Great Britain’s Olympic rugby team have joined a campaign to encourage young girls not to give up the sport.

Rugby sevens players Jasmine Joyce, Celia Quansah and Ellie Boatman are considered favourites to win a medal at the Paris Olympics after finishing fourth at the previous Games in Tokyo.

The trio have joined lingerie company Bluebella’s #StrongIsBeautiful campaign to show girls “how they can look muscular and strong while feeling feminine.”

According to Women In Sport, around 64 percent of secondary school girls drop out of any sport before the age of 16, many due to insecurities about their bodies during puberty.

The players spoke about how difficult it is for them to play sports as young people, often being the only girl on a team and being told that they “look like a guy.”

Mrs Boatman, 27, said: “Sometimes you would even hear parents telling their sons to go after the girl because she was the weakest link in the team.”

“It was definitely the case that the boys were celebrated much more and all efforts were focused on them.

“There would be little to no cost for the girls’ equipment and I would be given boys’ equipment that would be completely beyond my capabilities.”

The players took part in a photo shoot and posed in lingerie to help girls feel empowered and change the perception that “the strong female form is not ‘feminine.'”

The #StrongIsBeautiful campaign has been running for eight years and has included athletes from the Olympic Games in Rio and Tokyo as well as the Women’s World Championship last year.

Joyce, 28, added: “I started playing rugby at my local rugby club when I was seven. But as a girl it was always difficult because there weren’t that many clubs with girls’ teams, so I had to take a few years off here and there. But now it’s getting a lot better. There are clusters and centres everywhere for girls and women to play rugby.”

She continued, “The only thing I would tell girls about body confidence is to be comfortable with who you are. You’ll never be perfect and there will always be parts of your body that you’re embarrassed about, but you should accept them all.”

Ms Quansah, 28, said: “I think one of the biggest challenges for women’s rugby is people’s perception that you can’t be feminine and play rugby. That feeling is common.”

“People like to say that women shouldn’t play rugby or that you’re too pretty for it and all these things that are just not true.”