Soccer without a sports bra? No way! How a Jupiter teen has helped 1,300 girls play
As a lifelong center midfielder on the soccer pitch, Jessie Baxter knows the importance of a shin guard that stays in place, well-fitting cleats — and a good sports bra.
So it took her about five seconds to notice when girls on opposing teams didn't have that last particular item. She saw it in how they hesitated to jump up to get the ball. She recognized it in how they ran slower and walked across the field with their arms crossed over their chests.
Baxter, then a sophomore at Jupiter High School, knew that if all girls had proper sports bras and comfortable underwear, more would feel better playing high-intensity sports like soccer.
She decided to make that happen.
Baxter and her teammate Holly Milson founded Ta Ta For Now, an organization that buys and collects new bras, underwear and hygiene products for girls across Palm Beach County and distributes them confidentially through schools, community groups and homeless shelters. Now starting its third year, the organization has helped 1,300 girls in Palm Beach County meet their basic needs.
"I wanted girls to feel confident playing sports. But soon it branched out from sports to school," Baxter said. "Because sports and schools require the same thing: to be confident and to be comfortable with yourself."
Baxter, now 17, has gotten thousands of donations from popular undergarment brands like Victoria's Secret and Skims, a shapewear brand co-founded by Kim Kardashian. She's starting 2024 with a $10,000 grant from the National Society of High School Scholars, which she won after participating in a Shark Tank-style pitching competition against students from across the country.
With the new money in hand, Baxter is excited about what the grant will mean for girls in Palm Beach County without access to menstrual products or well-fitting undergarments. She's working on a children's book about puberty and expanding her operation to serve more girls in the new year.
Baxter hopes that preparing girls with the right clothes will help curb absenteeism in school and keep them on sports teams during puberty, when as many of 50% of female athletes quit their sport.
"Allowing girls to play sports and feel more comfortable is a huge factor in their confidence," she said.
70% of schools have seen uptick in absenteeism since before COVID
Chronic absenteeism in school has been on the rise across the country since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The share of fourth-graders who were chronically absent, or missed at least 10% of the school year, spiked, going from 24% in 2019 to 36% in 2022, according to data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).
In Palm Beach County, chronic absenteeism equates to missing 18 days, or just under four weeks of classes each year.
Students miss school for vacations and doctor's appointments, but Baxter points out that some students also miss class due to transportation issues, homelessness, or because they don't have clothes that are appropriate, that fit or that meet dress-code requirements.
While several nonprofits provide school-appropriate clothing and uniforms, few donations include undergarments that fit. Underwear is the "most needed, but most under-donated" piece of clothing, according to The Undies Project, a nonprofit that collects new underwear for adults and children.
When Baxter decided to address the issue of girls' undergarments in Palm Beach County, she and Milson started "Ta Ta For Now" as a club at Jupiter High. The group's name hails from the popular sendoff from Winnie-the-Pooh, a movie which admittedly came out 29 years before she was born.
In its first year, Ta Ta For Now had 45 members who helped Baxter and Milson pack bras and underwear into garbage bags to donate.
Since then, they've refined the process.
Baxter stores the garments in an air-conditioned warehouse near her family's house in Jupiter Farms and packs bags using the size information provided by the school or community group. Right now, she packs garments ranging from extra-small to 4XL, and stocks bras in every band and cup size she can get her hands on.
For older girls, the charity seeks different styles and cuts of underwear so girls feel comfortable wearing them under dresses and leggings and leotards.
Ta Ta For Now members don't meet those they help. But they know their impact
The bulk of the work at Ta Ta For Now doesn't include giddy in-person events handing out care packages or chatting with girls about how the donation has changed their lives.
Baxter and Milson don't even meet most of the girls they help.
That's because the bras, packed by size in bags of two, and the underwear, packed in bags of seven, are given out discreetly and confidentially to girls in need at school, in shelters and by other nonprofits that work with their families. It's an important part of the mission, Baxter said.
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By receiving the care packages from teachers and organizations they trust, students avoid the "uncomfortable" situation of asking a random stranger for help getting clean bras and underwear. Baxter said the goal is to make it so no one is embarrassed to ask for help meeting their needs.
Baxter acknowledges that the tradeoff is that news of her group's success often reach her secondhand.
Most of Baxter's day-to-day work is sorting garments, writing notes of encouragement for each package, soliciting new donations from companies, applying for grants and purchasing bras and underwear in bulk for distribution.
Plastering a bulletin board in Baxter's workshop are nearly a dozen photos of recipients. Some smile ear-to-ear with their bag of bright-patterned garments, while others place the bag in front of their face so they can't be identified.
Baxter calls the corner of her workshop her inspiration board.
She doesn't need to see a girl's face or know her life story to know the immense relief she feels at having clean and cute undergarments that fit correctly.
"Girls don’t feel as empowered in their bodies as they should be," Baxter said. "(Ta Ta For Now) is giving girls something so simple to feel good in their own bodies."
Katherine Kokal is a journalist covering education at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at kkokal@pbpost.com. Help support our work. Subscribe today!
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Jupiter teen Jessie Baxter on Ta Ta For Now free bras and underwear
