Rebel Girls Sport, a newly launched vertical of the Rebel Girls book publisher and merchandising brand known for promoting female-empowerment, has a range of content, league partnerships and publishing plans on the horizon for the upcoming year.

As part of this launch, the San Francisco-based company has partnered with League One Volleyball, a new women’s professional volleyball league in the US. To coincide with the league’s first season starting in January, Rebel Girls will produce a weekly match recap titled LOVB x Rebel Girls Sport that will run throughout the season. Each three-minute episode will feature junior reporters and kid-friendly explanations of the game, giving girls an entry point into sports fandoms—one of the trends on the rise in kids media.

Even with the recent growth in interest and investment in women’s sports, there’s still not enough focus on encouraging the participation of young girls, Rebel Girls CEO Jes Wolfe tells Kidscreen. 

“We want to fill this white space and super-serve the tween and teen girl audience, [and] we have the storytelling expertise and global community to do it,” says Wolfe, noting that the upcoming content will align with the reality that a majority of Gen Alpha (69%) get their sports content from YouTube. “We are creating content for girls, by girls, and meeting them where they are, because we know that broadcast experiences are not designed for them.”

But it’s not just volleyball that will be the focus at Rebel Girls Sport. The vertical is taking a broader approach to promoting and encouraging girls to develop an interest in a variety of sports. For example, the company’s next book, due out in 2025, will be a tween-friendly soccer guide called Rebel Girls Soccer! that will provide stats, how-tos, tricks, and profiles of leading figures in women’s soccer. And as part of its three-year partnership with Nike, Rebel Girls teases 2025 activations spotlighting women’s basketball. Additionally, Rebel Girls will serve as an official media rights partner for the upcoming pro women’s softball league, Athletes Unlimited Softball League. 

To further promote the brand and encourage girls to develop interest in sports, Rebel Girls Sport has planned consumer product expansions with partners like apparel companies Mightly and Adora and jewelry company CHARM IT.

Coming from a publishing background with a broader multi-platform focus today, Rebel Girls has previously produced more than 300 sports-related stories (inclusive of books, audio and video content) featuring well-known names like Serena Williams, Simone Biles, Jordan Chiles, Michelle Kwan, Megan Rapinoe and Chloe Kim. The genre has performed well for the brand, with sports-themed storytelling representing 45% of Rebel Girls’ Top 20 most-watched content titles on YouTube.