--- title: Harvard Women's Rugby Team Photo Shoot Goes Viral description: The Harvard women's rugby team hosts a photo shoot to show that strength is beautiful. canonical: https://time.com/3018745/harvard-rugby-team-strength-beauty/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-07-22T17:05:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:42.152Z og:title: Harvard Women's Rugby Team Wants You to Know Strength Is Beautiful og:description: In a photo shoot gone viral, the Harvard women's rugby team promotes strength og:url: https://time.com/3018745/harvard-rugby-team-strength-beauty/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb1da901466ece02f/69869cabd0b6f2379d305636/tumblr_n6ns3ao06o1tbamoeo1_r1_1280.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: tumblr_n6ns3ao06o1tbamoeo1_r1_1280 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Harvard Women's Rugby Team Wants You to Know Strength Is Beautiful twitter:description: In a photo shoot gone viral, the Harvard women's rugby team promotes strength twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb1da901466ece02f/69869cabd0b6f2379d305636/tumblr_n6ns3ao06o1tbamoeo1_r1_1280.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Harvard Women's Rugby Team Wants You to Know Strength Is Beautiful  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jul 22, 2014 5:05 PM UTC  Lydia Burns and Shelby Lin  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson Jul 22, 2014 5:05 PM UTC Amid movies and advertisements that promote stick-thin women, and even fitness magazines that focus on “lean” and “toned” bodies, the Harvard women’s rugby team has an important message: strength is beautiful. The team staged a photo shoot in which they all wore matching sports bras and spandex and wrote empowering messages on each other’s bodies. “Powerful,” reads one girl’s knuckles. “Ripped,” says another’s bicep, and “Beautiful & Fierce!” announces another girl’s stomach. “I think the notion of strength being beautiful is so overlooked in our society because strength is historically associated with masculinity, and women are taught that they must be strictly feminine to be beautiful,” player Helen Clark told [TODAY.com](http://www.today.com/health/harvard-rugby-teams-photo-project-spreads-inspiring-body-image-message-1D79949713). The photos were published in June along with an essay [in the Harvard Political Review](http://harvardpolitics.com/covers/body-politic-covers/exercise-body-image/), and have gone viral in recent weeks. “We hope seeing our photos will encourage women to go out and find a space like rugby where their bodies are celebrated for their inherent strength and power,” Clark said, “Rather than just for how they look in a bikini.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3018745/harvard-rugby-team-strength-beauty/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3018745/harvard-rugby-team-strength-beauty/"},"headline":"Harvard Women's Rugby Team Wants You to Know Strength Is Beautiful","datePublished":"2014-07-22T17:05:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:42.152Z","description":"\"Ripped,\" \"so strong\" and \"fearless\"","url":"https://time.com/3018745/harvard-rugby-team-strength-beauty/","keywords":["Living","Body Image","beauty","Harvard","rugby"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb1da901466ece02f/69869cabd0b6f2379d305636/tumblr_n6ns3ao06o1tbamoeo1_r1_1280.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tessa Berenson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb1da901466ece02f/69869cabd0b6f2379d305636/tumblr_n6ns3ao06o1tbamoeo1_r1_1280.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"tumblr_n6ns3ao06o1tbamoeo1_r1_1280","caption":"","creditText":"Lydia Burns and Shelby Lin","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3018745/harvard-rugby-team-strength-beauty/","name":"Harvard Women's Rugby Team Wants You to Know Strength Is Beautiful"}}]}] ```