The sounds of dap-ups and handshakes surround me as I sit in my chair in the press section of a women’s basketball game. Conversations of bets and statistics and schedules fly around while I try to find a comfortable position with the little leg room I have thanks to the man-spreading of colleagues around me.

I have seen these people multiple times for well over a year, covering multiple different NC State athletic games, and yet I am practically invisible whereas my male counterparts get greeted with smiles and laughs. This is my experience of being the invisible girl on press row.

I joined Technician’s sports section in fall of 2022, and since then, I can count on one hand the number of women sports staff writers I have worked with.

On the same hand, I can also count the number of women from Raleigh-based media outlets I have interacted with in the press boxes and media rooms. I still have five fingers up.

Sports journalism has always been and continues to be a male-dominated field, but the tide is slowly changing to become more welcoming to minorities and women. From 2018 to 2021, the percentage of female sports editors rose from 10% to 16.7% and reporters from 11.5% to 14.4%. But despite these gains, the coverage of women’s sports remains disproportionately low, accounting for only 5% to 15% of content on platforms.

While these advancements are great for representation, the feeling of reporting in sports still holds true to the “boys’ club” stereotype.

Being the only girl in locker rooms, media boxes and press rooms didn’t really bother me until recently, when a new writer for the sports section, who is a girl, came to cover a Carolina Hurricanes game with me. While sitting in our seats high above the ice and surrounded by some of the most dedicated hockey reporters in Raleigh, she asked me, “Is it normal that you’re the only girl up here?”

I haven’t been able to get that out of my head. Yes, I normally am the only member of the press that happens to be a girl up there. In locker room interviews with some of the NHL’s best and the brightest, I normally have to shove my hand, holding my phone to record, above the men much taller than me to get decent sound on the quotes.

It’s even more jarring covering women’s athletics at NC State. I have been dedicated to covering as many women’s sports as possible during my time with Technician’s sports section, wanting to elevate some of the most successful programs in school history. In my time doing so, I have interacted with sports journalists from all over the state and country, almost all exclusively male.

At events that are pushing the boundaries of women’s athletics, breaking attendance records and celebrating some phenomenal athletes, the tones and attitudes from those surrounding me on press row never seem to understand the significance of what they are covering. It almost feels like they would rather be doing anything else, including spending much of the time in their seats talking about the over-under they’re placing for the NFL and NBA games coming up.

Suddenly a place I used to love morphed into an environment of hyper-masculine posturing and a place where I couldn’t even get a head nod in acknowledgement. No one wants to be in a place where they don’t feel comfortable and welcomed. Some people might just tell me to “suck it up” and “that’s how this field works,” but I’m not the kind of person to push the interactions down. If the culture of sports writing isn’t welcoming to women, then it’s time for a change.

In order for this change to happen, we need to start acknowledging the women in the media rooms and press boxes. Ignoring them and treating them like a ghost pushes our voices down and can create an unwelcoming environment. While shoving myself to the front of interview crowds in busy locker rooms is what I have had to resort to, it shouldn’t be the norm. My heels can only get so high before they become dangerous, and my taller counterparts should give some grace to those different from them.

To the other young women and girls interested in pursuing sports media: You might be a ghost on press row like me. We may be silent during games and in public, but one place we cannot be shoved to the back of the room is in our writing. Don’t be afraid to take up space. You deserve to be in the arena, on the field and in the locker room just as much as any man.