Dunn Recognizes Her Black Girl Magic!
Despite Dunn’s remarkable success as a soccer player, her position as a woman of color in a sport that’s played primarily by white females from upper-middle class backgrounds is not lost on her.
“As a black woman I always felt growing up I had to do above and beyond stuff to be noticed, to feel like I could hang with everybody else,” Dunn told The Guardian. “I tried to implement so many different things in my game so that I’m not just known for my speed. It’s a stereotype that black players are just really fast, but at the end of day I want to be skilled, I want to be technical, I want to have vision and that’s what I’ve always tried to promote in my game: not relying on one thing but just being able to outwork players in so many different ways.”
Dunn says she also took the same attitude toward life off the soccer field. That pressure of feeling she needed to be better than her peers led to Dunn becoming an honor roll student in high school. It also reminded her about how she is a role model for other black girls around the world.
“I was on a flight from England playing for Chelsea last season,” Dunn told The Undefeated. “And a girl from Kenya walked up to me and said: ‘I just want to say you give me so much hope. You have really opened up my eyes to a new world where it doesn’t matter what you look like or where you are from … you can play this sport.’ That, hands down, was the most impactful thing I have ever experienced.”
