents and mentors build body confidence among athletes ages 11 to 17. The program provides practical tools that help adults create sports environments where girls are valued for what their bodies can do, not judged for how their bodies look. 

Alyssa Thompson, another elite athlete who joined Dove’s panel with Maher shared, "When you are a young athlete, the messages you hear from coaches, teammates, fans and even yourself can have a lasting impact. Girls should be able to focus on competing and having fun instead of worrying about whether their bodies look a certain way. I am proud to work with Dove to empower more girls to stay in sports.” per PR Newswire, Dove didn’t tell it’s partners or consumers what to feel but instead gave them the language for a feeling they already had. That is the power of social listening in action. 

Dove also continues to build on their brand values of portraying women as they are in real life with honesty, diversity, and representation, and featuring women of all sizes, ages, ethnicities, and with all hair color, types and styles. The brand also has a commitment to not using AI. “This includes never using AI to alter or distort real people in our marketing, advertising or campaigns,” the brand’s statement reads.  

The brand has also set a very ambitious goal to help young people build confidence around their body image and self-esteem, called the Dove Self-Esteem project, with the goal to the biggest provider of self-esteem education in the world, with a goal to educate 250 million young people by 2030.  

While Dove clearly picked the right partners and celebrity representatives who represent the same values for this campaign, it didn’t end with the reel they posted.  Dove has built an entire ecosystem around one clear idea: use storytelling to change how girls see themselves, then give them somewhere to take that belief through education, mentorship, community experiences and tangible resources.

The best brand storytelling doesn’t always make people think more about the brand or product itself. Sometimes, it gives them a new way to think about themselves instead. Dove’s #KeepHerConfident campaign is a good example of what can happen when a brand taps into something people genuinely care about and backs up the message with action.

Written by Hannah Lacy
Bio: Hannah Lacy is a digital content strategist with over seven years of experience in marketing and social media, and more than a decade of experience as a freelance writer contributing to various publications. A working mother of two school-aged children, she writes at the intersection of ambition and parenthood, with a passion for storytelling, advocating for working moms, and partnering with mission-driven brands and organisations.